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Roberto Tafuro
Roberto Tafuro
Inspiring
March 20, 2026
Question

After Effects 2026 unusable

  • March 20, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 21 views

Prime Z790-P WiFi DDR5 Triple NR 1 M.2 ATX Socket 1700
BEQ043 Pure Loop 360 x Socket Socket NR 1 1700 1200 2066 AM4 AM5
BEQ046 Silent Base 802 Black ATX NR 1 
CRA052 RM1000x Shift 1000W PCIe 5.0 NR 1 Modulare 80 Plus Gold
INI768 CORE i9 13900K 3Ghz 24 Core NR 1 Socket LGA1700 no FAN
KIN722 64GB Kit DDR5-5600 Fury Beast NR 2 Black CL40 128GB
MIC601 Windows 11 Pro 64bit oem NR 1 
PNY223 RTX 4080 16GB VERTO DLSS 3 NR 1 
SAM885 500GB 980 Pro SSD M.2 NVMe NR 1 Gen 4.0
SAM886 1TB 980 Pro SSD M.2 NVMe Gen NR 1 4.0
SAM903 1TB 990 Pro SSD M.2 NVMe Gen NR 1 4.0

Latest Nvidia Studio drivers (clean install), Windows 11 25h2

 

Good morning everyone, as the title suggests, the latest version of After Effects is unusable on my machine. I’ve read numerous reports online, and many recommend disabling the disk cache. I’ve disabled the cache, but when I use the Warp Stabilizer it takes ages to complete the analysis and the GPU spikes to maximum usage. I receive countless “out of memory” messages (128 GB of RAM...), and the issues affect the entire system: Chrome freezes, the GPU hangs... I’m running Windows 11 25H2, and despite the power of my machine, I can’t even scale an image without experiencing endless freezes.

      1 reply

      nishu_kush
      nishu_kush
      Legend
      March 23, 2026

      Thanks for writing in and sharing the details.

      To help narrow this down a bit, could you let us know:

      • Does this happen in a new blank project, or only in heavier comps?

      • Can you try disabling Compressed Frames (Lossless) in After Effects Preferences> Disk Cache section?

      • Does switching Project Settings > Video Rendering & Effects (GPU ↔ Mercury Software Only) change anything?

      • Is it happening only when using an effect?

      Appreciate you taking the time to report this — we’re actively sharing this kind of feedback with the product team and working toward improvements.


      Thanks,

      Nishu

      Roberto Tafuro
      Roberto TafuroAuthor
      Inspiring
      March 24, 2026

      Thank you for the reply. It's a super simile project made in the latest 25 version. No third party effects.

      Yesterday i was not able to export the project, so i've tried the Safe Mode and i was able to export It.

      When After hangs, in the task manager i have the CPU at 100%, the system freeze and the GPU crash.

      nishu_kush
      nishu_kush
      Legend
      March 24, 2026

      Thanks for getting back. If it is happening with a specific project, it could be an issue with the media used. In some cases, the media is corrupted (it looks fine in the Finder/Explorer), and sometimes it happens because the media is recorded with a variable frame rate. Transcoding the media should help in such cases. Also, try moving the media to a different location if these suggestions don’t help.

      Let me know the outcome.

       

      Thanks,

      Nishu

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