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Participating Frequently
Dec 21, 2022 12:26 PM UTC
Question

Premiere Pro not using GPU even when selected as renderer?

I am totally confused. Why is my computer showing 100% CPU utilization when playing clips or rendering and 0% on the GPU?


I followed the instructions to enable GPU rendering as they are written here: https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/gpu-acceleration-and-hardware-encoding.html#:~:text=How%20to%20enable%20Mercury%20Playback,OpenCL%2FCUDA%2FMetal).

This changes absolutely nothing for me. I really have a hard time believing an overclocked i7-6700k is causing a bottleneck. Why is this happening?

My relevant specs:
i7-6700k at 4.6GHz
Nvidia 980Ti
32GB DDR4 RAM
m.2 SSD

16 replies

Participant
Jul 25, 2024 4:34 AM UTC

Hey I have core i5 12400f and rtx 3060ti but my premiere pro only using cpu for playback and rendering what should I do help me

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R Neil Haugen
Legend
Jul 25, 2024 4:28 PM UTC

That's a rather limited CPU, only 6 cores (very small these days), with apparently no iGPU, nor QuickSync H.264 hardware either. 

 

I don't know what use you're expecting for the GPU in normal playback and rendering and export processes. It isn't simply an additional chip ... it has specific funtions and uses. Such as any color/tonal changes, major resizing of images, that sort of thing.

 

Hence heavily used for Warp, Lumetri, speed ramps involving optical flow, and some other effects.

 

If your sequence uses those, the GPU will get used as the CPU gets to those tasks and sends them TO the GPU.

 

If your sequence doesn't have those, it won't have anything to send to the GPU to begin with.

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Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Participant
Aug 14, 2025 3:05 AM UTC

Then how to fix this case? same issue btw, im using Ryzen 7 5800H and RTX 3070 mobile as GPU (laptop user btw). how to fix laggy preview in premiere pro?

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Legend
Dec 21, 2022 3:21 PM UTC

Is your H.264 4k footage 10-bit and/or 4:2:2? If so, then no GPU on a Windows PC currently supports hardware decoding of this material at all. Only 8-bit 4:2:0 footage is currently supported at all for H.264.

 

Also, are you applying any GPU-accelerated effects at all on your timeline? If not, then only the CPU is used for playback - period (outside of the hardware decoding that I mentioned above).

 

Rendering, decoding and encoding are all completely separate processes from one another. Somehow, you got two of those three mixed up.

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Participating Frequently
Dec 21, 2022 3:26 PM UTC

I am editing Mavic Air 2 footage, I belive it is 8-bit 4:2:0

If my CPU is at 100% usage and GPU barely hits 15%, does that mean it's a CPU bottleneck or is there some other setting that's wrong? Hardware? Software? I am lost and I thought I was good with troubleshooting lol

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R Neil Haugen
Legend
Dec 21, 2022 5:30 PM UTC

The GPU is not simply an extra added CPU tool. It's a separate item, and within each video post app, the devs use them for very specific things. (And yes, differently app to app.)

 

In Premiere, the GPU is used primarily for resizing, for creating frames from blending modes, for color ... there is the list of "GPU Accelerated Effects" ... search for it.

 

If you are doing something concerning resizing (including Warp) or color (Lumetri) then the GPU will get called on by the CPU to help process that clip.

 

If not, it may not be doing much.

 

And RJL has the hard data on the hardware issues including H.264/5 encodes.

 

Neil

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Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Participating Frequently
Dec 21, 2022 12:28 PM UTC

I am editing H.264 4k footage at 1/4th quality. But this happens with 1080p too

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