Please try recommended memory settings for After Effects CS5 and give feedback.

[Todd_Kopriva]

We just posted a new set of recommendations for memory settings for optimum performance for After Effects CS5, and we'd like to know how they're working for you.

Please read this blog post and then respond to this thread with your results:

"Please try recommended memory settings for After Effects CS5 and give feedback."

[Hanna Hildebrandt]

I doubled my RAM this morning from 12 to 24, so I decided to do another round of testing.

The comp was very heavy: DNX sequences being read from the network, lots of keying, Particular, Optical Flares, and Twixtor. The recommendations for 24 seem to be bang-on:

Quarter-res, Quicktime DNxHD

12gb RAM, fastest render: 9:30

24gb RAM, 3gb background, 2gb / instance, 7 cores used: 5:02

24gb RAM, 8gb background, 3gb / instance, 5 cores used: 2:15

Full-res, Quicktime Lossless

24gb RAM, 3gb background, 2gb / instance, 7 cores used: 17:10

24gb RAM, 8gb background, 3gb / instance, 5 cores used: 12:34

I'm impressed. I really didn't expect the settings change to make such a difference, especially since I didn't have much luck with the recommended settings for 12gb.

[thedillpickle]

Just out of curiousity, how much of a difference would it make if you left the bg RAM at 3GB, but upped the RAM/Instance to 3GB? I'm just wondering if it is the RAM reserved for applications or RAM/Instance that is making the most difference...

[Hanna Hildebrandt]

12gb RAM, fastest render: 9:30

24gb RAM, 3gb background, 2gb / instance, 7 cores used: 5:02

24gb RAM, 8gb background, 3gb / instance, 5 cores used: 2:15

24gb RAM, 3gb background, 3gb / instance, 5 cores used: 6:01

Ouch. I set it back to 8gb and quickly did another render, just to see if there was something else slowing it down (like reading from the network), and I got a new render time of 1:48.

[thedillpickle]

Is there anyway to allocate more than 3GB of RAM per CPU? I've noticed that after effects RIPS through the first part of my compositions, but eventually it gets hung up and slows way way down. Granted, this is probably a function of my composition as much as it is a part of my settings, but I was just curious.

FYI - This is when following the recommended settings for 24 GB of RAM (8GB reserved, 3GB resereved)... I just wonder if restricting the processors to 3GB doesn't allow them to reach their full potential for more complex compositions.

[Guest]

it does not help you anything.

Ae was AND is bulit on old code, forever an ever.

More RAM, faster Machines ... it won't help you anything. Performance will starve forever and ever.

Only thing i can say is to have patience. I know there is a lot of expectation upon the new product manager and i hope that he will take alle the pressure away and concentrate on a new level of competence and power because i believe he does have a great team around him which is waiting for a good leader, otherwise they won't follow

[pixel8studio]

Let's hope you are right. I've had nothing but problems with memory since CS4 and have yet to have anyone give me a proper solution. They even requested working files from me to test which I happily sent months ago and I have yet to hear a peep from them. Thanks for nothing Adobe.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> Is there anyway to allocate more than 3GB of RAM per CPU?

Yes. See the first comment from me at the bottom of this page for instructions:

"Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects"

[Guest]

Hi Todd, I've been trying out all the different settings aswell and the allocation for background cpu's seems to have the biggest difference with my render time.

But I saw this post with your reply  but there are no comments on the page you linked?

Sorry this was a follow on from this post

> Is there anyway to allocate more than 3GB of RAM per CPU?

Yes. See the first comment from me at the bottom of this page for instructions:

"Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects"

[Todd_Kopriva]

It looks like the comments got purged from that page.

Here is what that comment said:

When you assign RAM to background processes for Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing, you choose from a small number of options in the RAM Allocation Per Background CPU menu. But you're not limited to the values in this menu. They are just presets. You can change these presets in the text preferences file.

For example, you could change the value for "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset V" to "4.000000" instead of "3.000000" to create a preset value of 4GB. Then, you could assign 4GB to each background process.

