Participating Frequently

Question

Terrible performance on 2020 iMac 5K

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
November 13, 2020
9 replies
8855 views

Premiere Pro is virtually unusable on my brand new, top-of-the-line iMac. Can anyone help me with this. I have tried everything.

My specs:

2020 iMac 5K

3.8GHz 10-core 10th generation Intel i9

64GB 2666 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 Memory

1TB SSD

Catalina OS

And before anyone jumps to clearing caches, moving caches to separate SSD's, proxies, using Metal vs software, different project or sequence settings, etc...

I have tried all of these.

I have also tried both Premiere Pro 2020 and 2019.

I have gone through all updates for both the software and the computer OS.

Nothing solves the terribly slow rendering and playback lag. Despite weeks of research, I'm still uncertain if this is a Catalina issue, a GPU issue, Premiere not using multi-cores properly, something to do with Apple's 5K monitor, or some simple setting I've missed or was unaware of. Or some combination of all the above.

Premiere Pro was faster on my old 2011 iMac (with much lower specs than my new machine). It is also faster on my 2015 MacBook Pro (although it has gotten slower with each new release of Premiere Pro.

I DO realize that the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT is NOT on the list of compatible GPU's. But it DOES kick in when I check my Activity Monitor. As does the CPU. Despite that, the lag is awful.

I DO realize that Premier Pro is kinda designed to perform best with Nvidia GPU's. But PP can't seem to function with the AMD at all???? Moreover, it is a highly rated graphics card on all the benchmark sites and, by the numbers, compares very well against most of the upper end Nvidia's. Neither Final Cut Pro X nor Davinci Resolve appear to have ANY problems with the AMD... in both cases, playback and rendering are fast and smooth.

I have used Adobe CC products, including Premiere Pro, for YEARS. And, for the most part, have loved the software, integration and workflow. And, until recently, rarely ever had any problems.

But editing in Premiere Pro is now a nightmare.

I'm hoping SOMEONE can point me in the right direction here, and that I can find a solution to speed things up and continue to use the software I've spent all these years learning.

But, barring a solution, I am now switching to Davinci Resolve. No other choice if I want to be even remotely productive in video editing.

This topic has been closed for replies.

KidCamera

Participant

I bought an 8,000 USD maxed out 2021 imac and I am experiecing the exact same thing. I am a twenty year editor and use most of the common performance fixes and even some uncommon ones. OP is not crazy and his description of buying a new Ferrari perfectly sums up how I, and most people I have talked to, feel about Adobe products. I would love for these products to work. But they just don't and are getting worse. Every serious editor I know is switching or has switched to resolve (which also has problems). Blackmagic is still in the phase where they need their products to work and be constistant in order to build their business, so at least they are still listening to their costumers. Adobe left that phase long ago and as a customer, I haven't felt like my user experience has mattered in years.

Greendialer

Participant

I feel the pain. I am in the process of giving it another try after one year or failing to be able to get to a stage where I can even start learning entry level video editing.

I had those lucky days where I did not fall asleep waiting for a render with all the checks and balances, reducing quality, etc.

My previous attempts involved two environments. One was a $5000 build with two Nvidia g-force 3GB vid cards running in SLI mode. Tried on and off for SLI. I had 64 Gigs RaM and dedicated most to premiere pro, I had the best processor at the time, well about two hops from the best but it was the i7 12 core 3.5Ghz processor. I had (4) 128GB Samsung 870 EVO running in Raid 10 for super fast I/O, and top of the line MB I think Extreme 8, but it was a beautiful blazing fast system, running win10 Pro.

same issues as you described. Just terribly slow and tried so many hours and never got it working. Found so many horror stories like these but I kept going.

I upgraded my iMac to 32GB Ram from 8GB. That was the late 2014 model with 5k 27inch and the Radeon 2GB with 3.5Ghz processor and 1TB fusion drive.

I ran into the same issues with playback and rendering taking so long on even brand new empty projects and all settings dulled down.

