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La�s_10
Participant
June 11, 2025
Question

After Effects Freezing on New High-End PC (RTX 5070Ti, 32GB RAM, Ultra 9 CPU)

  • June 11, 2025
  • 8 replies
  • 4025 views

Hey everyone,

I just got a brand new high-performance PC, but I’m having serious issues running After Effects. The app freezes as soon as I try to play back a composition — the playhead doesn’t move, and I eventually have to force quit.

 

My setup

Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 275HX (24 cores, up to 5.4 GHz, 36MB cache)

RAM: 32GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR5 4800 MHz (2 x 16GB)

GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 5070Ti – 12GB GDDR7 (DirectX 12.2)

Storage: 2x 1TB PCS SSD PCIe M.2 (3500 MB/s read, 3200 MB/s write)

PC: Windows 11

After Effects version: Latest (Creative Cloud)

 

What’s happening:

I can launch After Effects, create new compositions, add text, layers, effects — no problem there.But when I try to preview or play the animation, the timeline/playhead doesn’t move at all.The program then becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit it.

No error message, just a freeze.

 

What I’ve tried:

Restarting the computer

Reinstalling After Effects

Updating GPU drivers (NVIDIA)

Disabling hardware acceleration

Clearing the media cacheRunning the app as administrator

 

Still stuck with the same issue. Anyone else experiencing this with a similar setup or have any ideas what might be causing it? Would appreciate any help — I bought this machine for creative work, and this is a real blocker.

Thanks in advance!

8 replies

A
angular_Mermaid0070
Participant
September 29, 2025

I just bought a new laptop today with the exact same specs as you

 

(Processor: Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 275HX (24 cores, up to 5.4 GHz, 36MB cache)

RAM: 32GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR5 4800 MHz (2 x 16GB)

GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 5070Ti – 12GB GDDR7 (DirectX 12.2)

 

After experiencing repeated issues and constant freezing - I eventually downloaded AE version 25.3.0 (Build 71) from April 2025 and it worked flawlessly. I had previously tried most every suggeston you've seen on here, this worked.

C
cicoronado
Participant
September 15, 2025

I have same situation and symptoms.  Turns out that the problem was that my new PC with latest specs was the monitor was incorrectly plugged into the integrated motherboard video port.  I moved it to the NVidia port.  Problem solved.   Dumb mistake.

A
aledife23
Participant
September 11, 2025

Same issue Here.

Seems like the software is broken, even split a layer on JUST moving one frame foward with pgUP or DOWN take 4 seconds to complete the task.

The problem is that we rely on these software to do real jobs and I don't have time today to learn a new software and delivery the project 😄

 

I'm talking from a RTX5080 with 128gb of RAM and Intel i9 13900k

C
cicoronado
Participant
September 7, 2025

New PC with same specs just out of the box on 9/5/2025.  Installed AE,  plain, no 3rd party app.   Same issue.  I can add a .jpg but will start crashing after bringing in a .mp4 file.  Have uninstalled reboot and reinstalled.  Same problem.  This same .mp4 file is no problem with my older PC with much lower specs.

nishu_kush
nishu_kush
Legend
September 11, 2025

Can you try installing the Nvidia driver version 573.22 as suggested by Johan.

Let me know how it goes.


Thanks,
Nishu

P
paythisman
Participant
July 23, 2025

After Effects Performance Issues - RTX 5090 System

System Specifications

  • GPU: RTX 5090
  • RAM: 64 GB
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro
  • Storage: 2x 1TB SSD

Background

I'm experiencing severe performance issues with After Effects on my high-end PC that are impacting my ability to meet project deadlines. I recently upgraded from a MacBook Pro M1 (64 GB RAM) to this high-end PC specifically to improve my After Effects workflow. However, I'm experiencing severe performance issues that are impacting my ability to meet project deadlines.

