AE CC 2018 ridiculously slow

[niklas.alden]

Seriously, what is wrong with AE CC 2018!?

I'm on an absolute beast of a workstation, a HP Z840 with 128 GB RAM, dual Titan X:s and so forth, but I can't even preview a simple text animation!

It takes forever to preview, and playback tops out at about 10 fps... I've got nothing in the timeline but animated text, no other graphics, no video, nothing.

And it's not only the preview that's messed up, the entire interface is laggy, when I move the cursor in the timeline sometimes it takes like a second for it to catch up.

Everything I try to do, import a file, keyframe an object, add an effect to something, and so on, takes forever.

I've done restarts, checked nvidia drivers, purged all memory and disk cache, cleaned database an cache, everything you could ever think of, but it's still painfully slow.

I never had these problems in cc 2017, it ran like a dream.

I'm at a point where it is virtually imposible to work, and it's making me a bit frustrated to say the least.

Don't tell me I have to downgrade to be able to work, that would just be, well, silly.

Why on earth would anybody release a version this unstable?

[james grochowalski]

*Edit. This did not fix anything.... Adobe get your S*** together.

I'm on a 2013 Mac Pro and have noticed slow ram preview times and rendering. It comes and goes, but I changed my Preview Settings to match these. Also changed zoom quality to Faster. I noticed an increase in ram preview time. Hope this helps.

[AriSt100]

It is so hard to use Adobe After Effects now. I am working on the latest 2018 MacBook Pro running El Capitan 10.11.6

I am also trying to export a 2 minute video to Media Encoder and it stalls after 1 hour.  The product is sooooo buggy.
I don't have an old copy of After Effects CC2014  that I know worked OK - how can I get a copy? I had no problems ever with that version.

[VisualDelight]

just adding my 2 cents here (after struggling for ages to find out why ram preview is so freaking slow), i an confirm that hiding the timeline helps to speed up realtime ram preview (back to normal).... it's a pain in the a**.... and i really wish adobe gets their shit together and fix this UI redraw crap !!!!

[darionLeigh333]

I have a sad but workable solution. change your screen res to 1920 x 1080.

That seems to help on RAM preview.

Obviously not ideal but if you are stuck it seems to help.

[VisualDelight]

it does help.... but everything is super blurry on a 4k screen.. not the best solution indeed

[darionLeigh333]

Hello again. I am getting somewhere with this now..

So I tried this... starting my PC is safe mode.

This disables all sorts of things, including audio. But guess what. After Effects performs like a dream. This means it is some external service associated with the OS.

Then I tried starting my PC in Diagnostic mode, again, no internet connection as you might expect. After Effects again works perfectly.

So I am in talks with an IT professional who helped me build my PC about identifying WHICH process running on my machine are messing with it. When I find and disable that sucker - I'll let you know more.

[VisualDelight]

ok that seems like an interesting way to proceed.

I did something different and installed the 2019 update yesterday.... tested this morning with projects that did not run smoothly (around 10-13 fps) in the 2018 version..... and guess what: The ram preview seems to work again.... i just hope it sticks along now, but everything seems to run super smooth. In 2018 i got some kind of black stripes (artifacts) in the timeline during the ram preview also... they are gone now..... i'll keep u posted if anything changes here, but as for now it seems adobe did something about it in the new release....

FYI: i have 2 BenQ screens running on 4K with a zoom factor of 150% and a third one in portrait mode running on 1080*1920 in windows 10 (if this helps)

[darionLeigh333]

Hey - did you see my solution? It worked a treat!

see my latest comments

[patrickb24836484]

Why did you post it, like, 5 times and clog up the feed? What about those of us running on macOS?

Not 'solved!!!' for us.... (and I'd avoid the whole PR piece at the end)

[darionLeigh333]

Hi Patrick - I feel your pain. Apologies for posting so many times. I had put those posts as direct replies to those people who were sounding especially affected by this issue. I didn't realise they would show up in the feed that way.

The PR piece at the end is well justified, they solved the issue when adobe didn't and offer IT help for people in these exact situations where software and hardware companies have abandoned them. So I am recommending them as a good solution for PC users with issues.

Re:MAC and PC

I also have a Mac, and yes it isn't solved on that. However a LOT of the people on this feed were talking about their PC spec so - again. Still relevant.

I am still researching solutions for the Mac and will let you know if I get any solutions. Although to be honest, your attitude sucks a little.

[Szalam]

Have you tried the new version of AE (16.0) that just released last week? I know it's usually not a good idea to jump on a new version in the middle of production, but I know several people who found it performs better for them. You can install it alongside CC 2018 without messing anything up to just give it a try. And if it works, great! If not, we'll have a bit more knowledge for troubleshooting.

