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AndrewTheGreat
AndrewTheGreat
Known Participant
February 19, 2026

Media Encoder slower when in background

  • February 19, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 87 views

Hi. I'm not sure if it’s a Windows bug or the Media Encoder is the culprit, nonetheless, I ask Adobe to investigate this issue.

This problem had been there for several years in both Premiere Pro and Media Encoder, but some time ago it was fixed for Premiere and is still in ME. Here’s a screenshot to illustrate it:

Picture A shows my PC load - both for CPU and GPU - when ME window is active. The program is either maximized or just is not overlapped by any other program window.

Picture B shows a drop in performance as if ME is going asleep. This happens if I minimize ME or open my browser to read an article, watch a move, browse the socials or news, or I may open some book locally on my PC, or go se how my folders are organized - anything that switches the focus off ME main window.

I have a good PC so it’s out of question that such a simple task as opening the browser may lower the performance so much.

And it goes without saying that when the second case happens ME render time become much MUCH longer. We may speak about several minutes versus several hours.

Some additional data:

  • 14700K, 4080, 64 Gb of DDR5, fast SSDs
  • Happens in ME only. Shutter Encoder, HandBreak, Davinci Resolve, AE, PR - nothing acts like this when in case B.
  • Win11, 24h2, Balanced power mode. Max Power does not change the situation. Still not sure if it’s a Win or Me issue. Cannot check it in other Windows or Mac.

 

 

    2 replies

    S
    SpiresVideo
    Participating Frequently
    April 3, 2026

    I see this same issue. If I take focus off of AME 2025 Version 25.4.1 (Build 1) the system performance drops more than half when transcoding footage. It really should not be the case. The program should use every available resource to finish the job. I don’t see this sort of performance drop when exporting content direct from Premiere, just AME.

    EckiAME
    Community Manager
    EckiAMECommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    February 22, 2026

    Thank you for the detailed report. Could you share your exact AME version number? Also, have you tried keeping a small sliver of the AME window visible (not fully covered by another maximized window)? Windows 11 has aggressive background throttling for apps on hybrid CPUs like the 14700K — it reassigns work to efficiency cores when the window is fully occluded. As a workaround, you can also try: Settings → System → Advanced system settings → Performance → Advanced → “Background services.”

      AndrewTheGreat
      AndrewTheGreatAuthor
      Known Participant
      March 20, 2026

      Hi, ​@EckiAME 

      I thought I had replied, but it turns out I hadn’t.

      Me 2026 26.0.2, same as Pr. It only is not affected when 1) you hover your mouse over the Me icon in the tray to show the program Preview, like Windows does with apps, and 2) When Me window is selected (active). In all other cases it goes off, like I described. Your suggestion with the background apps did help, but I’m not sure it’s a good workaround since I don’t know what other impact this feature has. The strangest thing is that it only happens with Me. For example if I start transcoding in Shutter Encoder which does the same thing, I can even minimize its window and it won’t affect it.

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