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Inspiring
January 25, 2023

Major lag with with the Premiere Pro Interface (Timeline, Bins, Resizing Windows etc.)

  • January 25, 2023
  • 35 replies
  • 10567 views

Premiere's timeline and interface in general is just a lot slower than other NLEs and other apps like Blender. I use Premiere almost every single day so you don't really notice it until you open another NLE on your machine and see how bad its fallen behind on interface smoothness. 

 

Here is a 60FPS capture of me scrolling through similar timelines in Premiere and Resolve. I cropped out the top just to focus on the timeline smoothness/sluggishness. 

 

 

Premiere takes 4frames to update the scroll and often flickers waveforms and other icons as it struggles to keep up with a smooth framerate. 

 

Resolve's timeline renders at 60FPS. Every frame there is an update being sent to the screen. This is typical of any modern app when it it's unterface is properly omptimized to run on the GPU. 

 

It's not just the timeline its scrolling through a bin, its resizing windows etc. It all renders at about a 1/4 of as fast as it should in 2023. 

 

This stuff matters. Premiere causes eye strain because its basically it runs basically like a seizure inducing slide show. I am more tired after using Premiere than after using something that runs at a smooth consistent frame rate. Its distracting and takes you out of what you are trying to do. You make more mistakes when things aren't udating quickly enough. It generally slows you down. Things should not lag 8 frames behind your mouse with modern 4ghz multi-core setups and dedicated graphics! 

 

Adobe please find a way to make Premiere run as smoothly as your compretitors. Premiere needs some version of "project butter" across all its apps like Android did back in 2012. It's time. 

 

I have been and will probably remain a loyal customer, but the Premire lifers would love some quality of life updates and not just a superficial coat of paint on the interface. 

35 replies

Participant
September 10, 2023

UPDATE: my lag might have something to do with changing the length of the timeline during an edit. When I do a simple extract, or cut and paste, as long as I'm overwriting and not doing an insert, everything runs smoothly. But if the clips down the timeline have to shift their position in any way, (for instance in an insert or a ripple trim) I get 2-3 seconds of lag. Sometimes a beach ball of death. Yellow trims, ripple deletes, etc. It gets tripped up when the overall timeline changes its length, and the clips with it.

Participant
September 10, 2023

Mac Mini - M2 Pro, 32 GB RAM, 16 Core GPU, 2 Monitors (1920x1080, 1920x1200)

 

Same issue. Lag is primarily around timeline edits. Playback itself is absolutely fine, once it gets going (using both proxies and original media). No dropped frames at all, so I know it's not that. I've had some luck turning off thumbnails/keyframes/waveforms/duplicate frame markers etc. But if I'm lifting/extracting, cutting/pasting, or using a ripple trim command - everything is a couple of seconds behind.

 

Tried trashing my cache, tried turning off mercury transmit (although honestly what kind of a solution is that? I need to be able to see my work in full screen). RAM is maxed out. I've got my project file, media, and proxies on 3 separate drives (one internal, the others Thunderbolt 2 and 3 - both RAID).

 

Editors want software and its accompanying UI to be as fast as they can use their keyboard. Adobe, please, please, PLEASE stop introducing new features and focus entirely on making the basics rock solid. If I wanted to edit with lead boots on, I'd be on Avid.

Participant
June 18, 2023

I have the SAME problem! how to fix?????? pleaseeeeeee

Scott.C.Author
Inspiring
April 25, 2023

I spent some time editing proxies on a M2 MacbookAir, low specced, 8GB RAM, and this thing runs premiere's interface at 60FPS no problem. All of my interface jank problems I showed in the interface above went away.

 

Why can't my behemoth 24core, 11GB GPU machine scroll a bin Adobe? Why does Premiere's interface run smoothly on MacOSX and not Windows. Don't tell me its a Windows thing becasue I don't have these issues in resovle.   

 

I'm not sure if its becasue Adobe spent a lot of time optimizing Premeire for the M2 or something, but the difference is startling. 

Gabby16bit
Known Participant
March 1, 2023

This! Almost every version except of a 2022 beta some times a go that fixed all the issues for me, but then after updating appeared worse.

Is so boring to edit in PP because is like moving heavy blocks with your mouse, is so unresponsive sometimes, it crash at least once a day and after some minutes in the editing it start to lag as hell. I have many panels open which i use them all. I'm using PP just for that reason, for have all the panels that i need open at the same time on my ultra wide monitor. If it can't do that, is not the software for me.

