AE 23.1.0 Poor Performance. Timeline/Keyframe lag.

[Nick2049]

I recently updated to 23.1.0 and just thought that the awful performance was because my project was getting pretty heavy with a few hundred layers (which AE has always suffered from, because pre-comping everything is not the solution and we still don't have layer groups/folders..)

But.. I've just cleared my cache, created a new project and already I can see there is an issue, I don't even have any layers in this new comp and the timeline indicator lags behind my mouse pointer when I move it.

If I create a simple new layer (white solid) and set a couple of keyframes, when I drag one of the keyframes left or right it massively lags behind my pointer, and is very steppy.

Moving a layers position along the timeline or adjusting its start/end position is also the same, in fact it's so delayed that things get 'stuck' to my pointer and behave as though I have not released left mouse button, and thus end up where I dont want them.

I have cleared my cache, updated windows, tried the latest NVIDIA drivers (standard and studio), tried switching between CUDA and software.. all to no avail.

OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2

BOARD: ASUS X299-E
CPU: i9-7940X
RAM: Corsair 64GB (4x16) DDR4

OS DISK: Samsung 970 PRO 1TB

SCRATCH DISK: Samsung 970 PRO 2TB

GPU: ASUS GTX 1080Ti (Driver: 528.02)

DISPLAYS: 2 x 27" 4K @ 150% Scaling

[Jim5C97]

Have you found a solution to this? We are having the same issue after updating to Ae 23.1.
We have three Dell Workstations that are all experiencing the behavior that you decribed.

If we launch Ae 22.0 on any workstation, the keyframe and layer movement is smooth.

[Nick2049]

Unfortunately I have not, I've spent 2 days trying to get to the bottom of it. Re-installing Windows is now my next last resort.

I can only guess that is related to CUDA as I'm also having graphical issues in InDesign too.

Are you workstations also running NVIDA cards by any chance?

[Jim5C97]

We have Dell Precision workstations with 2 CPUs 64 GB of RAM and NVIDIA graphics cards Windows 10 21H2.

I have taken all the same steps that you have... updating drivers…ect.

[Nick2049]

Which GPU's are you running just out of interest..

[Jim5C97]

One machine has the NVIDIA Quadro P5000 the other two have the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Nick2049 & @Jim5C97,

Thank you both for reporting this issue. We've had some other reports as well from customers in other communities. Some have reported the lagginess is fixed by downgrading back to the "4x" drivers from NVidia, but we are still trying to confirm if a specific driver is involved. If you are able to downgrade those drivers and it fixes the issue for you, please let us know.

The latest After Effects (Beta) build also has some fixes for Timeline performance that may address the issues you are seeing. If you have a chance, please down the latest Beta build from the Creative Cloud and let us know if that helps as well. The Beta is a separate application from the release version, so both can be installed at once without issues.

Thanks again for reporting this issue and for any further information you can provide,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Nick2049]

Hi @JohnColombo 
Thanks for your input on this one.

I have just tried the latest AE beta and the problems are all still present.

Hopefully downgraading to the 4. driver is not the solution because those are from 2021!

I'm downloading an older 5. driver now and will report back.

Update: I have just rolled back to 526.98 from November 2022, and as soon as I started AE I received this warning (the reported issues are also still present):

[Nick2049]

@JohnColombojust rolled back to 472.84

Upon opening the current release of AE I was shown this, it was stuck at 40% for a while, it took around 5 mins to complete

Unfortunately this still has not rectified the issue. Laggy timeline marker, super laggy (and sticky!) keyframes and layers. This is also the case for this driver version + the latest AE beta.

[Jim5C97]

I too have installed the Beta Release and the timeline problems described in this string still persist.

[andrercl]

I my version of After Effects, 23.1. Timeline behavior is strange. Extremely unproductive, making work almost impossible. When I move a keyframe, as soon as I release the mouse, the keyframe stops, but a few moments later it moves to where my mouse is, even though it's already unclicked. For example if I drag and drop the keyframe over frame 300 and after that I move my mouse slightly to the left (without holding down any buttons, just moving the mouse) the keyframe updates its position and parks at frame 200 (just an example). Apparently this happens when after finishes rendering the timeline and updates the rendering time for that frame (300). This happens on different computers. I'm now testing version 22.6 and in the first tests nothing happened, maybe using more times the problem appears.

[Mohammad.Harb]

Are you using Mac or windows ?

[andrercl]

I'm using Windows 10! 64bit.

[heiko28223190941a]

I'm so sorry but after effect 23 is useless. 
whether a keyframe or a layer has to be moved, there is always a delay. 

You can't work with it and make money like that.

[darciel33791158]

I agree. I'm having the same issue with the dragging a layer within the timeline. Layer feels heavy and slow and doesn't follow my movement. 

[darciel33791158]

I'm having the same issue. The drag within the timeline is very very slow and doesn't follow my mouse drag. 

[Dana5C25]

I also had this issue, also with an Nvidia card - RTX3080. Downgraded to AE 22.6 and the problem is sorted. Bit frustrating, but to everyone who would like to be able to do their jobs, I recommend doing the same.

[Nick2049]

Thanks for the info Dana. I almost purchased an RTX card as I am so tired of trying to resolve this issue but I'm glad I didnt now.

Are you using the latest Nvidia drivers (studio or game ready?) with 22.6? I just reverted to that version of AE with the latest studio drivers and whilst it does feel a little snappier the issues are still present. I'll roll back my Nvidia drivers now and see if that combo is any better.

[Dana5C25]

Yeah let me know if that improves performance more, with an older driver. I do indeed have the latest Nvidia drivers (game ready). It does go back to being a bit laggy when there are more layers, but at least I'm not having the issue anymore with a single layer in an otherwise empty comp like I did with 23.1... It has also stopped doing the thing where keyframes sometimes move somewhere completely different after you finish dragging them. Wiith 23.1, even if I was moving the keyframe really slowly I was still struggling to place them accurately. It's not fully fixed, but I can confidently say it's better at least.

[ivan.markelov]

same issue, rtx 4090 and ryzen 3900x on w11, thought it was my hardware problem but now i know its Adobe, as always... rolled back to 22.4 with newest drivers and all updates on every piece of hardware, seems to be working much better,  but still no match to my m1 max laptop which is really sucks considering my ryzen machine costs about 2x more lol.

also noticed if you have any audio layer with waveform visible its makes stuttering performance even in 22.x. 

[Mohammad.Harb]

which operating system are you using ? 

[heiko28223190941a]

my windows mashine should be handle this with i9-12900K 3,20Ghz, 128Ram and nividia RTX 3090 Ti. I dont have any problem with After Effects 22, i preffer this at the moment, for a stable woraround.

but i love the new pick wipe mask in 23.  

[Sofia Miranda]

My keyframe feels stuck, doesn't move in a fluid way as always. I select the keyframe and try do move it and it feels stucks, he moves, but in jumps. Never happened to me... Can you help please?

Thanks a lot,

Sofia Miranda

[Mylenium]

This appears to be a bug in AE 23.1. Sometimes it just goes away. Regularly flushing the caches, turning off multiframe rendering and checking hardware acceleration and your graphics driver is advised.

Mylenium

[Sofia Miranda]

Thanks for the response. I'll try that.

Sofia

[Lyc]

Please note that I am Japanese and cannot speak English well.

I use AE with an English interface because of the way the plugin works.
I am also facing this problem, but strangely enough it was not discussed at all in the Japanese forum.
I tried to run AE with the Japanese interface and the delay was greatly improved. Still a little laggy though.
I hope this helps to identify the cause.