RAM Preview not real time on MacBook Pro M1 Max

[teaguehayes]

I'm currently having to use After Effects 2021 instead of 2022 because 2022 will not RAM preview in real time. I'm running a brand spankin' new 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max with 64GB Unified Memory & 4TB of space. The system is screaming fast so this AE issue is evidently a bug. Please fix as soon as possible Adobe because AE 2022 looks amazing and I'm dying to dive in.

[ShiveringCactus]

That's interesting, are you saying RAM preview in 2021 was effectively real time, (that is to say AE was processing frames as fast if not faster than your frames per second), but in 2022 it is slower with the same sequence?

I'm using 2022 and not noticed an issue, but I'm on Windows, so there might be a difference.

[sebastianf33162926]

I'm having the same issue. I've been on too many customer support calls and remote screen shares already. Adobe please look into it.

[JohnColombo]

Hi Teague & Sebastian,

Thank you both for reporting this issue. Just to confirm, are you both running the December release of After Effects 22.1.1?

Additionally, what kind of media ( if any ) is present in your project? Do you see the preview slowdown in all projects/compositions, or only in certain ones?

The release version of After Effects mentioned above runs under Rosetta emulation on Apple M1 devices. There is a Beta version of After Effects that runs natively instead, which is available in the Beta section of the Creative Cloud Desktop app. If you can, please give the Beta version of After Effects a try and let us know if the preview issues are still present.

Thanks again for the report and for any further information,
- John, After Effects Engineering Team

[Elijah Ciali]

Not experiencing this on my 32GB M1 Max. How long is the RAM preview and what's the resolution? Additionally, what's the bit depth of your project?

[davidb46026235]

I am having the same issue with the same spec'ed M1 Pro Max computer with AE 22.2.1. Unusably slow RAM previews even at quarter resolution in a short HD comp. The Beta seems better, but many critical plugins are not yet supported under the silicon-native beta, so this is not a solution for me. Is there anything we can do to make AE 22 usable on the M1 Pro Max under Rosetta?

[davidb46026235]

I am seeing the problematic behavior even with just a single layer of footage with no effects, 8 bpc, whether or not I am running in GPU accelerated mode. I tried opening the project in AE21 but it was no better. I deleted the AE22 preferences folder manually and it seemed like the preview performance in AE22 had possibly gotten a little better, but by a few minutes later the performance was just as bad as before. 3 fps previews in the timeline until all frames in the work area are cached. OS version is 12.2.1. The same project and composition in AE21 or AE22 preview in real time on an intel iMac under Big Sur.

[davidb46026235]

Further data to report for Adobe engineers: Completely erasing the computer to factory settings and re installing only the OS, Creative Cloud, and After Effects does not solve the issue. Brand new M1 Pro Max macbook pro with 64GB RAM.  Came with Monterey preinstalled so cannot be downgraded to Big Sur.  Latest version of after effects installed (22.2.1).  No third party plugins installed.  Description of issue:  In a project (8 bpc) with only one piece of footage (29.97, 1920x1080, H.264 and ProRes show same results): if I create a comp that contains only that piece of footage with no effects and press the spacebar, preview operates at 3 to 4 fps until all frames in the work area are cached, and only then can play back at real time.  If I open the same project on a 2017 macbook pro running mojave and after effects 21, the comp immediately previews at real time, even if no frames have previously been cached.  If I open the same project and comp in the latest After Effects (22.2.1) on a 2020 intel iMac 27" running Big Sur, the comp also previews in real time even if no frames are cached.  But on the M1 Max macbook pro under Monterey and Rosetta, the comp cannot preview in real time without first caching all frames.  Turning off multi frame rendering does not help. Turning off Cache Frames While Idle does not help. I installed the Beta version of After Effects, and it is able to preview this same comp in real time if I run in Apple Silicon mode, but if I run the Beta in Rosetta, I get the same result as the release version of after effects: 3 to 4 fps previews until all frames are cached.  I cannot run in apple silicon mode because I do need to install some third party plugins that are not supported on apple silicon yet (e.g., industry standards like Red Giant Trapcode), but in order to verify that the slow previews are not caused by any third party plugins or software, I fully erased the mac, reinstalled the OS (Monterey 12.3), installed only Creative Cloud and After Effects with no other plugins or software installed, and I still see the same poor performance under Rosetta.  I have seen a number of other users report the same issue when I search online across various adobe forums, while yet other users report excellent performance under rosetta.  Perhaps computers that shipped with Big Sur and were later upgraded to Monterey work fine while computers that shipped with Monterey do not.  Or perhaps some hardware batches are not compatible with After Effects under Rosetta while others are.  In any case, many users are reporting on the adobe community forums that After Effects is unusably slow on the latest M1 Pro and M1 Pro Max computers. I very much hope that Adobe can solve this very soon, since many users are spending a significant amount on Adobe software only to find that it cannot be used on current M1 computers. Searches reveal that this issue seems to have been reported for months across multiple operating system versions and after effects versions, but no fix has yet been provided by Adobe.

