AE's performance is garbage

[joshuat2763551]

I've been using After Effects professionally, every day, since 2003, and I've just about had it with this software.

i9-9900K, 64GB, 2080Ti. Several fast SSDs. Yes, I clear the cache every 10 minutes. And the performance is just completely awful.

Adding/editing text is a nightmare. Moving a layer's anchor point is horrendous. Editing bezier handles on masks is excruciating. Sometimes I'll release the mouse button and whatever I had been dragging will continue to move with my cursor because of the extreme sluggishness. God forbid I have more than five layers in my timeline -- this crud gets slower than molasses.

I don't know how you've managed to make the performance increasingly worse since 2015, but you've found a way. I regret ever choosing a profession that requires that I use this trash 8-10 hours a day.

Thanks.

[S_Gans]

Hi. I'm not experiencing the issues you describe on my very old Mac with CPU/GPU/RAM/HD upgrades. Can you please tell us what operatign system you're using? Have you recently upgraded anything? Etc... that'll help us. 

[joshuat2763551]

Windows 10 Pro. No upgrades, this machine was built early this past summer and nothing has changed. I had the same issues on my previous system. 

[Martin_Ritter]

I'm working with AE on a professional daily basis and hardly run into any issues (the only noticable was CC2015 first release, or "Enforced Public Beta Test" how I call it).

Tell us, what you are doing, comp resolutions, monitor resolution (seems to have an impact, as other users reported), footage resolution, effects used, plugins and scripts used... and so on.

Do you have an eye on the computer usage during work? Is CPU at limit, it RAM full, are drives working all the time? How much RAM is assigned to AE, is there enough left for OS? Are other applications running, actively and in the background?

Have you checked GPU drivers (there are studio drivers for professional usage), is OS and AE on the latest version?

That's just what came into my mind first...

From my experience, AE runs fine on a neat system. But most people - not referring to you - don't even understand how a computer works.

*Martin

[joshuat2763551]

Comp resolution: still mostly working with 1080p 29.97, can't imagine having to slog through a 4K comp.

Monitor resolution: 2560x1440 (dual monitors)

Footage resolution: very rarely work with footage. Mostly animated shapes, text, Element3D and Particular, though it doesn't matter what is contained in the project. UI interaction is sluggish even with a brand new project.

Yes, I keep an eye on computer usage. I've been working with computers for like almost 30 years now. I know to close apps I'm not using and not to have 30 browser windows open. I routinely check Task Manager to see if there's anything gumming up the works. 

57 GB assianged to AE out of 64. That's probably out of whack, but I don't think it has anything to do with AE being garbage.

GPU driver is up to date (and is the studio version), as is AE and Windows.

Like I said, this machine is only a few months old. AE was one of the first things I installed on it, and it's been running like a steaming pile from the get go.

[Martin_Ritter]

7 GB left for OS should be enough - I, too, did crank this up. If there is to less left for OS, it will affect AE, since basic I/O operations cannot be performed anymore.

If AE was installed as one of the first apps, and it was running sluggish on the very first moment, I would search for the issue within the system.

Are there any "unknown devices" when you look up the device manager?

What are the detailed specs of the computer and how did you lay out the drives?

Are any of your working files on a external ressource, like a NAS, or external HDD?

Have you tried to disable GPU support in AE? And can you test the setup with a different GPU?

From what I read in the forum, I also suspect the monitors. Can you try the setup with one single "normal" Full HD screen?

Also imaginable would be damaged RAM, so run Memtest86 (best over the weekend, test will run very long and you cannot use the PC during this time).

You should also test the transfer speeds of your drives. For read-test, you can use HDTune (read only). For write test, I usual copy very large files to the drive.

*Martin

[S_Gans]

So, to figure out what's causing this on your machine... you've probably thought of this, but are you using any plugins you've forgotten to update? Sometimes, the minor AE updates create a need for plugin updates, as well. Also, may we assume you've tried various settings for your GPU usage?

Additionally, while you've dedicated what appears to be an amazing amount of RAM to AE, perhaps you've overstepped. SO many apps co-exist in available RAM, and it's possible you may be choking it, causing the need for more caching than you'd expect. Have you tried lowering the allocated RAM? Perhaps down to 40GB or so? That leaves a great deal of RAM for graphics specific usages, while opening up the RAM for more of your OS and other, apps (processes that AE may even be using in the background), so there's less caching.

[joshuat2763551]

Just to clarify things, this machine was professionally built and tested before I received it. I highly doubt there is damaged RAM or that drive speed is an issue. Regardless, I had the same issues with sluggish UI responsiveness on my previous computer  (which I built), and have had this issue since AE2015. I'm just at the point now where I don't want to touch this software because it's such a miserable experience.

@Martin

- There are no unknown devices in the device manager.

- Specs: Win10 64-bit, i9-9900 3.60GHz, 8 core, 64GB DDR4 3000 RAM. OS on 970 EVO Plus SSD, projects on a 860 EVO SSD, archive on a Seagate 7200rpm drive. EVGA 2080 Ti.

