After 10 Years with After Effects — Why?? Just Why???

I've been using After Effects as my main work tool for over a decade now. And if there's one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hardware matters a lot—not talking about rendering/previewing a heavy 8K comp, but for simply navigating and previewing basic comps with a low layer count.

Over the years, many of us have developed our own tricks to get AE to preview at a somewhat decent framerate—personally, I aim for around 80% of 24fps (without prerendering), which often feels like a win.

That said, I recently upgraded to what I’d consider a very capable workstation, hoping this would make my life a little easier. For context:

• 16-core processor

• 128 GB RAM

• RTX 4090 (24 GB VRAM)

• 8TB high-speed SSD storage

• Liquid cooling

• Clean install of both Windows 10 and 11 (tested both)

• Also used for heavy 3D work (Blender + Unreal) with no issues

This setup handles complex 3D scenes like a breeze—but After Effects? Still an L.

I’m constantly dealing with crashes, glitches, and the dreaded endless blue loading circle. I’ve tried everything: system tuning, driver re-installs, clean OS setups—you name it. Nothing makes AE feel stable or responsive.

Now, I get that no software is perfect, but the instability and performance issues in AE seem to be getting worse with every update. I'm starting to wonder:

• Is this just me?

• Have I fallen victim to some hidden curse in the Adobe ecosystem?

• Is there something deeper I'm missing?

I’d love to hear from others—have you experienced the same issues, even on powerful hardware? Any insight or suggestions would be massively appreciated.

Thanks in advance...

All the best!

M.