Mercury playback engine gpu acceleration greyed out

[joejugs]

I have the brand new macbook pro max fully upgraded. My project for some reason recently has just been super laggy. ill open it up & then when i skim through the timeline all of a sudden the playback will freeze. I have all other funcitons in premeire but the playback on the computer wont work. Im trying to see if i can change the Render & Playback settings but its greyed out i cant figure out why. Ive tried opening a new project but its the same thing. 

 

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

That setting is enabled by default if running Premiere Pro as Apple silicon native.

While Premiere Pro is closed, get into on the application in the Finder and enable "Open using Rosetta".  You'll then be able to change that project setting.

[Brandon22889819x0z5]

What??? Could you be a little more specific?

[RjL190365]

Specifically, when you open Premiere Pro normally, it runs in Apple Silicon native mode by default, and it's renderer is permanently locked into the Metal GPU acceleration mode. You will need to open the Creative Cloud desktop app, then click on the Apps tab, then click on the three dots next to the Premiere Pro line, then click Open in Intel mode. Unfortunately, the only other renderer setting besides Metal that's available is Software Only.

[Erik Hutch]

Hi.

I'm just now having the same issue, and Open Using Rosetta didn't work for me. I've been on Premiere 24.1 for a while without any issues. I restarted my computer the other day and all of a sudden the gpu acceleration is greyed out. I upgraded to 24.4 with no luck. I'm using a 2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra - OS Ventura. Any ideas for this not so technical minded editor would be much appreciated.

[Warren Heaton]

@Erik Hutch 

Version 24.x of Premiere Pro no longer supports running the software using Rosetta.  As such, "Open using Rosetta" is not available.  If running the Intel version of Premiere Pro on an Apple Silicon based Mac is important, users must use 23.x (or earlier if it's already installed).  Importantly, if a workflow relies on an Intel-only feature, it should be adapted to what is supported under Apple Silicon while version 23.x can still be installed.  For example, Mac users with a large library of video that uses GoPro Cineform should transcode that footage to ProRes.  Other known limitations may be reviewed here.

For version 24.x running on Apple Silicon, the Renderer pop-up menu Under File > Project Settings > General > Video Rendering and Playback is grayed out because Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (Metal) is always enabled even though the dimmed terminology in the application reads " - Recommended".  Hopefully, this will be updated at some point to read " - Always enabled".

[Erik Hutch]

Hmmm? I thought I had already posted this . . .

Thanks very much for this detailed and helpful explanation Warren.

I was able to open PP23 in Rosetta, but it took a while to launch.

I may be remembering wrong, but I could've sworn that the GPU Acceleration menu wasn't grayed out on either PP23 & 24 until recently. I've been editing with MXF and all kinds of MP4 files with no lagging issues until now. I've deleted cache files and and trashed preferences. But I'll trust that the GPU Acceleration is enabled even though it's greyed out :p.

Thanks again.

[hoydstudios]

I recently purchased an M3 Max and migrated all my data to it. However, when I tried to launch Adobe Premiere, I noticed that the GPU renderer was disabled. I've tried several troubleshooting steps, including uninstalling and reinstalling software, clearing cache, deleting files, restarting, and updating the software, but the issue persists. Does anyone know how I can enable the GPU renderer, or should I wait for the next software update for Premiere to resolve this?

 

[Warren Heaton]

@hoydstudios 

It's not disabled.

For the Apple Silicon version of Premiere Pro there are no other GPU options like "Mercury Playback Engine Software Only", "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA)", or "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL)".

As such, it's always set to "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (Metal) - Recommended".  Instead of " - Recommended" it could read something like " - Always enabled".

[hoydstudios]

Thank you for your response, Warren. 

If it's always enabled and just set like that for the M3 then that eleviates alot of worry about something being off.

Curious as to why my previous macbook pro 2019 model allowed for me to turn it off and on in premiere?

[Warren Heaton]

@hoydstudios 

With Apple Silicon-based Macs (your current MacBook Pro) the GPU technology is directly integrated into the chip with a unified memory architecture while Intel-based Macs (your 2019 MacBook Pro) rely on discrete or integrated GPUs from other manufacturers.  

With the Intel-based Macs, the software only option was helpful for troubleshooting unexpected driver conflicts with third-party GPU hardware and allowed for working with reduced power requirements.  Premiere Pro is optimized for Apple’s Metal framework under Apple Silicon, so Metal is the only option.