Constant Crashing -- is my computer powerful enough?

[JulianGPublicInfo]

Are there better parts for my computer available to speed up video editing and motion graphics applications, specifically, Premiere Pro and After Effects?

Currently, my processor is Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8180 CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.49 GHz
My graphics card is a NVIDIA Quadro P6000
I have 32gb of RAM
1 TB SSD internal

My workflow consists of placing footage on a NAS drive, the TS-h973AX, which is hooked up to my computer via Ethernet and USB C. All of my footage and project files for AE and PR go on this device.

The media cache and scratch disks go on a 1TB SSD, hooked up to the PC via USB 3.1.

The programs are on the internal SSD.

I can't tell if I am pushing my computer too hard or if I am distributing files incorrectly or if the parts I have just aren't powerful enough to keep up with the work I do, but I am constantly experiencing slow downs and crashes, particularly in After Effects.

[Mylenium]

Without any specific info on the contents of the project(s) and the actual crash logs we can't really tell you much. Just saying that it crashes and slows down isn't really that useful. We could simply assume that all your storage being hooked up externally could be the problem. That and of course your processor is far from ideal for AE and Premiere, since most of the cores won't even be used. At the end of the day the actual processing power in AE might be even lower than a core i5 and of course that's just slow.

Mylenium

[JulianGPublicInfo]

Hi Mylenium, 

When I am in my next hardcore project, I can post the crash logs or reach out to customer service with a more detailed plan. That said, the second portion of your answer is more what I think I am looking to dig deeper into, to see if I could be doing things better.

Why would the storage being hooked up externally be a problem, despite the fact that I am using SSDs and NAS drives? Should I requesting my organization hook up my drives internally, and would I be capable of doing that?

As far as my processor, I can't find a core count, or am not interpreting the numbers being thrown at me correctly. Why is my processor not ideal for these programs? Is it that there are too many or not enough, and should I upgrade or downgrade the processor?

[ToolfarmJP]

Would you delete all the contents in the cache disk? Can you add a M.2 as a cache disk if the preview is slow?

[JulianGPublicInfo]

Deleting the cache disk does help when I do it, but -- and tell me if this is wrong -- I still feel as if it is only a short term solution to the larger issue of my hardware or workflow not matching the intensity of the projects I am working on. How would an M.2 improve performance, as opposed to hooking up a 1TB SSD externally as my disk cache?

[Mylenium]

The latest PCI spec allows 128 GBit/ sec, and PCI 3.x/4.x 32 to 48 GBit/ sec. Now compare that to the theoretical maximum of 16 GBit/ sec on a Thunderbolt/ USB port, which in practice would very likely be many times smaller due to how this stuff works, bad cables, different chipsets in different devices. Having internal NVMe drives would certainly multiply your performance noticeably. The real question remains, though, whether it would actually fix your crashes. The answer most likely is no, since you may still have to figure out whatever is causing teh problem on your current outfit. Whether that's a lag issue with your NAS, som problem with a garbage intel network driver or specific issues is an open question: Regarding your processor question: Very few things inb AE are parallelized or extensively multithreaded. Many tasks will just chug along with two or four many threads, meaning that your other 24 cores will have little to none to do and even with multiframe rendering there's a chance that could happen because it's erasy enough to construct a project where it never comes into play. Sorry not for replying earlier, but posts tend to simply fall off the pages with new posts trickling in  every day and it's easy to forget and overlook them.

Mylenium

[JulianGPublicInfo]

In this instance, to speed up workflow, I should then request NVMe drives to be installed internally, is that correct? And all of those things seem like possible solutions and worth exploring with my organization. 

Regarding the processor, is it that there are too many cores, and it is hindering performance? Should I be starting projects differently to better take advantage of existing cores, or should I be upgrading or downgrading my processor? 

No need to apologize, I do not know how to go about asking questions regarding this issue, it's just something I wish to improve and learn more about, and don't know where to begin. Thank you for your patience and in-depth explanations though, it is much appreciated!

[Mylenium]

Many cores are not a hinderance, they just won't be used. This has no performance impact on the software side, as the BIOS and the processor's microcode will handle it. the real issue is the per-core efficiency since in particular Xeons won't as easily switch into Turbo Boost and all that stuff, so even the cores that have things to do won't necessarily do so at maximum peak performance. Your machine would be wonderful for 3D rendering and other compositing tools like Nuke that use different rendering algorithms and would use all cores, but it's not the ideal machine for AE. Adding more intenrnal storage would certainly be a good idea, but beware that this, too has rules. If you're throwing everything at the same PCI bus, the bandwidth will still be split between your GPU, memory controller and all that.

Mylenium

[JulianGPublicInfo]

Is there any setting I can change or adjustments to hardware that would allow me to push existing cores to "maximum peak performance," or is it a a quirk of my processor? Would increasing RAM or getting a different graphics card help performance, theoretically, if I add more internal storage?

Also, as it currently exists, would it be better to have all of my programs and media cache from projects go to the same drives, or should I have media cache go to my SSD that I detailed in my original post?

My apologies for not having any working examples right now -- I'm working off of speculation and principles right now, not knowing how to improve my performance and wanting general guidelines and best practices before I commence on my next project. 

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

GPU acceleration in AE is more trouble than it's worth. For a vanilla AE there is no point in sprucing this up. In fact given the number of posts every week where people run into issues with their fancy RTX cards a more conservative approach relying on older cards is just fine. Currently there isn't any third-party plug-in or AE function even using this stuff, so there's plenty of time to wait on this. That in itself is sort of a point - any decisions about better graphics hardware should be driven by plug-ins that may need the power and your project requirements, not abstract specs.

Improving performance on the processor might be tricky. Some Xeons can turn off a few cores, but this only applies to certain versions and even then it's not like this would boost anything indefinitely. Those are management functions to provide backup cores for servers mostly. You'd have to research it. Outside that it won't really do much with regards to AE. Just not how computer stuff works.

Your storage and overall layout are just fine. You don't have to overthink that. Beyond potentially adding more internal storage to eliminate the USB connections as a trouble source I would not go out of my way to split up different cache and project folders. This is one of those "If it works, it works" things and we could again get all philosophical of internal bandwidths on your PCI busses and so on. Unless you do some real profiling with a disk testing tool you won't find out, anyway.

Again, my assumption is that you are having an issue with how it's all connected, not so much the hardware itself, so you can only methodically test your drives by disconnecting them or plugging them into other ports if availabel, then see if AE crashes a little less or at least produces a meaningful warning that helps to diagnose the issues further.

Mylenium

Mylenium