Emeka Okafor runs a one-person production company in Lagos. He shoots brand films, documentaries, and commercial spots — almost always in 4K, sometimes in 6K from his cinema camera. His editing workflow was built around DaVinci Resolve, but his hardware was making that workflow painful.
The problem was not that his old system could not edit 4K. It could — with optimised media. But proxy workflows add time, add management complexity, and disconnect you from the actual quality of your footage during the creative process. Emeka wanted to work natively.
What He Had
A Ryzen 5 3600 with 32GB DDR4 and an RTX 3060. Decent for its time. Insufficient for 4K H.265 native timelines with colour grading and noise reduction applied.
What We Built
After reviewing his typical project structure — usually 3-camera multicam with colour grade, some Fusion VFX, and Fairlight audio — we landed on:
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 cores — Resolve loves core count for decode and export)
- 64GB DDR5-6000 (memory bandwidth matters enormously for Resolve's GPU memory management)
- NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super 16GB (CUDA acceleration for Resolve's noise reduction and colour science)
- 2TB NVMe PCIe 5.0 primary (project drive, fast enough to stream raw 6K without stuttering)
- 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 secondary (media archive)
- 1000W 80+ Platinum (headroom for the Ryzen 9's full TDP under export loads)
The Difference
His words after the first week: "I forgot what it feels like to just work." Native 4K H.265 from the camera, real-time playback even with Magic Mask and noise reduction active, and export times that no longer mean going to make lunch while waiting.
For a professional whose output is time, this was not a luxury upgrade. It was an operational necessity.