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Topher25164158xnn1
Participant
February 26, 2026

Mercury Playback Engine GPU Accelleration is causing my project to glitch

  • February 26, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 37 views
My program window. The only way to fix this is to turn off Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration, which is no longer available.

 

I occasionally run into a glitch where the image in my program window gets scrambled. Not only does this make editing a nightmare, the glitch often persists even when I render, making my final product unusable.

In the past, I had been able to turn off Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration, which fixed the issue. However, Adobe has recently made the ill-advised decision to remove that option. Adobe has written an article explaining that they removed the option, but no explanation for why they did that or what to do when the GPU renderer creates problems.  https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/software-rendering-update.html

I’ve looked online, and Adobe recommends that I start up Premiere holding the shift key and selecting “Use Software Rendering”, but that option has apparently been removed.

There is no option for “Use software rendering.”

I cannot fix this issue on my own. I need Adobe to fix the problem that it created. Please allow me to disable Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration.

I am using a 2019 Macbook Pro with an Intel processor.

 

 

    2 replies

    R
    Community Manager
    Rach McIntireCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    February 26, 2026

    Hi ​@Topher25164158xnn1,

     

    Thanks for the details — I understand how disruptive Program Monitor scrambling can be, especially if it carries through to exports.   ​@Warren Heaton is correct that “Mercury Playback Engine Software Only” was removed starting in 25.2, and the Shift-launch software rendering option is no longer available. I know that’s frustrating, especially if disabling GPU acceleration previously resolved the issue.

     

    On a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro, this type of behavior can be GPU-related. A few things to try:

    • Update macOS fully if possible

    • Reset Premiere preferences (hold Option while launching)

    • Clear Media Cache and relaunch

    • Test in a new sequence

    • Transcode a short section to Apple ProRes and compare

    • Turn off High Quality Playback in the Program Monitor

     

    Since it’s also appearing in exports, please share: the exact Premiere version, macOS version, source codec and resolution, and whether it affects all media or just specific clips.  Please also see:  How do I Report A Problem? A short screen recording would help as well.

     

    Sorry you’re running into this — hopefully we can narrow it down quickly.

    Warren Heaton
    Community Expert
    Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2026

    Hi ​@Topher25164158xnn1:

     

    Yes, “Mercury Playback Engine Software Only”) from Project Settings > General has been removed from Premiere 25.2 and newer.

    Is your project file a 25.x project?  You could try rolling back to 25.0 or 25.1 and opening your project in that version where you can still enable Software Only.  If your project is 26.x, then this would not be an option as far as opening the project goes, but you could still install 25.1 along side 26 and check the source footage in a 25.1 Sequence.

     

    Another thing to try is to transcode your source footage to Apple ProRes (maybe 422 LT, depending on what you’re cutting) using Shutter Encoder (donation-ware, but the donation slider can be slid to $0) and then replace your source with the ProRes equivalent.


    Sorry to hear you’re experiencing this. 

     

     

      - Warren

      T
      Topher25164158xnn1Author
      Participant
      February 26, 2026

      Hi, thank you for the speedy reply.

      Unfortunately, this project is a Premiere 2026 project and it can’t be opened in 2025. I’ve already done a fair amount of work on this project and it’s not feasible for me to rebuild everything that I’ve already done.

      I might try using a different encoder to translate the footage to ProRes, and I do appreciate your willingness to recommend a competitor. It’s obviously not an ideal solution. It’s a time-consuming process that will eat up space on my hard drive and could lead to more mistakes.

      Obviously nothing can be changed immediately within Premiere to make this work better, but I do want to bring this to your attention as something that maybe could be fixed in a future update. I am perfectly willing to sit with the longer render times if it means fewer glitches. I’ve gotten pretty used to incorporating proxies into my workflow for exactly that reason. I don’t think that the ability to use software rendering lessens the experience of using Premiere for anyone. Most users won’t even think about it, and for some of us it’s a real life-saver. 

      Thanks.

       

      (and sorry for the cranky tone in the original post)

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