After Effects VRAM Memory Leak? VRAM Not Released After Closing Project

Question

I'm experiencing what appears to be a VRAM memory leak in Adobe After Effects.

When working on a project, GPU VRAM usage gradually increases over time, especially when repeatedly adjusting effect properties or previewing the composition. The VRAM is not properly released, eventually reaching the full 16 GB capacity and causing After Effects to crash due to running out of GPU memory.

What's strange is that even after closing the project, the VRAM usage remains high instead of being released. The only reliable way to free the VRAM is to completely close After Effects.

Here's what I've already tried:
- Purging all caches
- Switching the renderer to Mercury Software Only
- Reinstalling the GPU driver

The issue still occurs. I have also observed similar VRAM behavior in Premiere Pro.

My system:
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (16 GB VRAM)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F
- RAM: 48 GB
- Windows 11 25H2
- After Effects version: 26.3

Has anyone experienced a similar issue?
Is this a known problem with After Effects, AMD drivers, or GPU memory management?

Nishu Kushwaha · Answer

Hi Sigzie, thanks for the detailed report. To answer your direct question: similar pattern has been reported by several other users, and there's an active investigation. A few things worth checking, since your setup sits at the intersection of two known trouble areas:

1. AMD driver version. What version of the AMD driver are you on? Two versions are known to cause AE issues on RX 9000-series GPUs: 32.0.31007.1017 and 32.0.21043.7012. The confirmed working version is 32.0.23027.2005. If you're on either of the bad versions, downgrading via AMD's site (Previous Drivers section) is worth trying.

2. Windows 11 25H2. You're on the 25H2 Insider Preview — we've had two other reports of AE issues on that specific Windows build (a playback bug and a CUDA/GPU init crash). This may be a contributing factor.

While we look into it, a set of workarounds Roberto Tafuro shared has helped several users reduce VRAM buildup significantly:

- Composition > Preview > disable Cache Frames When Idle

- Preferences > Preview > Idle Delay: 3 seconds

- Preferences > Preview > Cache Frames: "Around Current Time", Cache Range: "Work Area"

- Preferences > Memory: reserve 32GB for other apps

Full context in Roberto's thread:

If nothing helps, please share a screen recording showing the issue.

Please let me know if the driver check or the workarounds change anything.

Thanks,

Nishu

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