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?

[timegate51]

Thank you! I will try it

[timegate51]

SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED_SOLVED

So, after have tryed everything.... I MEAN LITERALLY EVERY LITTLE THING I assume it was never going ok, so I decide to set up a Windows 7 64bits and then After effects CC 2017. Everything seems normal. I know its not like solvig the issue but its an alternative.

Conclusion: Windows 10 and After Effects dont make it ok

I hope they (adobe) fix this painfull issue

[mattk61137503]

Should probably edit and removed your "SOLVED" since you did not find a solution.

To everyone else: This is still unsolved.

[mark_mathieson]

Similar performance issues here. Simple HD 30fps comp with audio (a couple of HD mp4s with PNGs animated over them as part of an interface mock-up, some drop shadows, no other effects, no 3D, no particles, no plug-ins, no blending, no keying):

Will NOT preview in real time on:

HP Z840

2 x Xeon 8 core 3.2GHz

32Gb RAM

GTX 980Ti & Quadro K4200

Windows 10

4k monitor

Runs perfectly on:

15-inch MacBook Pro

2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7

16GB RAM

Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB memory

Same 4k monitor in addition to built in display.

Both machines have the latest version of AE as of 31 Jan 2019.

I was running 4k comps on the MacBook and it was fine. On the PC After Effects is awful, the interface is laggy and playback is terrible.

I'd really like Adobe to acknowledge the issue and share their plan for addressing it.

[jacksonp44984267]

I'm just trying to preview very simple files in an After Effects tutorial and the preview slows to a crawl after the first 1-2 seconds.

After Effects CC 2018 Essential Training: The Basics

Dell XPS

Intel Core i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz

24Gb RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745

Windows 8.1 Pro

4k monitor + Cintiq 21ux

I know this isn't a "workhorse" machine, but it should be able to preview simple 10 second files without basically crashing.

Even running previews of the sample files from this tutorial at 1/4 resolution or worse have it slowing to a crawl after the 1 second mark.

It is completely unusable in this condition

[xownsend]

February and I decided to finally update to CC 2019 and I literally have the same issues you described a year later.

7980XE / 32GB RAM / GTX 1080 TI / Samsung 512GB 970 Pro

My rigs not the beefiest but geez, I would think it could easily keep up.

If anyone has any solutions yet I'm all ears.

[sanagustin]

Long time listener, first-time caller.

I am also experiencing huge performance issues on my 2012 Mac Pro. 32gigs ram. 2x Intel 3.46 GHZ 6 core. I've never run into this issue until recently.

I downgraded to CC 2018 but still having the same performance issues.

I just downloaded CC 2017 so I'll see if that helps.

[timegate51]

For me, once I had this mistake it was impossible to fix it until I format all the system. Not even trying AE 2014.

Good luck

[nicola_s]

I'm having similar slowness issues also in previewing cached frames with NOTHING going on: the spacebar playback drops to 15/20 fps on an HD sized blank comp with a shape in the middle not doing much for 10 seconds.

I have top of the line 2017 iMac 5k with 32 gb of ram.

In any case I found out that the screen resolution is to blame for the frame dropping: I run the interface at the scaled 'more space' resolution on the iMac (which corresponds to 3200x1800), and by simply lowering it to 2560x1440 (or lower!) I get instantly full frame rate, which is small comfort because now everything onscreen is giant and I lose the benefit of screen real estate.

I've gone through this thread and I've noticed a lot of people are (rightly!) running 4k monitors or higher, as a test you can try lowering the resolution and see if that affects your experience, it might not be the solution but a clue to the culprit.

[RaZzaDaZz]

My PC isn't super like others here, but good enough. Never had problems untill recently.

Windows 10 Pro

i7-4770 CPU 3.4Ghz

32GB RAM

Gtx 1080

Upgraded to AE CC 2019 16.0.1, but after a week my interface speed and even render speed went down fast. (A previous 30min render in the 16.0.1 build now took 56min!...) I tried things like changing memory/cache space but it didn't help. Also deinstalling plugins or downgrading to 16.0.0 didn't seem to help.

To get a better grasp of the problem:

- Shortkeys work after 1 full second, like using the spacebar to scroll through the timeline

- The viewport updates super slow with simple graphics or footage even in Half or third

- Loading & (auto)saving takes super long

So yeah, the overall program just seems unstable. Very frustrating.

I'm now on AE CC 2018 - 15.0.0 (Build 180) and the difference in speed is immense (luckily). Other people on here seem to have performance issues with AE CC 2018. So I'm holding my breath here and hope it stays stable..

[matteociaociao]

Same problem here:

i7 5820k

gtx 1070 ti

64 gb ram

win 10

Ae 2018

with ae 2018 moving just one shape layer around (in an hd comp) is super slow.

if i use ae cs6 there are no problems everything runs very well.

so what the hell is going on here???? i have to work! instead i have to spend all my time debugging a software i am paying!!!!

why every version of ae becomes less responsive????

