Low CPU/GPU usage when rendering, but it's different this time

[Larry TL]

There are a fair amount of posts about this similar problem, but literally none of them have a solid answer or just say "it's your hardware." The thing is that my hardware's been rendering fine with high usage for the last few months up until within the past week, where since then, it's been hovering at around 10% CPU/GPU usage while rendering a 1080p60fps h.264 file with either hardware or software encoding (tested both, same results), so I have no reason not to believe that it's a software thing, but that never seems to be brought up in these threads. 

I've tested rendering with multiple projects, from effects-heavy sequences, to just raw footage, and switching between software/hardware encoding, and I've only ever gotten low usage % on all of these, all ranging from 8%-13% on both CPU or GPU.

I'm using Premiere Pro 14.5 and I have a Ryzen 3700x, RTX 2060 Super, and 32gb DDR4.

I've updated my drivers already, I've restarted Premiere as well as my PC multiple times, and I've even attempted rendering in Media Encoder, which gives me the exact same issue of low CPU usage. I've even set both of their priorities to High and affinities to All Processors in the Task Manager, neither of which have really affected the usage %.

[Larry TL]

Also here's the Task Manager graph for both while rendering.

[Larry TL · Accepted solution]

Just had to downgrade versions, down to v14.4 instead of v14.5. Whatever this new version did, sheesh.

[Jakekub]

Unfortunately for me downgrading to 14.4 didn't help - I'm trying to render a 2 hour podcast video at 1080p30fps and it was taking upwards of 6 hours on 14.8, and now on 14.4 I am ~3 hours in and it's only 55% completed so it appears to have not changed. On average I'm getting 18-26% CPU Usage and 15-25% GPU Usage while rendering currently. I have an i7 9750h CPU and a RTX 2060 GPU (Acer Nitro 5 Laptop) and I feel like I should be getting better performance out of this but I'm not. The only lead I possibly have is maybe that the CPU is overheating? Using NitroSense my CPU temp is ranging from 85-95 degrees C - but I've also read those temps are normal for this laptop under a heavy load.

[Seungmin5ECF]

v14.4 you suggested worked. IT WORKED!! now i have to NEVER update my premiere pro until the overall issue is resolved, or just get a better computer LUL Thank you a ton!!

[Andy 1968]

I am not having that problem with 14.5 as seen in the video link. My CPU and GPU can both get a workout depending on how I have things setup. You might have to wipe and reload Windows.

[Knotp37]

I also have this problem, reinstalling windows and downgrading doesn't fix for me.

[Ghoosei]

Was just on 14.7 and was having this same issue. 13 hours to render a 2 hour work area on a RTX 2080 and an i7 10700k. Downgraded to 14.4, 23 minutes. 14.5 and up must be bugged.