Laggy playback with HEVC files in versions 26.3 and 26.3.2

Hey Vito,

The fact that the same files play back fine in 26.2.2 but not in 26.3 doesn't sound like a problem with your media. It sounds like hardware decoding is falling back to the CPU.

On your laptop, HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 is decoded by the Intel iGPU (Quick Sync). Your RTX 3070 can't decode 4:2:2 at all. So if that Intel path drops out, your i7 has to do it on its own, and that's exactly when you get this kind of stutter.

Stuff I'd check:

Play a clip and open Task Manager, go to Performance, look at the GPU and specifically the Video Decode engine, for both GPUs. If the Intel one stays at 0 percent, you've pretty much found it.

Then go to Preferences, Media, and make sure Enable hardware accelerated decoding is still on and that your Intel GPU is actually listed there. Toggling it off and back on after a restart sometimes fixes it.

Your Intel driver is another suspect. On MSI laptops it's often years out of date because people only update the NVIDIA driver. Grab the latest Iris Xe driver straight from Intel, not from MSI. Also check in the BIOS that the iGPU isn't disabled and that you're not running in Discrete GPU only mode, because that kills Quick Sync completely.

Other than that, use the NVIDIA Studio driver instead of Game Ready, and clear your media cache through Preferences, Media Cache, Delete unused.

Then do a proper A/B test. New empty project, one clip, playback resolution on Full, no effects, in both 26.2.2 and 26.3.2. That way you know for sure it isn't your sequence settings.

If it still happens, I'd just stay on 26.2.2 for now. You can reinstall it through Creative Cloud, under Premiere Pro, Other versions. And file a bug report with Adobe, include your System Info and ideally a sample clip, because this smells like a regression in 26.3.

If that Intel decode engine is active in 26.2.2 but idle in 26.3, that's your answer, and that's the main thing to put in the bug report.

Good luck with it.

I really don’t know if it’s your issue, but my Premiere slows everytime I have the new Index panel open.

Amplyfying Pauls comments on the difference between a very simple type of program like a video player … and one of the most complicated app types in existence … an NLE … is like comparing a Sunfish two person 10 foot plastic sailboat to a 6,000 passenger cruise ship.

A player simply plays one file, front to back. A very simple operation.

An NLE is designed to take hundreds of bits and pieces of files at the same time from all over a computer system, using only selected bits, throw on top of that process a ton of other actions to the video image and sound, and play all that back.

Different task entirely.

Hi Paul,
As I've already written, I know HEVC isn't a good codec for video editing, but with the latest two versions the performance drop is drastic. I can't even see the clips smoothly in the timeline with a simple playback, without color correction or effects. Even VLC can play the clips without any problems. I think it's now clear that something is wrong with the latest two versions because, again, with 26.2.2, I can work without any problems.

Each version of Premiere tends to require more hardware capabilities due  to the newer capablities built into the app. This is kind of normal on computer apps … and is annoying but has been Life the whole time we’ve been using computers … since the 80386 chip really started wider business use of computers in small businesses … like mine.

HEVC is a codec designed for delivery, not for editing. I recommend using a proxy workflow to keep the editing process smooth and efficient, then exporting with your original media at the end.