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andrecostabr2
Inspiring
June 29, 2016
Answered

RAM Preview – Not in real-time

  • June 29, 2016
  • 33 replies
  • 110322 views

Hello.

I'm having a hard time dealing with this new Preview in AE. A lot of times it is not giving me a real-time playback.

It is nice to have the preview continuously playing while making some changes on the comp, but sometimes I would like to have a real-time preview, like the old RAM preview.

Is it possible to generate a real-time RAM preview? I don't mind waiting for AE to render before playing back the animation.

I have tried the Numpad 0 and also spacebar. I've tried to purge all, restart machine, etc...

Thanks in advance.

Best,

Andre Arruda

After Effects 2015.3 (13.8.0.144)

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3 ECC

    Correct answer andrecostabr2

    papanapa wrote:

    My monitor (Samsung 4k) is running on 30Hz, even though the Mac Pro and the monitor both support 60Hz. Could that be an issue?

    Possibly. Your scene description should DEFINITELY have no problem playing back in real time, so something is amiss and that would be the first thing I'd troubleshoot if I were in your position.


    Changing the monitor to 60Hz solved the problem here =]

    33 replies

    Show previous replies
    W
    wena.38739654
    Participant
    January 14, 2021

    i had this and the solution is easy:

    go to edit > preferences > memory > you will see ''RAM reserved for other applications:'' and here reduce the GB

    i changed mine from 15 GB to 3 GB and this solved my preview problem!!

    ❤️

    M
    markardisson
    Participant
    May 27, 2020

    also remember to ''Interpret Footage'' and make sure it's the right frame rate (:

    J
    Jaydude-wb
    Inspiring
    February 4, 2021

    RAM preview is not affected by that. It has its own specifications.

     

    X
    xahmed050
    Participant
    September 15, 2019

    I am having the same issue now, It was working fine with me and now I do not know what it happens, After Effects CC 2019 slow preview render.

    M
    Matnesss
    Known Participant
    December 10, 2019

    I have been having this problem too for awhile.  I am on an  iMac Pro, and I discovered that the fix is the same as the PC folks.  Make sure all your displays are running at 60Hz.  I had a 4k television (a VIZIO V505-G9) plugged into my mac using a USB C to HDMI adpater.  The TV supposedly supports 60Hz 4k, but unbeknownst to me, it was running at 30Hz.  If you have an external display plugged in, follow these steps to see what refresh rate your monitor is running at:

     

    Choose "Abotut this Mac" from the Apple menu.

    Click on the "System Report Button"

    Click on Graphic/Displays in the hardware sidebar.  

    If any of the displays say "UI Looks like  ...   @ 30 Hz" this is your problem.

     

    To fix it, I needed to do two things.  One was to buy a new usb C to HDMI cable that specifically supported 4k 60Hz.

    Secondly, I needed to use a program called SwitchRes X from https://www.madrau.com to create a new custom resolution that would drive my tv at 60Hz.  Unfortunately, even with both of these steps, I could not find a preset to get 4k at 60Hz, its possible my tv doesn't support it even though it was advertised as a 60Hz 4k tv.

     

    I did manage to get 2k working at 60Hz, and once I got the display refreshing at 60Hz, the After Effects preview played back fine.

    cagdask3476139
    cagdask3476139
    Inspiring
    July 29, 2019

    I've had this problem for a long time.
    and I can't solve the problem.

    Windows 10 (Final Version)
    After Effects CC (Final Version / 16.1.2 Build 55)
    384GB RAM
    Intel Xeon Gold 6146, 3.20GHz CPU
    Quadro P6000 GPU

    HP DreamColor Z31x  4096x2160 60Hz

    I ask all of you for support.
    Thank you.

      D
      danni_r7
      Inspiring
      August 12, 2019

      wow.. that much RAM and you still run into this problem.. I might have a solution, but it's not necessarily applicable to all scenarios... it's just something that worked for me: I too experienced cached RAM preview that does not playback in real time on a couple of projects.. these were projects with lots of precomps and assets in the project panel.. and even if the comp I had active on the timeline did not use everything I had in the project panel, the RAM preview was still lagging. But as soon as I reduced the project, removing all the extra precomps and assets, the RAM preview worked just fine. Another thing I did on a different project that gave me headaches because of RAM preview was setting the framerate of all precomps and media assets to the framerate of the main comp (initially, framerates were different).

      im_thatoneguy
      im_thatoneguy
      Inspiring
      October 30, 2018

      Windows 10
      i7 3930K

      64GB RAM
      Geforce Titan
      Dell 30" Monitor 2560x1600 60hz DisplayPort

      Every version of AE CC for the last 12 months

      Cache before playback is on
      Green Line

      Monitor scaled down, monitor scaled up
      Full screened playback
      Closed timeline window
      opened timeline window
      Closed Libraries
      Stacked Windows
      Turned off hardware accelerated windows Enabled hardware accelerated windows
      Rebooted
      Set the memory availability up.  Set the memory availability down.

