Does Premiere prefer CPU or GPU?

[PadaBlaze]

I use some different plugins with Premiere and After Effects, primarily BorisFX Sapphire and Red Giant. When i use the plugins in AFE my computer runs it smoothly, i can even stack multiple effects on top of each other and there is no problem with playback. But when i add just one effect on a clip in Premiere it starts to lagg and the timeline is very choppy. I have to click play and pause it a few times before it can play it somewhat smooth - it's like the clip is loading/rendering in the background somehow before it plays? My computer even freezes sometimes when i try to playback a clip with multiple effects. This is also the case for some of the native Premiere effects like "change to color" or "camera lens blur" for example. I'm not sure but i think either these effects are GPU or CPU accelarated.

So my question is: Is it just because Premiere is "poorly" designed or is it because AFE utilizes other computer components to produce the image? I have a AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super and 64GB ram. This "problem" has nothing to do with software versions or drivers because this has been the case for as long as i can remember and i always update my software and drivers to the newest versions. I'm just at the point now where i want to do something about it because it's really slowing my workflow.

I have read something about Premiere not using a lot of cores from the CPU, it uses a few but preferably fast ones. My CPU has a lot of cores but the cores are not as fast as some of the CPUs with feewer cores. When i bought the CPU 2-3 years ago i thought that more cores = better performance...

So i don't know if i should upgrade the CPU, the GPU or both? Or is it even worth upgrading because i have read that Premiere isn't the most efficiently designed software - so would the difference even be noticeable? I have no problem with AFE at all so that's why i'm considering if it's worth it because it must has something to do with Premiere or how it's designed.

I have looked at a RTX 4080 GPU which would definitely be a great upgrade. Haven't looked at any specific CPUs yet but preferebly something with fewer cores and more gclock speed.

Let me know if you have any suggestions, thank you!

[JayB80]

I generally look at the color of the sequence. It will indicate a yellow renderbar for Full GPU acceleration. Whenever you apply a video effect or transition, and the sequence render bar turns to red — this is, in fact, a red flag. Premiere Pro may switch to CPU/software rendering in these areas. This can introduce all sorts of issues, like slight color and render output changes. I highly recommend using full GPU acceleration plugins. A 12Gb 2080 GTX card should be a reasonably capable video card, especially for Full HD video editing, and may perform quite well for 4K video, too. Another thing to watch out for is ensuring your video clips' FPS precisely match your sequence settings. I hope this helps.

[PadaBlaze]

In fact all of these clips with the applied effects i'm talking about are with red bars... The ones with yellow bars have no problem with playback. Is it possible to do anything to make them yellow, or is it just the plugin/effect that is like that?

The FPS match my sequence so that shouldn't be an issue.

[John T Smith]

I have saved some links to past discussions... not new, but may give some ideas

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-all-about-hardware-encoding-in-premiere-pro-14-2/m-p...
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gpu-in-premiere-pro/td...
https://community.adobe.com/t5/Premiere-Pro/GPU-Rendering-Unavailable/td-p/10726745

[PadaBlaze]

Thank you, but actually i have no problem with rendering/exporting. It's only when i playback the timeline that i have these issues, export always run smoothly. 

[JayB80]

So stability on export is good. That is great!
To improve playback directly on the timeline, you may want to consider lowering the playback resolution. Or create preview renders: Create an in- and out-point on your timeline. In the Menu, select > Sequence > Render In to Out. The render bar will turn green, indicating preview renders. These should playback smoothly.

[R Neil Haugen]

Premiere is based on the CPU, and uses the GPU for specific tasks as those tasks 'appear' on the timeline. GPU work is most heavily done in color changes, such as Lumetri, and sizing such as Warp and re-framing (zoom in/out) of an image.

You can see in the Effects listing the little lego blocks, for whether things are say 32 bit, GPU accelerated, or ... the other thing (I just forgot).

If you're running Ae with mulitple effects without playback issues, that's ... wonderful news, really! Ae is quite often a noted resource hog that slams many computers.

So ... how many "K" are you dealing with? Larger frame sizes do require more vRAM of the GPU ... are you using any H.264/5 long-GOP clips? as those are real nasty pieces of work by themselves, let alone adding effects ... and besides change to color, what effects are you using?