Encoding takes hours on a 40 second clip

[TomBPhoto]

Hi all, I've looked into my slow encoding performance a lot. Everything I've read so far would have me believe my system is working normally. But I'd love to get some clarity. 

I've made sure all setting relating to hardware encoding are on, that my GPU can encode h.264 / h.265. 
I know I get fairly good use out of my GPU in the timeline, I can scrub full 1080/120 footage smoothly. Even 4k footage is fine. 

So my question is when I'm exporting and the engine is set to CUDA, how come I see virtually no GPU usage? (only copy gets used) While my CPU will handle the whole process. Feels like software rendering?

While my GPU is old now, it's still on the supported list and is capable of encoding and decoding h.264/5
I'd quite like to upgrade it, but also if this kind of behaviour in exporting is just the way it is then there is no point in considering a new GPU. 

So in short, I think this is normal, but I'd like a second opinion please!

[MyerPj]

Yes, it looks like your CPU is maxed out. The GPU is still currently not entirely used in PP. Just on specific things. GPU accelerated effects and changes to frame size. You can find a document on that.

[TomBPhoto]

Hi @MyerPj 

Yes, its an AMD 5900x, I won't have anything faster for a long time yet! 

I don't suppose you can use a GPU dependent effect across the whole video to get encoding to run quicker. If I was to raise or lower my output resolution from source for example? 

In guessing the cpu would render the frame and then the gpu would resize it? 

Just wondering if there are any odd tricks to speed things along a bit. 

Tia! 

[MyerPj]

Ha! Good one. No, I don't know anyway to trick it. You mentioned a 40 sec clip. Was that a single clip, or were there edits in there?

[TomBPhoto]

Lots of edits in there, flashy transitions from AEjuice for example. You'll have to excuse my presumably messy and inefficient timeline, I'm still new to premier and learning how to best organise and arrange things as I go. It's an expansive program!

I'm going to try and follow the steps on the link below, which I also just discovered. Waiting for previews to generate on my timeline seems to take an equal amount of time as export. But the export takes the same time regardless of previews being present or not currently, so perhaps this would at least help speed the export up for a fully previewed project. 

Best Practices: Export faster (adobe.com) 

[MyerPj]

Cool, that's why I asked. From that document, do check out the 

Changing Previews to Mezzanine codecs (like ProRes, Cineform, DNx)
Smart Rendering of codecs

I've using smart rendering lately and it works great! You keep rendering you timeline as you go, getting all Green or neutral markings, and then I was surpised how fast exports are. The first time I tried it (2 minute sequence) I looked away as I clicked the export button, and when I turned back I saw a flash and it was done!

For me, as an old-school editor, the bad performance in timelines and exports held me back from fully embracing. But with using formats like ProRes to edit with (or proxies) (works very smoothly) and quick exporting with Smart Previews.... have really advanced my editing. 🙂

[Summit22069854j5jq]

Hi, have you installed Nvidia studio drivers? If not, you might need the latest gpu drivers, if if your graphic card doesnt support studio drivers. Secondly, what settings are you exporting the video in? Will need more details to solve your problem.

[TomBPhoto]

Hi @Summit22069854j5jq 

Unfortunately nvidia no longer supply studio driver for the gtx980, so I'm fully up to date on the game ready driver instead 

 you can see the summary of the export settings in the attached image

[Summit22069854j5jq]

Hello, my change the sequence settings to 24fps, currently it is 119fps.

[MyerPj]

I think @Summit22069854j5jq is correct. Do you need a 120fps timeline? Youtube takes 60fps max (reduces if more). Most people will be viewing 24 or 30fps. 

This page has the Best Practices Guide, be sure to download the PDF

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/long-form-episodic-best-practices.html

Here's a link to the PDF

https://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/en/premiere-pro/using/long-form-episodic-best-practices/jcr...

[TomBPhoto]

So originally I filmed at 120fps because I'm doing a lot of slow down with my footage and would like to avoid using optical Flow as much as I can. 

So i need to understand if the sequence is set to say 30fps and I'm exporting at 60 (typically I would export at 60, not 120, can't remember why I was on that export.. anyway) 

would it be discarding those frames and then using time interpolation in the export? 

hope that makes sense! 

Hmm depends if setting the sequence fps means