Here are the relevant lines of the text preferences file:

["MP - CS5 - 4"]

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process" = "1.500000"

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset I" = "0.750000"

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset II" = "1.000000"

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset III" = "1.500000"

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset IV" = "2.000000"

        "MP - Allocation Per Background Process Preset V" = "3.000000"

For information about the preferences file, including its location, see this page:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS37cb61f8f3397d86-164c9f19127035dd253-8000.html

Keep in mind that Adobe doesn't officially support making changes to the text preferences file, so be sure to be careful about making changes, be sure to make a backup before you make changes, et cetera.

[Guest]

Many thanks, I was just interested to know because I want to see what works best for my long, footage heavy comp renders.

[bouldo]

Oh my god - why can't my brand new imac 2.7ghz i5 with 12 Gb of RAM do a simple ram preview at 1/3rd quality - System memory says there are 8.78Gb of free RAM and have tried everything that makes any sense - please help.

[Will_Lockwood1]

Can you provide a bit more detail on the project and version of AE that you are seeing the problem in? What bit depth is the project and what is the comp size? Are there any 3d party effects involved?

[mpowers10000d]

Hi Todd, I modified this file and saved. However, when I open AfterFX CS6 it resets the values to the default.  Any suggestions?

C:\Users\mpowers\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\11.0\Adobe After Effects 11.0-x64 Prefs.txt

Also, I there any scripting method to access turning on and off multiprocessing? (which I need to do quite ofter when it hangs with previews?)

nVidia Quadro 4000

CS6

Windows 7 enterprise

32 GB RAM

[Todd_Kopriva]

Here's a script for accessing multiprocessing settings, etc.:

http://aescripts.com/throttle-n-purge/

Be sure to only manually modify the text preferences file when After Effects isn't running.

[mpowers10000d]

Thnx. I saw a post from Lloyd on Aenhancer's about this - just wasn't sure if it work with CS6.

[pixel8studio]

A recent tutorial on memory settings posted on AE's Facebook page had me poking around the Details tab in the memory & multiprocessing preferences. In the video, the presenter had 12 GB of RAM and set his RAM reserved for other applications to 3 and the RAM available for AE was 9. When he checked this out in the details tab, it showed the "Max Allowed Memory" for AE to be 9. I have 26GB of ram and regardless of whether I set the RAM reserved for other applications to 1GB or 25GB, the details tab tells me the "Max Allowed Memory" for AE is 18.4GB. This is definitely the reason why if I have more than one application open (god forbid I try that on a 12 core machine with 26GB) AE devours all RAM and leaves me with sometimes less than 10MB of RAM during renders and I can barely even check email.

[Todd_Kopriva]

kenfai,

One of our testers has been working on the issue that you reported, and here's what he has determined so far:

"I have reviewed this problem on a 16GB/8core Mac and on a 32GB/16core Mac. On both platforms After Effects is performing correctly for me. That is, if I increase the memory reserved for other apps, that change is reflected in the Memory Details. It should be noted that there is about a 6 second lag before the details updates with the new setting. This is by design. If Kenfai is not seeing this change on his machine, then something is wrong and we will need to investigate further.

I tried rendering kenfai’s bugfile project submitted to aebugs. On the 16GB Mac, I reserved 4GB for other apps and set the background cpus to 2GB (4 BG CPUs). The project rendered in 3m57s, without issue. No swapping or low memory state on the OS level was observed. I also tested this same project on the 32GB Mac with 18GB reserved, 2GB/BG CPU (5 BG CPUs). The project rendered in 1m51s with no issues.

What I suspect is that kenfai is seeing a Mac OS X bug that we have reported to Apple. When a lot of demand is placed on the memory system the OS will suddenly block off a chunk as “Inactive Memory”. On a machine with a lot of RAM installed the size of the buffer can be substantial, often 3-5GB. This is supposed to be a dynamic swap buffer that is available if an app calls for it. However, it may not release memory to AE. If so, AE starts using free memory. AE is not using more than it has been allocated, it’s just that the OS appears to be getting overprotected. The bug in the OS is that sometimes this memory is never released, even if all applications are closed. At that point the only ways to free memory are to restart the OS.