[JohnColombo]

Hi David,

Thank you for all that additional background information. We've tried playback of various footage ( including H.264, ProRes, and ProRes 4444 ) on several M1 machines ( M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max ) and we are unable to reproduce the slowdown you're experiencing when running under Rosetta.

Some additional things to try that may shed light on what is occurring. When running under Rosetta:
- Do you experience this slowdown with playback that doesn't involve footage?
- Both of the formats you've mentioned are hardware decoded by default. Does disabling hardware decode in preferences > Import have any effect?
- Is the footage located on a local disk, external hard drive, or network drive?
- Are you using an external monitor? If so, is there any different when using the laptop screen only?
- Is playback of the same clips also slow in Premiere when running under Rosetta?

If none of the above factors make a difference, could we reach out to you via email for further investigation?

Thanks again for the information and for any other you can provide,
- John, After Effects Engineering Team

[davidb46026235]

Hi John,

Thanks for your questions. I've responded in more detail in the community forum thread on the same topic at https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-beta-discussions/after-effects-beta-now-on-apple-silico...

but the quick answer here is that the issue seems to be caused by a mismatch between the color space of a footage item and the current project working space in project color settings.

I'm happy to provide further information via email, or to continue the conversation on the forum page in case it is helpful to keep the community looped in

[DnA Design Company]

Having the same issue. Natively created animations are pre-rendering at a snails pace and it's infuriating. Both in latest and beta. Sucks that I do this for a living and all of this impacts my business. I wish I had adobe money so I could just chill on a beach somewhere instead.

[DannyBCreative]

So, I came here looking for an answer to this exact problem, and it seems that the steps listed to correct the issue do NOT actually work, at least in my case.

I have followed all suggested setting work-arounds with regards to color space matching or turning off color management entirely, and nothing works. The choppy RAM preview persists. This is beyond frustrating, but almost not surprising anymore. Now forced to look into alternatives.

[DF Brand & Motion]

Same problem. Painful slow preview and render on a MacBook Pro M1 Max 2022. Unbelievable.

[teaguehayes]

Just to be clear from the initial post. I can open up a project in AE 2021 and it runs great, if I open that exact same project in AE 2022 the RAM preview is sluggish to the point I can't use the software.

John, I'll try the Beta version and let you know if the preview works.

[jmh22]

Good to see others having this issue. MP4 and Mov imports do not play or are extremely sluggish, even after the ram preview green bar ostensibly indicates the full timeline is ready to be preivewed. So far I experience is more with mp4s than movs. But both are having this issue even when it is only footage in the timeline with no effects or additional layers.

This occurs both on 22.2.1 and Beta 22
on M1 Max 64 GB.

Also in Beta, even if the footage is playing back normally (again—footage only, no effects or additional layers) scrubbing across the timeline halts and freezes.


EDIT: Indeed, after seeing David's comment regarding color space, adjusting the colorspace of the project to match the the footage did help on this specific project.

[bmartin219]

AE performance on my M1 Max 16" is painfully slow. Basically unusable. FIX THIS ISSUE PLEASE.