[darionLeigh333]

Re: "What about those of us running on macOS?"

Again I might add that the original poster was on PC too, not sure it is my job to solve your Mac issues. Perhaps take you frustrations out elsewhere.

[patrickb24836484]

Sorry mate, appreciate you're enthusiasm and sharing of info, but do try to see it from this side, you've been on and on and on to Adobe to help fix or at least improve things, going round and around till you're tearing your hair out, and then your inbox floods with 'problem solved!!!', only to find it's irrelevant and sounds more like a clickbait ad, just to kick you again when you're down. I posted reflexively, my bad.

[Szalam]

Thank you for a reasonable response! This is the internet, so I've occasionally seen things like this blow up, especially with frustrating issues like software slowness.

If you have AE CC 2014 installed, you should still have AME 2014 too. If not, install Premiere Pro 2014 and that should restore it.

As far as slowness goes, it seems like some people are talking about RAM preview issues and some people are talking about rendering issues and they are rather different things with different causes and (in some cases) different fixes. Since the original poster's PC issue may be solved now, perhaps Mac issues would be better served in a new thread.

[darionLeigh333]

Hi Patrick, I get it. It did occur to me after posting that my post might be frustrating for those still experiencing issues. Apologies to you as well then. For what it is worth - I am pretty sure now that with both MAC and PC, it is not just an issue with the Adobe software. The OS is also to blame, mainly because I have seen the software running really well on low spec machines (Low spec MAC machines) with the same version of the OS too. My guess is that some hardware, switches into a low power mode (on MAC and PC) when doing a RAM preview. This was the case with my PC, I would also advise going into a genius bar at a mac store because they will be able to trouble shoot those specific power/ processor issues. I am convinced it is a combination of OS and Adobe software issues, and that is why it has been so difficult to fix.  For me it was solved by switching from low power mode in the control panel for my CPU - as MACs are also experiencing the same issues, I would imagine it is a similar issue with the macs as well. However HOW you check the power mode on a mac - I don't know.

I have one suggestion for MAC users. Sorry if it doesn't work but try this..  Try starting your MAc in safe mode. https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-use-mac-safe-mode-3623521/

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-use-mac-safe-mode-3623521/

Launch After Effects - see if it runs as you would hope.

If it does then you know the issue is only with thte OS and power management.

[dmattock]

Wow, I came here after searching for reasons why my £8000 High spec HPZ820  workstation was running After Effects 2018 like it was a zx spectrum from decades ago.

I'm slightly relieved that its not my computer as many others have the same issue, but very frustrated that this is so obvious and Adobe need to listen.  Down tools, stop adding any new features and please just make AE run at a normal speed and stable, please!

It's slow to just click around the timeline, Ram previews even at quarter resolution are appalling and is really slowing me down and costing me time and money!

If anyone needs to render faster get the "Render Garden" plugin.. no joke it uses all available cores and has improved my final render times between 5 - 10 times faster.  I dread to think what rendering in AE2018 alone would be like.

But I really need to speed up actually working in AE, please Adobe listen to this frustrated crowd and just work on improving this and nothing else for now.   Thank you

[darionLeigh333]

[darionLeigh333]

"I'm slightly relieved that its not my computer as many others have the same issue"

I know how awful this is. But I found a solution on mine - For PC users (sorry MAC people)

So it is your computer and After Effects not talking properly. Basically run some hardcore 3D software on you PC and it will perform well. Run After Effects and it tanks.

This is because you computer is in low power mode? So other software overrides this when they need processing resource, After Effects doesn't. Look at you processor usage during RAM preview - it doesn't max out. The bottle neck on my computer was in control panel > hardware and sound > Power Options > Plan settings > advanced

You computer will generally perform better too. See my previous post with instructions. I am really keen to see if this helps you too???

[dmattock]

Hi Thanks... Im on a workstation not laptop, but went into advanced an it is set to "Balanced" 
IF I try and change it to teh only other option of "High performance"  I click ok, go back in and its reset to "Balanced" again
... it wont change!?

[darionLeigh333]

Ok - this is definitely encouraging, this is very likely where your issue is.

I am very sorry but I can't help you with why it isn't changing.

This is where you might want a proper Windows IT professional to look at it?

High Performance will very likely fix the problem when you find a way to make it stick.

The guys that sold and built my laptop (has desktop processor in it though) - installed their own power profile that I was able to select.

If you still have issues they do a remote login service that might help?

D

[dmattock]

Ok I got it to stick to High performance after it appeared in the main control panel.
Anyway, set it, restarted and still seems very slow.