The user can clearly see what is happening by opening the Activity Monitor utility, and selecting the System Memory tab. The pie graph will show the inactive memory in blue. One can also watch the After Effects process to be sure that it is not exceeding its memory allocation.

Hope that helps him out"

[pixel8studio]

Thank you for the update. Here's the thing, I've had this problem on my current machine (MacPro, 12 core, 26GB RAM, Snow Leopard) as well as my previous machine (MacPro, 8 core, 16GB RAM, Leopard) so I'm not quite sure this is an OSX problem. Regardless, when I go to my AE settings right now and set RAM reserved for other applications to 25GB, I see that RAM Available for AE is now set to 1GB which is correct. When I click the Details tab I see that Max Allowed Memory for AE is 18.4GB, not 1. This number never drops below 18.4 regardless of my settings and CPU allowance and I'm wondering if this is the problem. I do see that there is inactive RAM, etc but taking that in to consideration, if I see that there is only 17GB of free RAM to use, shouldn't I be able to tell AE to only use 9GB and still have 8GB free? That is never the case, AE always eats up every bit of RAM.

[Will_Lockwood]

Can you try deleting these two preferences files on this Mac?

Restart the machine first. Then with no apps open, delete the After Effects 10.0 preference file ( Adobe After Effects 10.0-x64 Prefs.txt ) located in the /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After\ Effects/10.0 folder.

Delete the memorybalancercs5.xml file located in the /Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe/dynamiclinkmanager folder.

Start the app and set the preferences.

[pixel8studio]

That seems to have done the trick, THANK YOU!!! Now, if we could just get Apple to fix the Inactive RAM bug, I'd be all set. With a fresh restart and nothing open during a "clean" AE render, the Inactive RAM usage is at 10GB!

[matthias Stoll]

Thank you kensai, I have been having the same problems.

[pit31200]

Hi Todd!

I have an MAC PRO 2010, 12 cores 2.93GHz, 32Gb RAM, OWC EXTREME 6G SSD

I'm going to work with lot of videos in 1920 X 1080 29.97 FPS and WARP STABILIZER effect

What is your recomendation in order to get the best time?

Thanks for your time!

[Todd_Kopriva]

The most important thing to keep in mind when using the Warp Stabilizer (which operates as a separate process) is that it takes up a lot of RAM separate from the RAM used by the After Effects application. So, make sure that you have your RAM Reserved For Other Applications value set to an adequate amount when using this feature. I recommend leaving 10-12GB of RAM for other applications in your case, at least as a starting point. Do your own tests and see what works best for your specific case.

[pit31200]

Hi Todd!

I tested severals setups but the core use is the same, only 100%!! it take

years for analyzing!!

Here is a video of my monitor, thanks! I really appreciate your help!

2011/8/18 Todd_Kopriva <forums@adobe.com>

The most important thing to keep in mind when using the Warp Stabilizer

(which operates as a separate process) is that it takes up a lot of RAM

separate from the RAM used by the After Effects application. So, make sure

that you have your RAM Reserved For Other Applications value set to an

adequate amount when using this feature. I recommend leaving 10-12GB of RAM

for other applications in your case, at least as a starting point. Do your

own tests and see what works best for your specific case.

>

[gaby_maujean1977]

I have a mid 2010 iMac, it was shipped with 8gb and I was eager to increase its render performance by adding the 16gb limit of ram. However, after installing all this ram, my results are disappointingly similar to before ! I have forced Snow Leopard to boot in 64 bit and I’ve played with all the recommended settings found here. I also ran my own tests, even tried switching of multiprocessing, but still saw no improvement whatsoever.
Stranger still, when I open up the activity monitor to look at the memory usage during a render, it never shows any significant exploitation of the ram, with almost 12 gb that stay desperately idle (whereas I've alway known mulitprocessing to be a real memory hog).
Am I missing something ?