How to increase Premiere export speed while running the app in background?

[Alberto Bedin]

I'm using Windows 11.

If I export a video using Premiere the exporting speed is good.

However if I put the app in  background (e.g. if I open a browser and put it full screen above Premiere) the exporting speed is really LOW. 

This is because Windows considers it as a "low priority" task and it slows down the export process significantly. This is so frustrating because I would like to use my PC while exporting. I have an high end system so if I put my browser and Premiere side by side I can use both without lag while exporting, however I would prefer to use a full screen browser/app.

I tried to go on task manager and to increase Premiere Priority to "real time" but it doesn't change anything.

I'm sure this slow down was not happening on Windows 10 or on previous version of Premiere.

Any ideas? How to make Premiere fast on export while running in background?

Thanks

[Averdahl]

However if I put the app in  background (e.g. if I open a browser and put it full screen above Premiere) the exporting speed is really LOW. 

By @Alberto Bedin

I would start by going to Control Panel > System and Security > Power Options and make sure that you change the power plan from Balanced to either High Performance or Ultimate Performance. When done, restart the computer and try if anything changed.

[Alberto Bedin]

Thanks, it doesn't help. It's already on High performance (I don't see Ultimate Performance).

[Averdahl]

Thanks, it doesn't help. It's already on High performance (I don't see Ultimate Performance).

By @Alberto Bedin

Ok, some info would be good:

• What exact Premiere Pro version do you use?
• What exact version of Win 11 do you use?
• What media do you have on timeline, where does it come from, iow camera, or?
• Properties of media, iow DV or 16K footage, or?
• Any video/audio filters used?
• Complete computer specs
• Sequence settings in Premiere Pro
• Export settings used

[Alberto Bedin]

Premiere Pro 24.3.0 (build 59)

Win 11 Pro 23H2 build 22631.3447

13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900KF 3.00 GHz

nVidia RTX 3080Ti with Studio drivers 552.22

64 GB of DDR5 RAM @ 6000 MHz

Footage on SSD, dedicated SSD for cache and dedicated SSD for OS

1920x1080 timeline with h264 8bit 420 footage (but same problem with 4K and 10bit footage of course). The problem is there even without any video/audio filter

Export to h264 1920x1080 using maximus render quality and software encoding VBR 2 pass. However the problem is there also with different settings.

Please note that I don't think it's a bug or a problem related to my hardware/software. Everyone is affected by this. You can try by yourself. Try to export using CPU (softwate encoding) and you will see CPU usage at 100%. Now put Premiere on background. CPU usage goes down to 20-30%.

[Averdahl]

Export to h264 1920x1080 using maximus render quality and software encoding VBR 2 pass. However the problem is there also with different settings.

Please note that I don't think it's a bug or a problem related to my hardware/software. Everyone is affected by this. You can try by yourself. Try to export using CPU (softwate encoding) and you will see CPU usage at 100%. Now put Premiere on background. CPU usage goes down to 20-30%.

By @Alberto Bedin

I did that with a 10 min timeline and if Premiere Pro is on top it took 206 seconds. If i do the same export and this time put Premiere Pro in the BG by maximising my webbrowser (EDGE) the same export took 208 seconds.

I did notice that when Premiere Pro is on top the GPU (A) works more than when my webbrowser is on top and Premiere Pro is in the background (B).

I don´t know what´s causing this.

What happens if you send the export to Adobe Media Encoder and do the encodes there?

My specs. I hihglighted the differences between our systems:

HP Z4 G5

Premiere Pro 24.3.0 (build 59)

Win 11 Pro for Workstations 23H2 build 22631.3527

Intel Xeon w5-2465X 3.10 GHz

Nvidia RTX A5000, driver 552.22 

64 GB of DDR5 RAM 4800 MHz

[Alberto Bedin]

Thanks for your test. So it looks like you are not slowed down by putting Premiere in background. May I ask you to try with software encoding instead of hardware encoding?

[Averdahl]

Thanks for your test. So it looks like you are not slowed down by putting Premiere in background. May I ask you to try with software encoding instead of hardware encoding?

By @Alberto Bedin

I used software encoding only and i checked Use Maximum Render Quality that you mentioned that you use.

[R Neil Haugen]

Premiere's processing is pretty resource intensive. It must have full control of specific computer resources to work at best speed, it cannot share things as the processing code doesn't "split" work off that way.

So no, if you have some resources in use by other processes, it must pause and start, pause and start, as it can only work many of the processes when it has enough cycles of full control of a resource to complete that part of the process.

[Alberto Bedin]

Hello Neil, 

before becoming a videomaker I studied as a Software Engineer. I know very well how process scheduling works and the algorithms of process scheduling. It's a complex topic. However using Windows 10 and previous versions of Premiere (and apparently even now on Averdahl's computer) there is no slow down.

So we should try to understand why it's slowed down on my computer while running in background.

Any ideas?

[R Neil Haugen]

I've seen @RjL190365 go through things and break down how specifics of the coding and hardware affect certain systems. At my level of knowledge, it's basically test and poke. I've had a few years of doing that to know a lot of the "usual suspects", but am also aware that the specific cause can at times be nearly obscure for certain users.