Issues Experienced

Performance Problems

  • After Effects is extremely slow and unresponsive
  • Application startup is problematic - interface elements don't load simultaneously
  • Screen flashing and general bugginess
  • Laggy performance even with simple projects
  • After is using every bit of the RAM I give it when there is just one video on the timeline

Rendering Failures

When attempting to render a medium-complexity 1.5-minute project, I have a 5090!!!!!! I receive the following error:

After Effects error: After Effects has encountered a failure (code: 19969) 
related to GPU-enabled effects on this frame. This is likely because your 
GPU is out of memory.

Please decrease your rendering resolution, close applications that may be 
using GPU resources, or set this project to render effects using "Mercury 
Software Only" in File > Project Settings > Video Rendering and Effects

Troubleshooting Steps Attempted

  • Updated GPU drivers to latest version
  • Tested After Effects Beta version (same issues)
  • Allocated 40+ GB RAM to After Effects
  • Reduced RAM allocation to 16 GB (slight improvement but still problematic)

Current Status

The system is barely functional for simple projects and completely fails on more complex work. Given my tight deadlines, I urgently need a solution to make this high-end hardware work properly with After Effects.

nishu_kush
nishu_kush
Legend
July 23, 2025

Thanks for sharing the details. Would you mind creating a screen recording that shows the performance issue in After Effects? It'll help us to understand it better.

Regarding the rendering issue, it seems that either your project uses complex effects, or the media is pretty large resolution, or it could be a combination of both. Try to optimize the media. If that doesn't help, try disabling your effects and see if that brings any change.


Thanks,
Nishu

P
paythisman
Participant
July 24, 2025

Thanks for sharing the screen recording and other details. What's the exact version of After Effects you are using? Some of these issues were fixed in a recent release (25.3.2). Please update your After Effects if you haven't already. 

For the other issue, we might need more details about the project. Which effects are used? Does disabling the effects help? If yes, we may need to check why. This problem appears when the frame requires a lot of memory. Usually, an effect like Motion Tile can cause this when values are cranked up more than what's needed. There are other effects as well.


Thanks,
Nishu


I'm using After Effects version 25.3.2, so I have the latest release.


The effects I'm using are mostly text property animations, tint, and fast blur - it's not motion tile. I've also tried disabling the more demanding compositions to see if I could render anything, but no, I still couldn't.

The project is medium-sized with solid backgrounds, some text animations using text properties (many without motion blur), and some video in shape masks. No other effects, no glow or anything like that. I tried using some lens blur but AE couldn't even handle it, so I removed it.

Here's another issue: When I try to render, the process fails at random points in the timeline with error messages, and After Effects never completes the full render. The stopping point is inconsistent - sometimes it renders 20 seconds before crashing, sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes 40 seconds, but it's always a different point each time. I can play back the partial renders that were created, but I've tried disabling the compositions where it typically fails and I still encounter the same rendering problems.

jefubbudu
jefubbudu
Inspiring
June 12, 2025

I would suggest trying gimp and resolve in the meantime. AE has a small team of like probably a dozen or two to update it and it's historically late to the party. Maybe disabling hardware acceleration and manually disabling any E-cores can help. Adobe software is mostly from the 90's and early 2000's so it hates having many small cores to juggle, and GPU is a bit of a hack that only works for a few effects I find.

 

But adobe software really does NOT scale well with computer specs. Every gig of RAM is like a second of 4k footage in the cache, double CPU transistor count and you'll get 10-25% faster renders. It's sad.

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    June 11, 2025

    Sorry to hear about your issue.

    Updating the GPU driver is the first thing that I'd suggest. If that doesn't help, can you check if the beta version works better? Some preview-related issues were fixed and shipped in the beta version. Here's how you can install: https://adobe.ly/4jImKQT

    Let me know how it goes. Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

    S
    sai_ganesh_6393
    Participant
    June 12, 2025

    Even beta version is crashing.

     

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    June 12, 2025

    Are there any error messages or crash reports? Is there a specific action/command that triggers the crash?

    We're here to help.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

    S
    sai_ganesh_6393
    Participant
    June 11, 2025

    Facing the same issue with 5090, this is happening only in AE but Premier is running without any issues.

     

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