- I never work off an external HDD.

- GPU acceleration being on/off doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference.

@S_Gans

- Plugins are up to date.

- I knocked down the amount of RAM for AE to 40GB. Does not seem to have had an effect.

Specifically, these are the things that are sluggish in a brand new project, one comp, one solid layer:

- adjusting anchor point 

- using the text tool

- adjusting bezier handles while holding alt (seems to be okay otherwise)

- expressions (such as Blend in Motion) 

- dragging/objects

- twirling down layers in the timeline (.5-1 second delay)

In projects where I have more than a handful of layers in a comp (which is all of them), these issues get exponentially worse.

[Martin_Ritter]

I assume you are working with full HD comps most of the time.

Can you plug in a single full HD monitor instead of your dual-screen setup?

Can you try a different GPU?

If you can switch the software, go ahead. Adobe is missing competitors and I see a lost in quality and innovations. AE would need a whole GPU support to cover up todays requirements, but all we get is a stupid homescreen button in the toolbar and an update to remove it from there.

Unfortunately I didn't found a solid alternative to 2d motion graphics and character animation yet. That's what pays the rent for me.

*Martin

[joshuat2763551]

Yes, most projects are 1080p.

I tried experimenting with just using a single monitor at 1920x1080 (rather than 2560x1440) and it didn't seem to make a difference.

As far as a different GPU, I just have this one. I had the same issues on my old GTX 970, though.

Yeah, if there was any competition out there, I'd look at switching in a heartbeat. AE has been around since like the mid--90's. There's no way software that old should be so clunky in 2019.

Unfortunately, it pays the bills for me too, so I'll continue using it.. and shaving years off my life due to the stress and frustration.

[Martin_Ritter]

What a pitty!

Are you using expressions somewhere, is GPU support activated in the project settings (sorry if this was asked already) and can you make a screen capture of the issue?

Thank you!

*Martin

[bbardens · Accepted solution]

Agree.  I've been using AE professionally since the 90's and the 2023 and 2024 versions are the most sluggish, crash prone versions I've ever used.  On a less than 3 year old top of the line macbook pro with ample ram, tons of free ssd hard drive space and absolutely nothing else running and AE's performance is inconsistent and unreliable, and compared to other apps like C4D is absolutely terrible.  So frustrating.

[scrozier · Accepted solution]

There is a long thread on here about AE bing a laggy mess, especially in Windows. Unfortunately it has museum grade code from the 1990s running a lot of the interface interactions still. 

See this long running thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-bugs/interface-is-slow-and-laggy/idc-p/14199521/page/11...

[bbardens]

Thank you, appreciate the link, I'll read up on it.  I was under the gun to deliver a revision and was getting frustrated and needed to vent.  Repeated crashes when updating a simple Particle World effect within a precomp and then switching back to the main comp.  Absolutely rediculous.  Was doing the same stuff over a decade ago on a 2009 Mac Pro and don't remember having nearly as many issues.

[scrozier]

Yeah the last known good version was supposedly CC2014, there have been several long and program breaking bugs for the last decade at least.

-Can't box select more than 5 keyframes before the interface drops to 3 FPS. This is literally the test I run every time I open AE to see if the interface has been sped up in any way and its always the same crap performance. 

-There were long running issues where playback would drop from realtime even when frames were in ram, I think that has mostly been sorted out but it took YEARS. 

- Now AE hogs memory to the point where render and playback performance drops and the whole shebang bogs down. Its memory management code has gone to hell for some season forcing users to purge every 10 min or so. I have 256GB of memory and it still finds a way to run out. 

-GPU still basically unused

-Still not truly multi-threaded for many, many, parts of the code. Multi-frame render still feels like a bit of a hack job. 

-etc. etc. etc.

-Adobe is just going to slap some half-baked and decades late 3D engine on this thing, a few more AI powered paint and roto tools, and then shake each others hands and laugh as they rake in the subscription fees.

Ok end of rant. I used to love AE now I just put up with it.  

[SEVIT]

After Effects and Premiere are becoming outdated "Hey Adobe" this is a wake-up call! You have software/editing software and a multitude of various Editing software that is not clunky, bulky, laggy, and lackluster on the features, and is more robust in getting the job done very quickly.  I still do not understand how AE is still this slow and people will eventually get tired of using it.  Here is a solution, rebuild this from the ground up and merge AE/ with Premeier instead of having two applications to bounce back and forth in.  Just saying been using Adobe Suite since the 2000s and it's just a boggy mess.  I do like the new AI features but you guys are a little late in the game for being the pioneers of the Graphic Design software.

[InfiniteWhale]

What I've noticed is that my processor fan is constantly on full when running AE 2024.  Adobe are seriously dropping the ball with AE, it's unacceptable. I think I may finally cancel my CC subscription.