Now a year later I was looking to try again, I found some people who do video editing and have money left, discussing builds and they were $6000 to $10,000 builds. I wasted about that much plus my time and lost my existing business which was failing due to legislation that made my technology pretty much illegal.

What more could go wrong in life? I do not know. These failures came at a time when failure was not an option. I am the person everyone comes to as "the computer guy" to fix everyone's issues with computers A-Z.

This experience did not just consume my life, it set me back and I felt that not only did I continuously fail over and over, but I lost faith, endurance, and motivation to continue in learning various other skills in routing, coding, etc. -- It took all the gas out of my tank and I have not recovered yet.

But I will try again. I am thinking of working more on starting a new company if I can solve the rendering issue using supercomputing, log introspection, and live monitoring deep down in the published code.

These areas are not where Adobe would want someone trying to increase knowledge, outside their camp. If they solved it then nobody would bother or care to dig this deep but since they do not have any idea why so many people have these horror stories, it is motivating people to start new business focusing on solving the issue.

They have such amazing software and it is hard to get away from it. The software has so much potential that it's sucked me into going through such pains to try and make it work.

Those times that it did work kept me from giving up and pro-longed the effort. The multiple breaks I had to take caused me to have to relearn some basics and forget some of the cool tricks I learned.

I have read so many posts like this. If someone knows what magic combo of hardware works, that is a business right there. Just build units with that blend of hardware and they will sell out as so many people spend thousands of dollars and have terrible progress with Adobe.

They need to fire Engineers and hire new ones. It is clear they continue down the same path of trying to address the issues. Usually asking about cache settings, video cards, project settings, etc.

Jeff Bellune

Legend

I have read so many posts like this. If someone knows what magic combo of hardware works, that is a business right there. Just build units with that blend of hardware and they will sell out as so many people spend thousands of dollars and have terrible progress with Adobe.

By @Greendialer

That is a great idea. Let me explain why it won't work. 😀

There are already companies who will put together a custom powerhouse computer just for video editing with Pr and Ae as the operational centers. The hardware and software combinations are installed and tested to guarantee these machines will work flawlessly OOB. Pr will fly; Ae will render frames at eye-watering rates. If these machines are kept in their virgin state and disconnected from the Internet, they will never be the bottleneck in any workflow, barring hardware failure.

But then some things happen. Users want to install a new plugin or a new utility that they think will help their workflow. Adobe promises cool new stuff in an update. Apple and Microsoft announce a security patch that simply must be installed. They get tired of moving to the old laptop or tablet or desktop to do something as simple as an Internet search or reply to a client's email. So they connect the machine to the Internet and download software and patches. They Google this or that and maybe even inadvertently open a dodgy email. One of their hardware manufacturers offer a new driver. Apple pushes out yet another pretty update to macOS. And then they start working on invoices and spreadsheets and letters on what used to be a pristine editing machine.

And so a year and a half later (after their maintenance contract with the machine builder has expired), they come to Adobe's website because Pr is running slow and things take forever that used to happen instantly. It takes tremendous discipline to keep an editing machine dedicated to editing and absolutely nothing else.

And so Adobe tech support and we here on the forum have to ask, endlessly, about software and plugin installations and drivers and OS versions, hardware changes, networking and basic computing stuff to get a picture of why this user's machine is behaving badly when a lot of others are doing just fine.

And sometimes it is a bug in the code that causes the problem. But the bug doesn't affect every user. Or even bugged users the same way. And so the questions on system configuration and use continue, at least until Adobe finds the bug, prioritizes it and patches it. Which patch you have to connect to the Internet to get!! (I've heard that going into your backyard when your neighbors aren't home and screaming at the top of your lungs can ease the helpless Catch-22 feeling you get from that.)