[Szalam]

I've heard some good reports from people that today's update to AE has made previews run better. I don't usually recommend updating in the middle of a project, but if you're experiencing really frustrating issues like this, it sometimes is better to try. Note, if you're using version 15 of AE (AKA CC 2018), you can install today's release alongside it.

[andi_urra]

Hi Szalam, I just installed the update. On first impression the viewport reacts indeed better. But the timeline issues are exactly the same, i.e. dragging the time indicator and doing selections marquees.

I just checked a project file with a DUIK pupped rigged and animated. Using J,K to jump between keyframes is still very slow. The rendering bar often pops up. Still look like background caching eats up redraw performance.

[andi_urra]

P.S. I am on a 4k display. This makes things worse. I recommend for testing @Adobe to use 4k displays and a large timeline area, too, in order experience this stronger.

[andi_urra]

More findings:

- Expressions still slow the viewport interaction down. (Background caching?)

- Even if they are deactivated!

- only if I delete them completely the viewport will respond faster

[matteociaociao]

i have the same problems you have.

so now i am working on a single monitor with resolution set to 800x600. like this seems to be working fine!

[matteociaociao]

i work in a big studio we cannot just all of us switch versions or tring to get lucky with an old one.

plus half of the office still have windows 7.

every year same story: updating after effects is like playing russian rulette...you never know if you are gonna get a super buggy unusable mess or just a normally buggy release? this is insane!

[andi_urra]

I have the same issue: Redraws are extremely slow in the viewport an the timeline. Dragging the time indicator is very laggy, even if - this is ridiculous - the comp exists only of a single NULL object. BTW: Dragging the NULL in the viewport is laggy. Exchange it for a text layer and this drags smoothly. Unfortunately, dragging the time indicator stays laggy.

Intel Xeon E5-1650 v4 @ 3.6 GHz

128 GB RAM

2 x NVIDIA GTX 1080 ti

NVME System Drive

SSD Cache Drive

... and AE runs way slower then on my old machine with CC2015

Interesting findings:

- when dragging a selection marquee within the timeline: the bigger the selection marquee, the slower the redraw of the marquee (big => 1 redraw per second)

- The bigger the screen area that the timeline covers, the slower the updates in the viewport => making the viewport full frame increases performance remarkably but, alas, it is impossible to work then.

- deselecting "show cache indicators" increases performance to some degree

I have a strong feeling that the problem lies within the 2D UI drawing, especially in the timeline. And that the caching plays a part in this. There once was an option (in the current documentation it is still statet, funnily) "cache composition in the background".

Whenever I drag stuff in the viewport I see the rendering bar working (the striped progress bar beneath the viewport). I bet this causes redraw conflicts, too. It would be great if we could disable caching in the background.

Please address this with highest priority. Working in AE has become a real pain by now. I is unbearably slow.

[Benoit Lalande]

Update your CUDA and graphics card drivers! That fixed it for me. I also updated my OS but idk if that had an impact.

[andi_urra]

Didn’t fix it for me, unfortunately. I did install the “creator’s driver” (not the gaming driver), clean install, without the ”NVIDIA experience”. Did you get separate CUDA drivers? They aren’t listed for GTX 1080ti.

[Jaydude-wb]

Did you try to switch fonts? I remember a Project that contained a PostScript font causing amazing slowdown. I switched to the TrueType version, and the slowdown disappeared.

[mark_mathieson]

I thought the recent update had helped but no. My machine has been upgraded since my last post:

HP Z840

2 x Xeon 8 core 3.2GHz

32Gb RAM

2 x RTX2080Ti

Windows 10

4k monitor

It will not play a 512 x 512 PNG sequence with an mp3 audio track in real time!

In the meantime Cinema 4D (which rendered the PNG sequence) will sample the mp3, adjust a light's intensity based on the audio and draw the viewport at 250fps. Redshift will render it at less than a second a frame but will After Effects play it properly? No.

[matteociaociao]

use ae cs6, no problems with that version

[mark_mathieson]

Not really a solution, especially when working collaboratively.

[lemouraodeiaadob]

I have to add here to everybody comments - I worked better on after effects back on 2010 than i am working now on 2019. IT IS EXTREMELY SLOW - IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK - THEIR PLAYBACK IS NOT WORKING ANYMORE, EVEN IF I RUN A SIMPLE TEXT.

This is turning my deadlines impossible to deliver, and it is hurting my company´s profiting. We already are looking for nuke or other softwares, since Davinci resolve is ULTRA faster compared to Premiere pro and we are already switching it for editing.

As for VFX, i dont want to use AE anymore. Everytime i have to start it, i have terrible feelings like have a hell of a day.

Adobe has a lame customer support, excess of arrogance is now gonna lose another customer. So sorry to see a huge FX company going down the drain.