5 Things to Know About RAM and Render Times in DaVinci Resolve

Render time is mostly determined by your GPU and CPU, not RAM. For 1080p projects, the actual export speed depends on your graphics card and processor.

RAM helps during editing, not rendering. You need it for scrubbing the timeline, applying effects, and handling Fusion comps.

Running out of RAM during rendering causes slowdowns. If you have only 8GB and the system starts swapping to disk, things slow down.

The real pain with 8GB is laggy playback and stutters. You will feel the frustration while editing, not during the export.

Upgrade to 16GB for your sanity, not for faster exports. 16GB is the sweet spot for 1080p, but if you already have 8GB, upgrading won’t cut render times much.