I'm sorry you had to go through all that the past year. I sincerely hope you had family and friends to lean on.

basil1891

Inspiring

Mac users, FYI, Retina display related bug and a workaround:

(MacOS Retina 2x) Premiere Pro 2020 Choppy / Stuttering Playback... - Page 6 - Adobe Support Community - 10786645

Jonah Lee Walker

Inspiring

I have an iMac Pro 3GZ 10 core, 64 gigs of RAM and Radeon pro VEGA 64x 16GB, not the same machine, but mine runs great. I also always use SwitchRezX. I know high DPI displays look pretty and all, but to get high DPI you are literally rendering your display twice, using up twice the ram it should, so I run my iMac display and external display at 2560x1400 to save on Video Ram and it runs great.

- Jonah Lee WalkerVideo Editor, Colorist, Motion Graphics Artist

phil bauch

Known Participant

Hi all,

I was just about to receive exactly the same iMac as described, and canceled my order yesterday for some furthe rinvestigation, after I found lots of issues like this here around.

Have there been any improvements about the overall performance and situation? I'm on Mac nearly 30 years now, and god knows which was the first Photoshop versione, I've gone through hod knows how many compatibilty issues, minor and major bugs, and the usual "it's noit us to blame" chats 😉

But as I've never seen soemthing even close to this one right now I really don't know what to do now! I need a new Mac soonish (still working on my late 2013 27" 3,2 4-core). But 90% of my daily work life and moneymaker does rely on Adobe CC: AE, PP, PS, AI, INDD, even Animate for HTML5 Banners, Dreamweaver for some coding jobs and so on.

If there's is no solution up to now, I won't spend any 4k ony a new 5K, because speaking about income this would mean a loss of even more "k" (sorry, I had to put something more or less funny, to calm myself down 😉

I'd appreciate your answers and really hope to hear some positve news by real world users here around. Meanwhile, best greetings from Spain (not that sunny neither these, so good news even more welcomed)

Cheers,

Phil

parkerf57576642

Participant

Hi Phil,

I just received this computer a few days ago and am having the worst time editing on it (lagging is making it basically impossible to do any kind of simple edits). I have about 12 more days before I have to make the return if I'm not keeping it. Apple couldn't really offer me any information on why this is happening (they said "that computer should not being having any kind of issues editing the footage you are editing"). I'm waiting to see if adobe can help, but for some reason, I am unable to reach their service team. Since I'm on a time crunch for retunring, I am really hoping someone can provide any kind of issue if this will be resoled or if I should return the computer altogether.

Smart choice to cancel your order. I am lucky to have discovered this issue because if I didn't have the padding to return it, I would be devastated having just spend $6,000 on this "powerful" computer.

phil bauch

Known Participant

Hi Parker,

damned, sorry for you to hear this 😞 Is it "just" Premiere or do you have any other issues with other CC app, too? And whats your setup of the iMac?

I just asked directly the supoort chat here, they confirmed me, that there are no problems and issues known, and everything should work perfectly. So I asked explicitely if this is just an interpretation of what is written in the recommended specs, or if he could confirm this by users. The answer was "by users". So if it this, it's even worse. Having a problem – well ... but denying is is really a shame.

Lets see, what come around in your case. Good luck and would be great if you keep us updated here,

Cheers Phil

Luca98BC

Participant

Hi,

i have the same specs. Only the i7 instead of the i9. The performance of the iMac is also terrible. Not only in Premiere Pro, also in FCPX and DaVinci. It's horrible!!! I've tested everything. ProRes, h264, h265. Catalina and Big Sur. The performance is soooooo bad. I have no idea what i can do anymore. How about you meanwhile? Do you have an solution? I have a few days to send the iMac back. But i have no idea what could be an alternative. I don't want to switch to windows but i also dont wan't to leave adobe. What i also dont understand is that also FCPX and DaVinci do not work fine on my iMac. I've tested footage from the Sony A7Siii in 4k120p+60p h264 10 bit but also ProRes 4k60p. It's a nightmare! Do you use DaVinci Studio or the free version?

cheers

luca

I Bleed PixelsAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hey Luca,

Sorry to hear you're going through this same thing. LOL... but it's actually a little comforting to know I'm not alone.

