Issue: Premiere Pro Not Utilizing GPU (RTX 4090), CPU Stuck at 100%

[EdenDtour]

:pushpin: My System Specs:

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 (Latest Studio Driver)
• CPU: Intel Core 9 (Latest Generation)
• RAM: 32GB
• Storage: NVMe SSD
• OS: Windows 11 (Up to Date)
• Premiere Pro Version: Latest Available

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:small_blue_diamond: The Problem:

When playing back video (even simple 1080p MP4) or using "Render and Replace", the CPU reaches 100% while the GPU usage remains extremely low (below 30%). and playback having trouble starting and dropping frames.

:pushpin: This happens with all video formats, including MP4 (H.264/H.265) and even after transcoding to ProRes.
:pushpin: "Video Decode" in GPU-Z stays (most of the time) at 0% during playback in Premiere, indicating that Premiere isn’t sending decoding tasks to the GPU.
:pushpin: In FurMark stress tests, the GPU reaches 94%, proving that there is no hardware issue.

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:small_blue_diamond: What I Have Already Tried (and the Issue Persists):

:keycap_1: Premiere Pro GPU Settings:
✔ Renderer is set to "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA)".
✔ Disabled Multi-Frame Rendering to see if that shifts load to the GPU.
✔ Toggled Hardware-accelerated Decoding ON/OFF in Premiere.

:keycap_2: Hardware and Performance Tests:
✔ FurMark stress test shows 94% GPU utilization – no hardware issues.
✔ In games and other GPU-heavy applications, the RTX 4090 works perfectly.

:keycap_3: Driver and Software Reinstalls:
✔ Reset all Windows 11 settings, including power and graphics settings.
✔ Completely uninstalled and reinstalled Premiere Pro, wiping all settings.

:keycap_4: Additional Tests:
✔ During "Render and Replace", the GPU still stays below 30%, while the CPU is maxed out.
✔ Did not test DaVinci Resolve (due to cost), but looking for alternative ways to test GPU acceleration outside of Premiere.

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:small_blue_diamond: Questions:

:keycap_1: Is there a known issue with RTX 4090 and Premiere Pro that prevents proper GPU utilization?
:keycap_2: Is there a way to force Premiere to use the GPU for both decoding and rendering?
:keycap_3: Are there any settings that could fix this issue?
:keycap_4: Could this be a Windows 11-related limitation, and would reverting to Windows 10 solve the issue?

I'm looking for advanced solutions, not basic troubleshooting steps like "enable CUDA" or "update drivers" since I have already done all of that. Any insights would be highly appreciated. Thanks! 💪:fire:

Mod note: Edited for content. Do not discuss the use of internal engineering tools in the forum. Thanks.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @EdenDtour -  Thanks for submitting your bug report. We need a few more details to try to help with the issue.

Can you let us know what media you are working with?  It would be great to get a screenshot from mediainfo.

Can you be specific on what driver you have, Adobe recommends using the studio driver in Premiere Pro

[EdenDtour]

Regarding the iGPU:

• My system does have an integrated GPU, but I have already disabled it completely via Device Manager to ensure that Premiere is only using the RTX 4090.
• In NVIDIA Control Panel, I have set Premiere Pro to use the High-Performance NVIDIA GPU (RTX 4090) explicitly.

Regarding GPU usage for effects:

I understand that Premiere primarily uses the GPU for effects rather than playback.

• However, even during tasks that should be GPU-intensive (such as Warp Stabilizer, Lumetri Color grading, and upscaling), my GPU usage remains low (below 30%), while my CPU is constantly maxed out at 100%.
• Even during "Render and Replace" or exporting, the GPU utilization does not exceed 30%, which is not expected behavior for an RTX 4090.

[EdenDtour]

Thank you for your response!

:pushpin: Regarding the media I am working with:

• Here is a screenshot from MediaInfo showing the details of the most commonly used video file in my project. (Attach the screenshot)
• The issue persists across different formats, including H.264, H.265, and ProRes.

