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noah.killeen
Participant
May 14, 2021
Answered

Nvidia G-Sync causing intermittent stuttering in Premiere (and After Effects)

  • May 14, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 14765 views

Just ran into this issue recently, but I have a hunch it's been around for a little while. It's an annoyance more than anything, but it seems like something that could be fixed.

 

I have a monitor that supports G-sync (Nvidia's adaptive sync technology) that I use for games. By default, G-sync will remain "on" globally (even on the desktop) unless you force it off. I've noticed that, when it's on, if I'm in Premiere then (about 50-75% of the time) whenever I start/stop playback, move a clip on the timeline, or open something in the source monitor there is a brief half-second or so where the mouse cursor skips around like the program is hanging or freezing. It makes the program feel a lot more sluggish than it actually is.

 

It took a bit of troubleshooting to realize that G-sync is the issue, but it definetely is. If I turn it off the weird stuttering goes away (and everything is nice and smooth). If I just move the Premiere window fully over to to my second non-gsync monitor, it goes away. If I just move the playback window to the second monitor, but leave everything else behind, it goes away. 

 

Seeing all this, I turned the "G-sync indictator" on in the nvidia drivers. This shows when G-sync is on or off, and it pretty clearly revealed what was happening.  As you start and stop playback, or make any other big "change" to the program or source monitor, it switches G-sync off and then back on for some reason. This seems like either a bug in Premiere or in the Nvidia drivers, I'm not sure which. I've had a g-sync monitor and used Premiere for quite some time, so I know this hasn't always been the case.

 

I should mention that this happens in After Effects as well, but not any other programs on my computer as far as I can tell (or at least am able to notice).

 

Right now I'm just turning off g-sync whenever I'm editing, but I feel like there has to be a better solution to this. Does anyone else have experience with this weird behavior?

    Correct answer Alex_Slobig

    I found a fix for this issue for anyone else that may have this problem down the road.

     

    The problem isn't Adobe or Nvidia Drivers, The blame falls on Microsoft. Windows has a feature called "Multiplane Overlay". It has been known for years to cause a lot of flickering, green screens, stutters when resizing windows, and apparentely weird stutters in PrPro. The purpose of this feature is to save battery life and system resorces.

     

    How To Do It:

    1. open registry editor

    2. Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm

    3. Right click in blank space and click: New > DWORD (32-bit) Value

    4. Name it: OverlayTestMode

    5. Right click it and Select "Modify" then change the Value from 0 to 5 and hit OK

    6. Restart PC and you're done.

     

    I hope this helps whoever comes across this. If you experience any issues after doing this just delete the entry you created and after a restart you should be back to normal.

    4 replies

    Alex_Slobig
    Alex_SlobigCorrect answer
    Participant
    July 17, 2024

    I found a fix for this issue for anyone else that may have this problem down the road.

     

    The problem isn't Adobe or Nvidia Drivers, The blame falls on Microsoft. Windows has a feature called "Multiplane Overlay". It has been known for years to cause a lot of flickering, green screens, stutters when resizing windows, and apparentely weird stutters in PrPro. The purpose of this feature is to save battery life and system resorces.

     

    How To Do It:

    1. open registry editor

    2. Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm

    3. Right click in blank space and click: New > DWORD (32-bit) Value

    4. Name it: OverlayTestMode

    5. Right click it and Select "Modify" then change the Value from 0 to 5 and hit OK

    6. Restart PC and you're done.

     

    I hope this helps whoever comes across this. If you experience any issues after doing this just delete the entry you created and after a restart you should be back to normal.

      Kevin-Monahan
      Community Manager
      Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      January 7, 2025

      Thanks for sharing your solution, @Alex_Slobig! The community appreciates you.

       

      Cheers,
      Kevin

       

      Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
      A
      Anonymous
      July 8, 2021

      I have the same problem. I think I managed to solve it by going to the Nvidia control panel and under "Set up G-sync" I checked the Enable for full screen mode. Hope it works for you.

        A
        Andy 1968
        Inspiring
        May 14, 2021

        That is good to know.

          R Neil Haugen
          R Neil Haugen
          Legend
          May 14, 2021

          I might rush to the assumption you're using the game-ready drivers? As you mention gaming on that rig.

           

          Unfortunately, the game-ready drivers are a constant source of troubles in PrPro. The studio drivers are far more solid. For whatever reasons.

           

          Neil

          Everyone's mileage always varies ...
            N
            noah.killeenAuthor
            Participant
            May 14, 2021

            Ah, that is a very good point. Currently I'm using the newest 466.27 game-ready driver. I'll be able to test out the studio driver later and will post the result.

             

            Yes, this computer is used for games as well so that it would certainly be annoying to have to pick between performance in games and stability in Premiere, but that may just be the way it is!

              N
              noah.killeenAuthor
              Participant
              May 23, 2021

              Finally got around to testing this and I've learned a few things!

               

              I went to the most recent studio-driver (462.59) only to discover that the weird stuttering with g-sync was still present. I even went so far as to do a full clean install with DDU just to see if that was the issue, but it wasn't.

               

              This triggered the tedious process of going back in time one driver version at a time to find when it went away. Eventually I got impatient (after getting to around 461.92) and just skipped straight to the oldest one available on the nvidia website: game-ready driver 457.09 from October of last year. And it was here that the problem completely went away.

               

              I haven't narrowed it down any further than that yet, but this confirms that it is driver related. Somewhere between 457.09 and 461.92, nvidia introduced a bug that falsely enables/disables g-sync within Premiere Pro and After Effects. It's not a game-ready vs studio-driver thing per say, but it definetely is something happen in the driver.

               

              I'll try and figure out exactly when it happens, but if anyone else has any thoughts on this issue that would be appreciated! I'll probably go post on the nvidia forums as well.

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