So far (and this is early testing only) I haven't been having any issues with Resolve or FCPX. FCPX is blazing fast... but, frankly, not as robust as either Premiere or Resolve. So I'm trying to transition to Resolve, which is quite impressive but a different workflow/UI from Premiere, so a bit of a learning curve. From a "processing power" standpoint, I think Resolve Studio and the free version are pretty much the same (I think)... the paid version is just more feature-rich.

Still using Premiere as best I can while I ramp up in Resolve. One thing I did find is that Premiere really seems to lag with playback if there's any footage in the timeline that doesn't match the sequence frame rate - really seems to struggle with interpolating the footage. So, when I do use Premiere, I'm very careful to avoid that. And I'm rendering the timeline constantly as I work.

As far as your situation...

I'm no expert. So I hesitate to tell you what to do. But here's my two cents for whatever that's worth, based on my recent experience with this Mac/Premiere combination...

I could have gotten a PC custom-designed specifically to crush it in Premiere (basically a gaming machine)... for half the price of my Mac (or a ridiculously decked out PC for the same price). But I'm a Mac guy, so it's really hard to imagine going back to a Windows. If you don't care too much Mac vs PC... and really want to stick with Premiere... you might want to go to a PC. Cause barring a miracle, I just don't see Adobe fixing this issue - it's been going on for a while, across many new Mac versions (including maxed out Mac Pros), with no resolution yet and very little meaningful response from Adobe. I think Adobe knows about the issue. But either doesn't care, or can't solve it. (again... I love Adobe for so many of their other products... so not trying to knock them too much)

If money is no object for you, you could keep the Mac for all other things and get a PC purely for video editing. I know people who've done that too.

If you're an adament Mac person, I'd suggest Resolve. Personally, I can't afford to plod away for too long continuing with Premiere... with no end in sight to all the bugs, and no guarantees it won't actually get even worse (which it progressively has over the past 2-3 years).

But I can't speak for the issues you're having with Resolve. I'm not experiencing that myself. I do vaguely recall seeing some posts about Resolve having issues with ProRes or Red footage in the past... but I've never researched it. The fact that you're having ANY issues in FCPX is concerning though... it does make me wonder if you've got an issue with your setup or specific machine. Cause FCP and Apples are designed to work fantastically together. And in my experience FCP is killer fast. I just don't love it as an editor.

Best of luck?

Will

Jeff Bellune

Legend

Hi Will,

I read through your posts and I appreciate the thoroughness of them. And what's not to like about sharing some opinions along the way? 🙂

It may be obvious and you may have answered this already, but I missed it. So here goes: is any/all of your source footage variable frame rate? If you haven't done so, have a look at it with the excellent inspection tool, MediaInfo.

I have a 2019 16" MBP running Catalina and I have not encountered the issue. Yet. AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB graphics. For whatever that is worth.

joe88

Participant

I have the exact same machine and specs and problem.

AlanM3

Participant

I'm hoping that we end up with a resolution to this major concern. I'm interested in purchasing a beefed up 2020 iMac 27-inch to replace my 2008 Mac pro that is limping along. I haven't used the Adobe suite but am planning on working with Lightroom, Photosop, and Premiere. I sure would be bummed if Premiere Pro doesn't run well on these new iMacs. It is unbelievable that a supposed popular video editing program doesn't run well on iMacs. I've been reading many of the related posts and it does seem to me Adobe needs to do major work on the software using the graphics cards that come with iMacs. And how long a wait might we have for that...if ever. Sigh. Thanks for your detailed post and good luck.

Flywithjohnnythai

Participant

I am in the same situation. One day last week Premiere was working beautifully and now it lags, stutters, pressing the space bar to stop the timeline doesn't respond for a few seconds. It's a nightmare to edit and makes premiere almost unusable. If anyone has a solution I'd appreciate it. I'm in the same settings as well just different specs that should easily handle a 1080p timeline.