      Still Slllooooowwsss down with a single layer.  AE is unusable for anything requiring timing to audio now #()!)!!# since CC 2017.  I have to RENDER TO MP4 before to check playback.  So infuriating.

        darionLeigh333
        darionLeigh333
        Participating Frequently
        November 1, 2018

        Hi, I solved this on my PC - I hope this helps you too.

        None of the solutions within After Effects seemed to work for me.

        I spent some time with an IT professional and we looked at the processor during RAM preview and it was not getting above 40%.

        So I figured my computer was not functioning properly, however it bench tested on a 3D game at full speed.

        For some reason the processor was not functioning properly - ONLY during RAM preview. Sounds insane right?

        Turns out After Effects can't override your computer's power settings, but other software can.

        We found the issue on my PC. This worked a treat for me (doesn't apply to MAC, sorry).

          B
          benz33907314
          Participant
          September 17, 2018

          Same problem here, and it has been incredibly frustrating to say the least. Occasionally I'll get real time playback the first time around using a combination of the weird techniques others have mentioned (shrinking the timeline panel, changing monitor refresh rates, etc), but as soon as it starts to loop, things get choppy again.

          Interestingly, I've been dynamically linking a lot of my after effects comps to a premiere timeline for this project, and when I ram preview there, playback is flawless. Could be a potential (albeit pretty ridiculous) workaround for anyone else who needs real time playback.

          Win 10

          AE CC 2018 (15.1.2)

          32 GB Ram

          GeForce GTX 980 Ti

          BenQ 27-Inch 4K Monitor with an Acer H243H

          Cache before playback is on, media cache recently cleared

            MaxAppian
            MaxAppian
            Inspiring
            July 26, 2018

            Just now running across this problem and my blood pressure has spiked.  How the hell..

            My system:

            Mac OS 10.13.6

            AE version 15.1.2 (Build 69)

            32GB memory

            29GB reserved for AE only.

            Cache Before Playback is on.

            Ram preview is completely green

            There is literally nothing else in the composition except for the audio.  It is the only composition open.  And I still cannot play back the audio in real time.  I have never been so aggravated with this program as I am now.

              Dave_LaRonde
              Dave_LaRonde
              Inspiring
              July 26, 2018

              I think you need to cut back on the amount of memory for AE.  Give it about 24 gigs.  You DO need memory for the OS, you know...

              MaxAppian
              MaxAppian
              Inspiring
              July 26, 2018

              Thank you for the suggestion.  I tried it but it did not help.  AE is the only open program as well.

              darionLeigh333
              darionLeigh333
              Participating Frequently
              June 17, 2018

              I have the same issue on a beast of a machine. 4k or not it just doesn't work. Seriously impacting my income at this stage. If I can't find a fix for this soon. I don't know what I'll do? Can't preview in real time! this is bad Adobe.

                R
                RA257
                Participant
                March 4, 2018

                Has ANYONE found a solution to this please? I'm about to cancel my CC subscription. This is useless!

                  L
                  Landstreicher
                  Participant
                  March 4, 2018

                  Nope. This is issue was mentioned over 18 months ago. I contacted support, they called me back twice to get some details and told me, that this is probably a very rare bug that is only happening on some system configuration. That was three months ago. Since then... nothing. Not even an answer when i asked about the support ticket status. Very very very poor customer experience here. Switch to independent products where you can.

                    JaimeGomez78
                    JaimeGomez78
                    Known Participant
                    January 19, 2018

                    Same here. i don't know why something that works great before is now a pain. Plase Adobe, please..

                      L
                      lukast48526187
                      Participant
                      May 8, 2018

                      Adobe, please give us information about the status of your bug fixes.  Although I work on Win7, with a pretty old machine, that doesn't seem to be the problem. If I reduce the size of the timeline RAM Preview plays well.

                      What are you planning to do about it? Its 2018! People want to use 4k Screens to work on...  I think I have to stay at my good old CS6 again - which runs well with the maximized timeline...

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