After i edit 1 hour in premiere i feel i was working in a damn worksite

Jorge Jaramillo Hdz
Known Participant
March 1, 2023

The lag is more present in evey update, plus tons of bugs remaining and other new ones, sometimes it's very stretfull editing, I'm more worried about Premiere lag/crash than the editing or final work.

This last updates made me think for the first time in more than 14 years using Premiere, to consider leave Adobe. 

Inspiring
March 1, 2023

Experiencing lag in 2023. Fresh Premiere Pro install, Macbook Pro 16" and Windows PC with i7 13700k/GTX2080TI

david.parke
Inspiring
February 3, 2023

Right there with you. M1 Max MBP runs pretty much as expected. My pretty well-equipped 2019 MacPro is just so unreliable.

  • Adobe Premiere Pro version number: 23.1.0 (Build 86)
  • Operating system - macOS Ventura 13.2 (22D49)
  • System Info: CPU, GPU, RAM, HD:
    • CPU - 3.2 GHz 16-Core Intel Xeon W

    • GPU and Driver Version - AMD Radeon Pro W5700X 16 GB

    • RAM - 160 GB 2933 MHz DDR4

    • Hard Drive (and, if external, how the drive is connected: USB 3, Thunderbolt, etc.). - OWC Gemini connected via TB3 cable.

 

UPDATE:

I found that having too many panels open in conjunction with having a timeline template that included a legacy track effect seemed to be the culprits. I turned off some unnecessary panels and removed the legacy track effect and the timeline started being more responsive.

 

UPDATE 2:

Panels was not the solve. I was pulling my hair out again within a day or so. What's been working for the last hour or so was I realized I had swapped TB cables between my OWC RAID and my Studio Display - so my display was running off the OWC RAID's TB port as a daisy chain and not off the tower's GFX card. So far so good - both the RAID and displays are plugged into the tower and I have had minimal issues. Will set a reminder to report back if anything changes or if this, in fact, was the solve. Interested in OP's signal flow and if that might be an issue?

 

UPDATE 3:

Rolling back to 23.0 was the "solve" for this although it seems off that the latest 22.x version and the betas all have this same issue for me. Will update as I go

 

UPDATE 4:

I worked on my M1 Max all summer without issue (the MacPro 2019 just keeps my room TOO hot). Came back to the MacPro now that temps have fallen and my summer went to well, I had forgotten that it wasn't just the heat I was using the M1 Max for! Well, 3 days into working back on the MacPro, I decided to do a complete wipe of the system. Clean installed the OS and then just the bare necessities. So far so good! Not the solve most want to hear, I am sure, but unless this thing starts slowing to a crawl sometime soon, I had an INCREDIBLE day ACTUALLY working on this thing.

-- Current system (March 2025): Mac Studio 2023 Apple M2 Ultra 192 GB RAM macOS 15.3.2 (24D81) | Premiere Pro 25.1.0 (build 73)
Participant
January 27, 2023

Just came here looking for exactly this issue. I'm moving back to PrPro from 6 years in Resolve and finding the sluggishness of the UI is driving me mad. For example when I grab a clip to drag, my cursor moves and then a few milliseconds later the clip moves. It's impossible to get a precise and quick move. I do use keyboard shortcuts to nudge for precise cuts but let's say I want to grab a clip and move it out of the way for a min to try something else, the UI is slowing be down because I have to wait for it to update while I'm already thinking of what my next action is. 

The timeline playhead is also behind what I'm seeing in the program monitor and when I press the space bar it takes a few frames for the playhead to stop, which is after where I may need to add a cut and I have to use the arrow keys to move the playhead back a few frames. 

These are just some of the most glaring UI delays I'm experiencing. 

My System spec is:
MacPro (2019) 3.2 GHz 16 Core Xeon W
2 AMD Vega II Cards with 64GB GPU
384 GB 29933MHz DDR4
Blackmagic Ultrastudio Mini
2 Desktop UI monitors

@Kevin-Monahan Waving in your direction. This is Kris, from the Old Atlanta Cutters UG and OG Creative Cow Forums. 🙂

 

Scott.C.Author
Inspiring
January 27, 2023

@Kevin-Monahan I think of this more of a general issue, not one that is tied to a specific driver. Premiere's interface just has a lot of jank or dropped frames across the board. Easiest way to see this is to "~" a bin with 100+clips in and and try to scroll down. Premiere's interface can't render a spreadsheet at over 3FPS which I find unacceptable in 2023. It's been this way on every machine I've used in the last 10 years. I want smooth scrolling and waveforms to update when you move them in the timeline!