Michael Grenadier

Legend

if premiere was working properly in an earlier version, I'd revert to that version. If you need the latest features, I'd investigate a proxy workflow. prores proxy is a great format and looks and plays smoothly in my experience. This may or may not be adobe's fault, but some of the blame may be apple's fault. They've never been particularly commited to making 3rd party software work seamlessly. They'd much rather you be editing in fcpX.

I Bleed PixelsAuthor

Participating Frequently

First of all, I DO want to thank mgrenadier for taking the time to reply. I appreciate your quick response. And I'm sure you're doing your best to help.

And apologies if this becomes a lengthy response. But I've seen the the same things being said, over and over again, with no REAL resolution. Or any honest answer as to if and when one might be forthcoming. So I feel the need counter a lot of the suggestions coming from Adobe and others.

I'm going to reply to your 3 main statements/suggestions:

Use an earlier version.
Use proxies.
Apple is partly to blame.

1. Use an earlier version.

Basically, for me (and many other Mac users it would seem), Premiere Pro has gotten progressively worse in both 2019 and 2020 versions. I have TRIED both those versions. Including a variety of releases within each major version. None are acceptible.

The last version I've used that worked remotely well was 2018. And, obviously, that's no longer available via Creative Cloud.

But more importantly, I shouldn't HAVE TO use an older version of any piece of software. Particularly when my computer should be more than powerful enough to run it. Why would I want fewer features, less efficiency, collaboration issues, etc?

So that is simply not an answer. If that doesn't work, should I shoot on Super 8 and literally cut film instead? Cause that's also an earlier version, arguably.

2. Use Proxies

I've SCOURED the web and countless forums attempting to find some resolution to this. And I've seen countless replies from Adobe or others suggesting "work arounds" to the problem. Among them:

Proxies
Lowering playback resolution (1/4 or 1/2)
Turn off effects on the playline
Repeatedly render the timeline with every edit or addition to the timeline
Etc.

I am aware of all of these work arounds. And, agreed, each does improve performance... although very, very slightly and still not to the point making PP efficient or remotely competitive with other NLEs.

I work on predominantly 5 minute, relatively simple videos. Which simply should not require proxies or any of these work arounds. They never did in pre-2019 versions?? I'm not editing feature films here.

So my response to proxies (and all the other suggested work arounds) is this:

I appreciate the suggestion. But I don't have to go through this hassle with ANY of the competitive video editing packages that I've tried. Again... I have tested the same footage, with the same level of effects/grading/motion graphics in FCP and Resolve... and I literally just open them up and go. No lag. No issues. No proxies. No concessions. No work arounds required. In fact, it's slick as all get out and makes me remember "Ahhhh... this is what the process should feel like. This actually makes editing enjoyable again."

Which was ALSO my experience with older versions of Premiere Pro. On a slower machine.

And I've seen this argument over and over again. For example:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/serious-performance-issues-with-premiere-pro-14-0/td-p/10944941

I've read endless posts from people with some pretty powerful new Macs, many far better than mine (and mine is top of the line for a consumer-end product). All experiencing horrible lag and other issues. And no real answers or solutions that I've seen yet.

3. Apple is partly to blame

I've read the replies that try to shift the blame over to Apple. And I will concede that Apple doesn't make it easy for many software developers. And that, yes, they have a vested interest in pushing FCP.

BUT... and I know I'm repeating myself... the EASY counter to that argument is... the team behind DaVinci Resolve seems to have had NO problems making their product work just fine on Macs. Or at least far, far fewer problems than Adobe.

I'll also add that both Apple and Adobe kinda group up together. The reason I switched over to Apple twenty-or-so years ago was that, in the creative industry, Apple hardware and Adobe software were the ones that worked together best! And it was the thousands (millions?) of people in the creative/design business that formed the early base that led to BOTH companies growing to be the dominant mainstream players they now are. I've spent a career using Adobe products on Apple devices. It baffles me that, at least with PP, Adobe can't or won't make it work on new model Macs that, by all the specs, should perform wonderfully.

