GPU Rendering AMD Firepro

3D previews are slow when using the C4D rendering engine. You can open up the Options in the Composition settings and crank the quality down to 1 while you are editing the comp, then crank them back up for rendering. 

I usually have mine set to 1 when I'm working on a comp. I get an average ram preview render time in an HD comp at full quality of about two or three frames per second. With the quality cranked up to about 20, which is plenty good for most projects the render time goes up to less than 1 frame per second. Crank it up to 60  or 70 and things really start to slow down. If I set the comp panel Fast Previews to Fast Draft and you can still see the motion and lighting and the rendering rate for ram previews jumps up to 12 to 15 frames per second for a standard HD comp. If I were to use the C4D rendering engine for the comps that's how I would do my "pencil tests" to check composition, timing, and basic effects, then I would switch the quality back to somewhere between 15 and 30 for rendering. I use Cineware a lot, but I don't use C4D rendering in Ae because the options for bending layers and extruding are pretty terrible and I lose the ability to apply effects, use blend modes, and all the other things listed in the warning and I need all the tools to do my work.