Apparently there is an Ultimate performance setting you can invoke but didn't work for me

(Ultimate Performance - Windows 10 build 17101 and later)

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Thanks for the help anyway, much appreciated, Still AE is just slow, no matter what power machine runs it I guess.

[darionLeigh333]

Oh man. I am so gutted. I was so hoping that would work For you too.

I didn’t need to restart by the way. The effect was instant. Are you SURE it isn’t reverting after the restart?

[timscott177]

Lol @ darion's "solution". Don't announce something as a solution when you don't actually understand the problem people are having and your "solution" is just the realization that you weren't using your laptop properly. There aren't dozens of people here complaining about AE's pitiful UI because we all have laptops and forgot to set the CPU usage to 100%.

I have been having this problem since after upgrading from 2014 years ago and there is no real solution to it, besides chastising AE's developers for being absolutely terrible at their jobs, and switching to Nuke.

The problem, for me, is caused by the fact that I run AE over 3 monitors. If I switch to 2 the UI becomes more responsive, and if I switch to 1 it runs smoothly. So the only way that AE behaves is if I completely neuter my workstation. I have an extremely beefy machine (Dual 8 core CPUs, 128 gigs ram, 1080ti video card, etc)...and Adobe products are the only ones in my arsenal that lag like hell on it (and I use a lot of high performance animation/editing software). And when I talk about lag I'm not kidding........for example, if I click to expand a layer in my timeline, when I have a dozen or so tracks, I have to wait a full second for the layer to expand. Double that time if I have an audio track with an expanded/visible waveform (I've given up trying to edit audio in AE...it is a pure nightmare). Every other interaction takes roughly the same time as well (almost full seconds between a click and a UI response).

I have updated drivers, I've updated to 2019, I've emailed support (no response of course), I've tried everything listed in this thread...no change. This is just pure incompetence on the part of the AE devs and one of the reasons myself and the others at my company are migrating to Nuke. AE used to be a dream to work in, now it is literal garbage.

New AE releases used to be exciting to anticipate...the new features, the workflows, etc. Now with each release the only thing I check is whether or not the UI actually responds to clicks in a timely manner like every other piece of software in existence. 2018 failed that test and so has 2019. Good riddance, AE.

[3dflow]

+1 here,  after effects has become a piece of crap software in performance, it's just gone dark on me.

Viewport is rediculous, text is slow, rendering previews is retarded level slow.

Adding new features to attract more pple? Are you joking? Is this going to be the same conversation as I saw @ Autodesk with 3D Studio Max? I certainly hope not.

System specs:

64Gb 2699 Mhz RAM

Amd threadripper 2990wx (32cores, 64threads @ 3,2Ghz

Geforce 1050 Ti

So I'm (not) terribly sorry, but if after effects can't run on these high end machines everyone is posting, there is something going on.

Wether it's windows or adobe, I don't really care? We had the same bs with photoshop and the wacom issues. People pointing at eachother, blabla. GET IT FIXED.

Can someone tell me the last stable version to date for after effects, concerning VIEWPORT PERFORMANCE (not rendering multiple frames with multi threading, dont need it - i need VIEWPORT PERFORMANCE.

I can't even create a damn text line in an empty 720p comp 25fps without lagg.

Pathetic, seriously.

[darionLeigh333]

@timscott177

You wrote: "Lol @ darion's "solution". Don't announce something as a solution when you don't actually understand the problem people are having and your "solution" is just the realisation that you weren't using your laptop properly. There aren't dozens of people here complaining about AE's pitiful UI because we all have laptops and forgot to set the CPU usage to 100%."

Firstly YOUR problem is different to the original poster, so not sure what to say about that. Wasn't specifically trying to help you and your three screen issue. I do understand the issues people are having on this thread and sympathise greatly having struggled with similar on multiple machines.  I found this thread because I was experiencing similar performance issues as others here. I solved it for me and shared my solution (that is how help forums work no?).

Sorry it didn't work for you or wasn't relevant to you and your 'big boy' screens.

Secondly I wasn't using my laptop incorrectly as you so cynically suggested. So unnecessary of you to suggest incompetence like that. It was in fact a bug in Windows that was forcing the laptop to switch from low power mode to high another.

To be honest though that was such a sour, cynical and necessary response to my post and just the sort of negative angry feedback that makes these forums so painful.  We get it - you are angry and struggling because Adobe has failed you, also that my enthusiastic postings irritated you because it isn't fixed for you yet,  I get how frustrating and difficult it is to have After Effects so slow like this. But try not to take it out on people who are trying to help no?