:pushpin: Regarding my NVIDIA driver:

• I am currently using the latest NVIDIA Studio Driver, which is recommended for Premiere Pro.
• I have also tested previous Studio Driver versions to rule out any driver-related issues, but the problem remains.
• Additionally, I performed a clean driver installation using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to ensure no old configurations were interfering.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @EdenDtour - Can you download mediainfo and then send us a screenshot of your media.  It gives us more information regarding bit depth and chroma sampling

[EdenDtour]

I want to clarify that this issue is not specific to a single file or format. I experience the same problem across multiple projects and various file types, including H.264, H.265, and ProRes.

This specific file is just an example, as it is currently causing more playback issues than others. However, the overall problem of low GPU utilization and high CPU load remains consistent regardless of the media format.

Let me know if you need any additional details. Thanks!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks Jamie and Neil,

@jamieclarke

@EdenDtour, I read your notes. The symptoms you mentioned are usually related to some kind of corruption, typically the sequence or even the project. Have you tried copy/pasting the contents of your sequence to a new sequence? If you still have issues, please try a test in a new project. Import the older sequence into the new project and see if that works. Otherwise, everything seems like it should work. Your file appears to be of a 2016 vintage and it is very long, so these issues could also be coming into play. I hope we can help you solve this one. Sorry for hassle, Eden.

Cheers,
Kevin

[EdenDtour]

Thank you for your response!

I have already tried creating a new project and importing the sequence into it, but the issue persists. I have also tested with entirely different files, including shorter and more recent media, and I still experience the same problem.

Additionally, I want to highlight that these same files played back perfectly fine on a weaker system running Windows 10, with no frame drops and significantly better GPU utilization. Now, on a much more powerful machine with an RTX 4090 and Windows 11, I am facing consistent frame drops and CPU overload while the GPU remains underutilized during playback and editing.

Interestingly, when exporting from the same project, the GPU does reach over 70% usage, while the CPU remains around 50%, which seems much more balanced and expected. However, during editing and playback, the issue remains the same, with the CPU maxed out and GPU utilization staying low.

This suggests that the problem is not related to the files themselves but rather to how Premiere Pro is handling GPU acceleration specifically during playback and editing on this system.

Let me know if there are any further troubleshooting steps I should try. I appreciate your help!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for following up with all your findings. You may want to try the same in the new Beta version. Another test you can try is to inspect the versions of Windows running on the various systems. Are they the same? If not, see if you can install the same version of Windows that is on the less powerful system on your newer system. What are the specs of that machine? Is Hardware decoding and the iGPU disabled on that machine or is it at stock settings? I hope we can get to the bottom of this. Sorry for this frustrating problem.

Thanks,
Kevin

[jamieclarke · Accepted solution]

Hi @EdenDtour - Since you are using the RTX 4090 you will only get hardware decoding/encoding support for

H264 8bit 420

HEVC 8bit 420

HEVC 10bit 420

If you are dropping frames on playback can you check your audio hardware settings and make sure Default Input is set to "No Input" 

[EdenDtour]

First of all, I just wanted to say a huge thank you!
Your suggestion completely solved the dropped frames issue, and I am honestly quite surprised.

I conducted several tests:

1. Re-enabling Default Input (microphone) immediately brought back the dropped frames.
2. Disabling Default Input ("No Input") made playback completely smooth again.
3. I also tested a 4K video without any audio tracks in a separate project, and the issue still happened when a microphone was selected but disappeared when setting it to "No Input."

So it seems that Premiere Pro was delaying playback due to audio input settings, even in cases where no audio was present in the timeline.

Now that the frame drop issue is solved, I just have a couple of follow-up questions out of curiosity, as I’d love to understand this better.
1. Could you explain why this happens? Is this a known issue or an expected behavior? It seems odd that an audio input setting could have such a major impact on video playback performance.

1. 2. Even without frame drops, my CPU usage is still very high, while my GPU usage remains relatively low. Is this normal behavior in Premiere Pro, or should I be seeing more GPU utilization during editing?
   
   

Again, I really appreciate your help! This fix made a huge difference in my workflow.

Thanks!