Summary

Yup. I've included a summary. Cause I've droned on this long. So why not continue, at this point?

Make no mistake. My PREFERENCE would to be to continue using Premiere Pro. I've liked it in the past. I'm comfortable with it. I don't want to go through the learning curve of another program or change my workflow. I'm not trying to knock Adobe. I LOVE most of their products. And I can appreciate how challenging software engineering for different operating systems and hardware capabilities must be.

But Adobe does seem to be struggling in this case. And not very forthcoming. So it's frustrating.

Perhaps a ridiculous analogy:

I feel like I've purchased a Ferrari (cause I am paying for PP, via CC). And I just picked it up at the lot and tried to drive it. But it only goes 5 miles per hour. So I call up the Ferrari salesman, and say "Hey, my new Ferrari is only going 5 miles an hour. What gives?"

To which the salesman replies "Gosh. That sucks. How about we give you an old Ferrari instead? At no additional cost. That should go fast." (i.e. use an older version of PP, in this analogy)

Of course, I say "WTF? I bought a new Ferrari! Why would I want your old Ferrari for the same price as a new one???"

"Okay, okay.", says the salesman. "In some cases this seems to happen for some people. But you're in luck! There are work-arounds. Here's what you do. Remove the doors and seats. Try to only drive downhill, never up. And if you have a few friends who could push the car as well... your Ferrari will definitely go faster." (See what I'm doing here? This is a metaphor for proxies, etc. Clever, huh?)

Becoming mildly frustrated, I argue, "That's ridiculous. Other people seem to have Ferraris that go fast without being pushed by people. And all the ones I see seem to have doors and seats."

The Ferrari guy then says, "I don't know what else to tell you, man. And let's be fair here. The truth is, the roads in your city are notoriously bad for Ferraris. So don't blame us. Petition your city to build better roads. Or move to a better neighbourhood."

"But all the other cars seem to drive just fine on my roads!!!", I scream in desperation. "Plus... I just bought this house. I can't afford to buy another house. Surely to God you can fix my Ferrari so it drives on my roads?"

Then the Ferrari salesman just hangs up.

So anyway. What I'd really love... somehow... is one of three possible answers (listed in order of preference) so I can plan my video editing future:

"You messed up [fill in random preference/setting here], dude! Just change [fill in preference/setting here] and it will all work fine."
"Adobe is aware of and acknowledges the problem. And we are trying to fix it. It'll probably all be resolved by [fill in date here]."
"Adobe is aware of the problem. But has no plans to do anything about it. So, if we're being honest, in your case and on your machine, you're probably better off using one of our competitors' editing suites."

Anyone of those answers would help me decide what to do next.

P.S. I've placed a bet with a Las Vegas bookie that this conversation will be locked in very short order.

Michael Grenadier

Legend

please tell us your source properties and your sequence settings...

I Bleed PixelsAuthor

Participating Frequently

Source... lol...

MPEG Movie (.mp4)

23.976 FPS

Image Size: 1920x1080

Codec: MP$/MOV H 2.64

(stock video, in this case!)

Sequence settings...

Timbase: 23.976 FPS

Square Pixels/Prog Scan/23.976 FPS Display Format/Rec.709 Color Space

Video Previews/Codec: QuickTime/Apple ProRes 422 (but I've tried every combination of Format and Codec available... literally, every combination)

No max bit depth. No max render quality. Yes Composite in Linear Color (but I've tried without as well)

Appreciate your reply. I'd love to be able to solve this. But sorta sounds like the same questions I've seen asked of other Mac users experiencing similar problems. And none seem to be resolved.

I've opened the same files, and done similar edits/effects/titling/grading in both Final Cut and Resolve today. Without any hitch whatsoever. The difference is night and day. I have trouble believing it's a source/sequence/settings issue. I really believe it has something to do with Premiere not being compatible with the Radeom Pro 5700 XT, or the CPU, or the retina display... or some combination of all three.

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