Davinci Resolve - A Great Experience When Using It With an M1 Mac

I mentioned maybe a month ago that I'm now using Davinci Resolve to manipulate videos to post to YouTube.  I'm still using it.  I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to using iMovie.

Prior to iMovie, I was using Cyberlink PowerDirector, which was OK, but felt a bit bloated and cumbersome to use.  That software was full-featured, though, and much more robust than iMovie.  I used Cyberlink PD on my Del G7 17", and while PD didn't crash, it always caused the cooling fans to kick in...the fans are loud AF.  As well, it would take a while to create videos.  I bought a one year subscription last year and let it lapse.  While the software was OK, I wanted something better.

I tried Davinci Resolve because I heard someone mention it on one of the Mac-centric subreddits.  Not only that, I wanted to try to use my M1-powered Mac to crunch video.  I'd only used iMovie on the Mac.  I knew that Resolve would leverage the Mac's GPU infrastructure (it's probably a requirement) and had heard that M1 Macs were very efficient when compiling video footage.  Yeah, I'd used iMovie, but no real professional is using that to create movies.

When I crunched my first video on my M1 Mac, using Resolve, I was shocked.  Two things were immediately apparent.  First, I realized that the M1 Mac didn't studder when editing footage like my Dell G7 does.  Granted, my G7 is only powered by a 5 yr old i5 CPU and is running a mobile version of the RTX 2060.  The system is probably throttling, too (most non-Mac laptops do, to prevent component damage).  Secondly, the compilation portion is FAST, no matter what configuration you are using.  While I was editing, my footage rolls were viewable - on other systems, the footage rolls would freeze, hampering editing.  I was able to crunch some ProRES footage and the M1 positively flew through the process.

Yeah, I'm not going back and will probably purchase a license for Resolve so that I can use some of the features that are locked in the free version.  I may as well pay for a license if I'm going to use it as my primary editor.