GPU-accelerated 8K Redcode Raw Workflow

Red Digital Cinema and Nvidia have released new details on a collaboration that they say will bring real-time 8K workflow to single-CPU workstations via Nvidia GPU hardware.

GPU-accelerated 8K Redcode raw 8K workflow

The release of Red’s Nvidia Cudaaccelerated R3D SDK of Red andaccompanying Redcine-XPro softwareis expected to arrive by the end of the first quarter of 2019, the companies said. Meanwhile, a Redcode Raw decoding SDK first announced in August at SIGGRAPH has already been released to “major third parties” beta, allowing them to develop software that offloads Redcode Raw decoding and debugging to an Nvidia GPU.

At an event in Hollywood, Red and Nvidia demonstrated 8K Redcode Raw (8192 x 4320) playback, editing and color grading on a single-CPU HP Z4 workstation loaded with an Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 GPU. Nvidia just yesterday said the same 8K performance is available with an Nvidia Titan RTX or GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card. Previously, an 8K Redcode Raw workflow was required on a Red Rocket-X card or a massively powerful dual-processor workstation.

Colorfront was also present at last night’s event, demonstrating up to 60p 8K video output through Nvidia GPUs and AJA Kona 5 video cards. The new SDK will run on legacy GeForce, Titan and Quadro GPUs, Nvidia said, meaning that less powerful GPUs will still be able to achieve new levels of Redcode Raw performance that support a lower resolution workflow.

On the other hand, there was bad news for Mac users, as Apple has discontinued support for almost all Nvidia graphics cards in Mac OS v10.14, Mojave. Twitter users have rallied around #unblockNvidia, and a Change.org petition urging Apple to approve the new Nvidia drivers for Mojave.