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Question

Super laggy

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
July 18, 2025
2 replies
403 views

My after effects is really laggy I've allocated only 3gb ram to other applications and 1% cpu i have 16gb ram total and i closed all other applications but it's still really laggy. I've also checked task manager for other applications that might be taking up a lot of memory but the only thing that was taking up even a small amount was creative cloud helper. Can someone help? I can send my pc specs if u want.

Freeze or hang

thepixelsmith

Community Expert

Is the preview laggy regardless of the complexity of the composition you are working with or does it become laggy as you are wroking on more and more complex compositions.

So if your comp is just an imported image and you animte its position is that laggy?

S

sterndriveAuthor

Participating Frequently

My preview is laggy regardless of the complexity so i could have a single image and try and edit it and it'll still be pretty laggy.

thepixelsmith

Community Expert

Is it only laggy on the first preview?
Before the green line at the top of the Timeline has been built. That green line is the visual indicator that AE has built your preview in RAM and can now play back at normal speed. Until that bar is built the playback is pretty bad.

Kevin J. Monahan Jr.

Community Manager

Hi sterndrive,

I read about your issue. Can you tell us more about your composition? What kind of footage? What kind of effects are you using? Yes, complete computer specs would help. Usually, I advise troubleshooting steps including: to reboot, open no other applications but After Effects, purge cache, reset preferences, and launch without third party effects (https://adobe.ly/4m0Wz9J). Please try these things. Another tool you can use is the Composition Profiler. Pretty handy! See: https://adobe.ly/46N0u5C I hope the advice helps!

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio

S

sterndriveAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hey Kevin, thanks for your response. So I launched it in safe mode while resetting preferences and using no other effects and it was a bit less laggier, but when I launched it with the effects it remained laggy. However it is a lot harder to edit without the effects and I was hoping there's a way to fix the lag while preserving the effects. I use magic bullet looks, twitch, sapphire, bcc, and plugin everything. I also purged my cache but it was only 10gb and didn't make much of a difference.

Device name ebene
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
Device ID 43EF7FF5-F496-49E7-976D-32969BFC28F0
Product ID 00330-52210-92963-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Touch support with 10 touch points

My footage is 3 gigabyte mp4 videos but I took short clips from those videos.

Ishan Y

Inspiring

Thanks for sharing the details. Does your system have a dedicated graphics card, or does it only have CPU-integrated graphics? If your source media or composition size exceeds 1920 x 1080, the system would require more CPU and GPU processing power and more RAM.

For a faster preview, you can check what layers have the highest frame render time and replace them with an exported file (https://adobe.ly/44FB8VX). That will make your preview faster.

Also, the "U" suffix series of Intel processors prioritizes energy efficiency over processing power, which makes them unsuitable for applications that require a lot of processing.

Thanks,

Ishan

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