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Extremely Slow Preview in After Effects CC 2017

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
April 11, 2017
18 replies
61745 views

Hello,

I have an hp z800 machine with the following specs.

1. Processor: Intel Xeon X5660 @ 2.8 GHz ( 2 Processors)

2. Installed Ram: 32 GB

3. 256 GB SSD for Windows and a Separate 120 GB SSD for Disk Cache

4. GPU Nvidia Quadro 4000 (2GB)

With this configuration I am unable to preview properly in After Effects. Please click on the link below, I have recorded a screen capture of the actual problem:

Dropbox - after effects preview too slow .mp4

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer felicial38600012

I resolved my playback issue with Adobe After Effects CC 2017 preview. Payback was really slow (and not in real time) - even though I have a souped up computer with plenty of RAM, hard drive space, and computing power. I resolved the issue by stepping down the resolution (in a box below the preview section) until it began playing in real time (half). It does not look as nice, but it shows all of the effects in real time - which is ok with me for a preview.

A workaround before I figured this out was rending the file to avi. It played back to the screen properly in real time while rendering the file. So, as least I could see what I was working with.

No fiddling around with a bunch of setting. Just a quick adjustment and the preview works like a preview should. Maybe your issue is more complicated. I am a newbie and was frustrated by the lack of a clear concise answer as to what to do for a problem that is common. So, I'm sharing this in case someone else come here with the same problem and this helps them.

N

nick25040818kqoi

Participant

I had the same issues on 2017 Version, and I thought It was my hardware (which is a very powerfull workstation) but then I realised that I was working with the wrong video files - AE does not like AVI FILES !!! after converting to mp4 it made a huge difference!

D

defaultwwv4z5ie3i7t

Participant

Hi

Ive had a problem where i have a very powerful machine, and the preview was so "slow"

However its not slow, its a setting in the preveiws panel.

Open preview

Half way down it says skip

Is that set to 5 like mine was?? so it only gives you every 5th frame!! haha!

spent months working with this. How the bloody hell can I see how smooth something is when this is set.

SET IT TO ZERO

Bingo... smooth playback. every frame. Not jumpy.

Good luck everyone

D

defaultj4d050lkeag6

Participant

I was having the same issues, and it got resolved when I checked on the preview box, and realized that next to frame rate, skip was set to 5, instead of 0. It should be 0, to make sure it's not skipping any frames during the playback. That solved it!

L

LOGRAF

Participating Frequently

Once you use other software like Silhouette you will see normal performance for compositing. These are modern software packages that take advantage of modern computers. The reason after effects is unreasonably slow is because its software from the 90s and hasnt really been upgraded to modern standards. I can take the same clip in 4k and get consistent caching and real time playback in Silohuette then load the same clip and Adobe after effects chokes along taking a few seconds to load each frame. In Silohuette I can have quite a few nodes all adding effects and when I do a preview its calculates with the same speed. I dont have to clear the cache and clean media and all this BS work arounds... its 2020 and After Effects is always full of little errors and problems. Adobe should have had an ALL GPU version advanced MEDIA After Effects by now....

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LOGRAF

Participating Frequently

you shouldnt have to set your playback to half rez! This is so bad! Other software lets you use FULL RESOLUTION FULL PLAYBACK 4k if you have the ram to hold the footage! This kind of thing makes me think after efffects is always an amatuer toy not a pro tool.. even though everyone uses it. It stinks!

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Nishaant5FFB

Participant

Ello there, guys I found the solution. Under your preview window there are options such as frame rate, quality, etc. Change your frame rate to Auto and Quality to Half and you're good to go, I hope this will help you all 🙂 . I was facing the same problem so I discovered this thread lol

B

briandkatz1

Known Participant

I will also leave my experience here for the same reason as arthurh48697603 . Preferences. Deleted. That old Adobe catch-all. Yes lost some workspace info and such but less time to restore than slogging thru the other problems.

arthurh48697603

Participant

I'm just leaving my experience here too, if this thread is ever visited again by help. I just upgraded my GPU and added an SSD for cache, and very little difference is noticed in RAM preview. Maybe just a bit. My CPU is maxed, My 32G of RAM is maxed while previewing. Setting preview quality down helps to some degree, but not like one would expect.

My question is why do experienced pros get all the best gear if it doesn't help performance? Or does it.. and in what way?

Thank you

F

felicial38600012Correct answer

Participating Frequently

I resolved my playback issue with Adobe After Effects CC 2017 preview. Payback was really slow (and not in real time) - even though I have a souped up computer with plenty of RAM, hard drive space, and computing power. I resolved the issue by stepping down the resolution (in a box below the preview section) until it began playing in real time (half). It does not look as nice, but it shows all of the effects in real time - which is ok with me for a preview.

A workaround before I figured this out was rending the file to avi. It played back to the screen properly in real time while rendering the file. So, as least I could see what I was working with.

No fiddling around with a bunch of setting. Just a quick adjustment and the preview works like a preview should. Maybe your issue is more complicated. I am a newbie and was frustrated by the lack of a clear concise answer as to what to do for a problem that is common. So, I'm sharing this in case someone else come here with the same problem and this helps them.