Hence someone with the encyclopedic knowledg of RJL ... and their assistance becomes crucial.

I've had enough dicussions with staffers at events to know that background operation isn't a huge emphasis for Premiere itself. The basic assumption is this program is a Heavy Lifter app, and if you're using it, it is THE focus of your work. "Background" processing is all setup to be handled in MediaEncoder. But even there, it's designed to work around whatever has primary use of the hardware resources.

So if RJL has some further thoughts, it would be good to know.

[Alberto Bedin]

Adobe Media Encoder has the same behavior for me: on background is really slow! 

Who is RJL? 🙂

[R Neil Haugen]

Our resident user with extensive knowledge of how all this hardware actually does it's thing. Amazing depth of knowledge ...

And yea, in the background, Me can be slow. But then, that's by design, as it's not supposed to interfere with any "foreground" process, so it runs anytime it detects the system going to more of an idle state.

[Alberto Bedin]

Can we tag RJL here?

[R Neil Haugen]

I did a couple posts above ...  😉

[RjL190365]

Here is the problem:

On your computer system, your CPU has only eight performance cores but 16 efficiency cores. And the way Windows scheduler works, all background tasks will automatically get shifted to the much lesser performing efficiency cores (in other words, Premiere or Media Encoder must be kept fully open for best performance with your system). Older CPUs, as well as all ultra-expensive workstation/server CPUs and all current AMD CPUs, have only performance cores – no efficiency cores; thus, background tasks will remain at full performance with those CPU

And the Windows 11 scheduler cannot be set to circumvent this behavior AFAIK. And if it weren't for its very high idle power draw I would have kept the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X that was previously in my main PC instead of upgrading to its current Intel i7-12700K.

So, if you intend to keep rendering in the background, then you simply have the wrong CPU for the job.

[Alberto Bedin]

Hello RjL, thanks for your answer! I will try to disable all E-cores on the BIOS and try again.

I cannot believe there is no way to force Premiere to stay on performance cores while running on background.

For me the workaround for now is to put it on foreground on a side of the screen, so it keeps rendering at full speed while I can still use the computer on the other side of the monitor!

[Averdahl]

On your computer system, your CPU has only eight performance cores but 16 efficiency cores. And the way Windows scheduler works, all background tasks will automatically get shifted to the much lesser performing efficiency cores...

By @RjL190365

Thanks for the info, i did not know that! 🙂

I just read in a Swedish forum about a different computer topic, but one user reported in that thread that when he render video in Sony Vegas he has the same issue when he minimises it, iow that the E-cores takes over...

[MyerPj]

I always stick to the Balanced power plan. The two "hi performance" ones, just run your processor the 100% all time. A sure way to say and early good-bye to the processor.

If you go to the DETAILS page of task manager, you can set the priority of various apps there. I've needed to do that, but that's where you set it. Let us know if it helps.

[Alberto Bedin]

I already set high performance and maximum priority to Premiere on details of Task Manager. It doesn't help. 

[MyerPj]

Hmmm... my P and E cores keep humming along nicely, I'm going to have to disagree with that.

12thGen I-9, Win11 23H2 

[Averdahl · Accepted solution]

Any ideas? How to make Premiere fast on export while running in background?

By @Alberto Bedin

It seems that CoreDirector may be worth checking up! 🙂

"CoreDirector is a free Windows application to keep specified processes from being scheduled to efficient cores (E-cores), thereby keeping them on performant cores (P-cores). This allows improved performance in demanding applications, such as gaming, audio production, video editing, and streaming."

Try it and report back! 🙂

[Alberto Bedin]

Wow, it works!! Thank you a lot. My CPU is always @ 100% while exporting in background and it also looks a lot faster to export even on foreground.

By the way from the CoreDirector page I can see:

"A common challenge with heterogeneous CPUs like Intel 12th+ generation is the occasional undesirable scheduling of threads onto the efficient (E) cores, hampering their performance. This issue arises because most applications have not been, and may never be, updated to provide explicit instructions to the scheduler regarding their thread load types, leaving Windows to rely on educated guesses."

So Adobe could add a flag on Premiere preferences to allow us to always use P-Core when available. What do you think about this? Should we open a feature request for this? E-Core in future will always be more wide-spread.

[Averdahl]

Wow, it works!! Thank you a lot. My CPU is always @ 100% while exporting in background and it also looks a lot faster to export even on foreground.

By the way from the CoreDirector page I can see:

"A common challenge with heterogeneous CPUs like Intel 12th+ generation is the occasional undesirable scheduling of threads onto the efficient (E) cores, hampering their performance. This issue arises because most applications have not been, and may never be, updated to provide explicit instructions to the scheduler regarding their thread load types, leaving Windows to rely on educated guesses."

So Adobe could add a flag on Premiere preferences to allow us to always use P-Core when available. What do you think about this? Should we open a feature request for this? E-Core in future will always be more wide-spread.

By @Alberto Bedin

Glad that it helped! 🙂

Yes, you should definitely file a feature request for this. Here is a link to that forum: Premiere Pro - Adobe Community