What is the latest actually working AE version...

[Thaumar]

I think I need to roll back to a previous version of After Effects, the performance issues with v23 are getting out of hand...

I’m currently getting about 13 seconds a frame for basically just rendering a 4k mp4 to a prores clip, no effects.

I’m sure if I restart the whole computer it will run normal for a while (just restarting After Effects won’t help unfortunately).

I had renders that took more than 11 hours to finish one day and the next day rendered in about 30 minutes. Exactly the same comp, but with a couple more color correction effect on. Ridiculous inconsistency, if I set a render queue I’m just not sure it will be done the next day.

Of course MFR and hardware accelerated import are already off.

I have already given up on any performance improvements with the new soft- and hardware, right now it’s just about trying to maintain any level of workable performance and any predicability if a render will be done the next day. 

I’m starting a new project soon and I’m thinking of rolling back to a previous version of after effects, but how far back do I need to go (please don’t say AE CC 2014)?

I’m running a Mac Studio Ultra with macOS 12.6.1

Does anyone have an advise which version works best for this machine?

Thank you!

[jenkmeister]

We are going to release AE 23.1 most likely next week. That is what I'd suggest. We have a number of fixes around performance and memory, especially on M1-based machines. I would also encourage you to turn MFR and hardware acceleration on. We have ample evidence and testing that you will see better performance with those enabled. Also make sure you aren't somehow running AE in Rosetta mode - the native version of the app is also 2-3x faster. 

[Thaumar]

Thanks for the reply! The update sounds great, I really hope it will fix these problems! 
Hopefully this update will also address the greenish color shift/flicker in (camera)ProRes files with hardware acceleration on, if not, that one will of course have to stay off. And MFR would be great, when it works now it renders fast, but as it is now render queues mostly don't finish with MFR on, no crash, just a complete stall at some random point. I have to rely renders will keep rendering over night, better slow than not at all, so if this behavior still persists after the update, MFR will also have to stay off. 
Both MFR and hardware acceleration import fixes would off course be great bonuses, but at this point I would gladly settle for just a return to regular performance and stability with the next update.

Looking forward to the update! 

[Thaumar]

After having to wait for many days in anticipation (you know, because AE 23.0 was utterly unworkable) before the update was made available to me, my first impression so far (after 1 day...) is very good. AE 23.1 seems to be stable and I haven't had a memory/performance problem so far, renders seem to go at a predictable speed, didn't have to restart my computer even once the whole day to get AE to function again. I even tried and turned on MFR and it actually finished the render queue without stalling or being extremely slow. Hurray! Hope this performance and stability keeps up!

Still not turning on Import Hardware Acceleration, obviously, Prores files are still flickering greenish, no improvement there, so I don’t know why you would 'encourage' me to have this on on a Mac M1 Ultra system. Was it supposed to be fixed in this update? I hope I don’t have to explain why any color shift, flickering or not, is totally unacceptable, no matter what performance gains…

Anyway, that doesn’t matter, that setting is easily turned off, no harm there, I’m just happy that so far AE 23.1 seems to work fine and stable, maybe even with a nice MFR speed bonus!

[jenkmeister]

The green flicker is still being investigated. The import/export code AE uses is shared across Premiere Pro, Media Encoder and After Effects, so we are waiting on the team that owns that code for a fix. As soon as we have it, we'll definitely make it available. Glad to hear the memory and MFR situation is better for you though. 

[nubnubbud]

I would suggest adobe cc version 14 or cs6. I've been doing tests and both seem very much faster and more performant, or equivalent, than the latest releases, but much more stable in the cases that they're equivalent. multiprocessing has been repeatedly shown to be faster than multi-frame rendering too, if a little less impressive when watching the render bar.

as well, there are cases where MFR is slower than not using it, and GPU usage is well known to tank reliability, giving more failed renders and less predictable render times for only a small boost in performance. In many cases AE just has no clue how much headroom to give you- I often get small speed increases in MFR and multiprocessing when I reserve some cores for the UI and overhead- having some extra hands free to juggle the files around memory seems more important than actual processing power in many cases.

[Thaumar]

you said AE CC 2014...

[nubnubbud]

Mhmm! works wonders, has cc integration, the second update for it I think won't get you sued by dolby for using it but don't quote me that's not legal advice (legally, adobe has retroactively made the consumer at fault for using parts of their product that they stole from other companies) but I still use CS6 because it's got a perpetual lisence, and I got it for the price of a year of CC, as a physical copy (of sorts, codes in a box and what have you), but it's still faster!

and remember- adobe has every past version in storage, and ready to be streamed and downloaded, just like CS6, which I redownloaded early this year. If you can't get to it, it just means they release versions to hide the last ad infinitum, and know the current version would be DOA otherwise. That, or they don't respect you as a client, that's all~😃