[emmanuelg63247898]

Same here.
Brand new 16" Pro, M1 MAX, 32G.
Basically, unusable, and it comforts me in my opinion that Adobe absolutely doesn't care about it's customers, as long as we depend on their software, they'll keep not giving a damn about their products barely functioning.

[dariuszr59042310]

Same situation 16" MacBookPro, M1 Pro, 32G most recent AE Beta version. Imported a simple image sequence from blender. 0 effects just playing it back is horribly slow.

[kaspark74586526]

Same here - MacBook Pro 16inch, M1Max, 64GB
Preview renders are disappointingly slow
even simple QuicktimeFootage with no additional effects or anything is very slow plays very slow - defenitely slower than my old MacPro from around 2013/14
I really was looking forward to a big improvement in terms of speed with this new Mac
hope AE-version which runs natively on the M1 chips will come soon (since I assume that is mainly the problem - some people mentioned the AE-Beta, which should run natively on the M1's is quite smooth)

[Daniel Keller]

I also wanted to give one point, I am running 22.3 and the Preview Rendering for me is insanely slow, but as soon as I change the composition length the next few renders are all instant. Then its starts slowing down again until I change Composition Length again and than its instant fast again.

Rendering the final video is insanely fast, its just the preview that's so slow

[davidb46026235]

Hi John,

David B here, just letting you know I have installed AE release version 22.3 on M1 Max 16" macbook pro with Monterey 12.3.1

When I run After Effects 22.3 under rosetta, I am seeing the same issues with mismatched color space causing slow previews. We do need to use after effects under Rosetta because many important plugins are not yet supported on M1, and we have projects that we would not be able to edit without opening in Rosetta.

Steps to reproduce:

Mark AE 22.3 in the info window to open using rosetta

Create new project

Turn on project color management and set working space of project to srgb IEC61966-2.1

Import an h.264 (avc1) .mp4 file - it is automatically interpreted as Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 as shown in the info area at the top of the project window

Drag footage onto new comp button to create new comp matching the footage

Press spacebar or preview button. Preview speed is very slow

Steps to resolve:

Turn off color management for the project. Purge cache to ensure cached frames are not being used. The preview speed still returns to normal

OR

set the project working space to Rec.709 Gamma 2.4 (matches footage) Purge cache to ensure cached frames are not being used. The preview speed still returns to normal.

OR

turn off color management for the footage item (preserve RGB under interpret footage). Preview speed returns to normal.

I am happy to send a sample project and footage file where this behavior is still seen under Rosetta with AE 22.3 if that helps.

[GERDON design]

Same here on M1 Max.
Playback stutters (2fps) when running on rosetta. Even with files like 460x320p.
Switching to M1 fixes the stuttering but is not an option because of the lack of plugin support (Video Copilot).

EDIT: I tried Davids fix with turning color management off in the project settings. This resolves the playback issue for now.

[Lars Erik Lunden]

Hi!

I have the same problem. Got the new MacBook Pro 16-inch Apple M1 Max 64gb
Before I had Mac Pro 2013 and had no issues ( only lack of Graphics card power).
Basically render preview is slow that I use my 3D rendering PC for doing basic work. I hate to switch between two computers.

[JohnColombo]

Thanks for that follow-up, David B. We have a bug on the slowdown under Rosetta with mismatches color profiles and our engineers are investigating.

[JohnColombo]

Daniel, Gerdon, & Lars,
Are all of you of experiencing the poor playback when running After Effects natively or under Rosetta? For those of you who haven't tried yet, does the workaround described by David B ( matching the colorspace of your footage ) make any difference?

Thanks for reporting this issue and for any further info,
- John, After Effects Engineering Team

[Timm Voelkner]

Hey there,

I'm too experiencing incredibly slow workflow within AE 22.3 (Silicon) on 16inch M1 Max 64 GB, 1 TB Storage // OS Monterey 12.3.1.
After letting it ram preview it even is very slow with a green bar being displayed. But it's not only playback, a simple change of text size takes about 2-3 seconds to render on the program screen.

Thanks in advance

Best
Timm