New Premiere version using over 100% CPU

[Cprescott]

Hello, the version of Premiere running on my edit machine recently auto updated to the 2023 version and I've been having a complete nightmare with it since. It randomly completely maxes out the CPU (currently at 155% looking at the Activity Monitor) and nothing will play back. It's nothing to do with hardware (brand new top spec Mac Studio) and I can't find any kind of fix. I'm literally about to have a panic attack as I have a major project due to be delivered to a client in a week which is currently looking impossible if this problem persists. This might finally be the straw that makes me give up on Premiere and go elsewhere!

Any suggestions?

[Ann Bens]

Are you just ranting or want help?

FAQ: What information should I provide when ask... | Adobe Community

[Cprescott]

I asked for help? I gave my problem and asked if anyone had any suggestions unless I missed something?

[Cprescott]

To repeat again. My machine recently auto-updated to Premiere Pro 2023 (so 23.0.0) and it's now randomly maxing out my CPU (currently at 155%). It's a brand new Mac Studio (top spec) so nothing to do with the hardware. Any suggestions?

[Conrad C]

I know I am replying to an old post, but for those who read this thread in the future, I just wanted to point out a common misconception among Mac users. In macOS, 100% CPU means one CPU core maxed out, not the whole CPU. Each additional 100% is the equivalent of another core being maxed out.

A “top spec Mac Studio” in October 2022 (the date of Cprescott’s question) would be an M1 Ultra with 20 total CPU cores.

If the CPU was completely maxed out, macOS Activity Monitor should report CPU usage at or near 2000% (100% times 20 cores) and 0% Idle.

If Activity Monitor is reporting 155% CPU as stated by Cprescott, that is the equivalent of only one and a half CPU cores being busy, out of 20.

On a “maxed out” M1 Ultra with 20 CPU cores, 155% CPU usage means the total CPU is only 7% busy (155% as a percentage of the 2000% total for that CPU). This should be confirmed by also looking at the Idle percentage at the bottom of the CPU tab in Activity Monitor. At only 155% CPU usage on an M1 Ultra, Activity Monitor should report that the CPU is largely idle, maybe 60-90% idle depending on what other processes are running at the same time.

If that’s what Activity Monitor reports, Premiere Pro is operating normally, especially if the GPU tab and Window > GPU History report high GPU usage. The low 155% CPU usage would be because much of the work is being GPU-accelerated, which is what we want to see for higher performance and lower CPU heat.

I just did a test with a sequence I’ve been editing. In Premiere Pro 23.4, playback and scrubbing happen smoothly and seem to take my Mac’s CPU to 150–300%, leaving the total CPU 30–50% idle, and the GPU is almost maxing out, as we would like to see. The CPU percentage is higher on my Mac because it is a much less powerful M1 Pro with only 8 CPU cores, but even then the CPU is still only half busy much of the time in Premiere Pro.

The original question was about nothing being able to play back. If CPU is only 155% when that happens, then CPU capacity is not the problem; something else is the cause, like maybe a bug specific to the M1 Ultra (in either Premiere Pro or macOS), or an incompatibility with other software or hardware that’s installed.

[Warren Heaton]

Sorry to hear that you are having issues with Premiere Pro.

Did the prior version work as expected?  If so, have you reinstalled it?

It's common to disable "Auto-update" as well as disable "Remove Old Versions" in Creative Cloud Desktop.

[Cprescott]

Hi Warren, thanks for your reply. I've now disabled the auto-update feature although unfortunately not soon enough for to have updated and for me to continuing to work on the project for a day in the new 23.0.0 version so now the project won't reopen in the older version. The project is a massive feature length film and as such I'm struggling to export as an XML but I'm also reluctant to use that as a work around as I don't want it to affect the structure at all. The project worked flawlessly up until this point.

[Ann Bens]

Open a New Premiere Pro Project on an Older Version[Mac]! Downgrade a Premiere Pro Project! - YouTub...

[Warren Heaton]

Premiere Pro prompts us to save a new project file, appending a "_1" to the current project filename.  

Assuming you did not write over the older version project file, you should have both the newer version project and the prior version project.

If that's not the case, you'll have to follow the instuctions that Ann Bens linked to.

You can have both the newest version of Premiere Pro open and the prior version open at the same time if you need to compare changes that were made since the new version was installed.

[BNC10a]

I had this same problem on my system. Try turning off "High Quality Playback" and see if that helps. Yes, it's opposite of what they had been doing in 2022, but I did it this morning and it fixed my playback issues. You can leave playback set to Full resolution though.

Maybe this will help.

[Hutch Harris]

Absolute legend, thanks for posting. Confirming this worked for me; Premiere's idle CPU usage (not rendering/playing anything back, just having a timeline open & paused) went from 90-400% down to 45-55%.
To your point though, I'm pretty sure I specifically enabled "High Quality Playback" to solve some other issue in the past... fingers crossed it doesn't bite me.

[BNC10a]

Hutch,

Just be sure to check your color on the scopes. I seem to recall a difference when switching off "High Quality playback" or changing resolutions - I can't remember which. If you do see a change, you'll have to remember to set your playback to what it origially was (HQ and full res) before color correcting. Hope that helps.

BC

[Hutch Harris]

Good call, I appreciate the follow-up. Scopes defintely appear the same in both modes & video itself appears the same (to my eyes, at least). Will definitely make a point to check in both modes before final outputs.