New workstation performance unimpressive, please punish me

[Ajed]

I've built 3 workstations in the past 8 years for the sole purpose of editing with Adobe Premiere and After Effects.  I now realize the first machine is just as fast (or slow) as the latest.  Maybe I should have saved my money.

Current Rig:

14900KF, 98GB DDR5, All M2 SSDs Samsung 990s, 3080ti, Asus ROG 790x MB

Previous Rig:

5950x, 64GB DDR4, All SSDs, 1070, MSI MB

3rd Rig:

6 core intel, 64gb ram, 1070, AsRockMB

CPU usage (10-12% peak)

GPU usage (20-30%)

As a comparison, Handbrake renders 400 frames per second in test encodes and maxes out the CPU and GPU if using nvidia codecs.   

I'm just sitting here thinking I've been having this issue for almost 20 years.  Pretty sure it's not my hardware at this point, but I'm sure a few proxy cheerleaders will say otherwise.  So just out of curiosity, does ANYONE see 90-100% of their hardware being used, if so can you post what you're using? I'm just very curious as I don't know one person in the real world that actually sees that.

I appreciate the new features, some are real game changers.  Editing is still a chore though as Premiere and AE struggle to just render in real time.  I've since started rough edits on a Macbook pro as it can actually render in real time when using 4k footage and mogurt templates we use.  The windows machines almost always need to be pre-rendered just work which doubles the time spent on projects.  It's a time and money suck I can't seem to escape but just became used to.   Now punish me for daring to ask.

[R Neil Haugen]

You didn't list the media and effects you use, as those are also important to this sort of troubleshooting.

And in looking up that CPU, it's an "F" ... and doesn't seem to have QuickSync onboard. So the CPU wouldn't be able to help with any H.264/5 long-GOP decoding or encoding. What's the GPU on your new build?

@RjL190365 is the resident expert on such things though.

[Ajed]

Are you saying you get 90 to 100%?  Please share.

I'm interested in any format people may use that would make a difference.  We use several Canon and Panasonic formats including ProRes HD, 4k, 6k.  Haven't noticed much of a difference between them.  Prores did nothing but bloat the project sizes with marginal quality difference and no performance difference.  This has been true over all three machines we use.  Current GPU is a 3080ti.  Thanks.

[R Neil Haugen]

I was trying to help troubleshooting your issues. My resource utilization is pretty solid and of course varies depending on whether the sequence at that point has which effects ... GPU versus CPU is totally controlled by the media and effects used.

Having enough RAM and fast cache is to my experience also crucial. I've got 128GB of RAM on the desktop, all cache and preview files are on a second Nvme SSD drive totally dedicated to those files only. 2080Ti.

Both Canon and Panasonic cams have some formats that include long-GOP files. The ProRes should be fine though. ProRes flies beautifully on my machine.

I've got a 24 core 3960X Ryzen, so I don't have awesome H..264/5 long-GOP support. But I don't use much of that, and will proxy or t-code if there's a playback issue. And the OS/programs are on the 'first' Nvme SSD drive. All media and project files are on internal SSDs.

[Ajed · Accepted solution]

Thanks.  I'll admit, I hadn't even considered quicksync as a major benefit, but after watching a benchmark video, I'm just inside the window to exchange my CPU for the non-K versions.  Apprently the iGPU is better optimized for encoding than nvidia.  Live previews were double vs no iGPU which surprised me.  Here's the link if anyone is interested VIDEO.  He claims Premiere is smart enough to pick the better hardware for whatever job and also can simultaneously encode/decode between the two during edits.  We'll see I guess.

[Ajed]

So I got the 14900 installed, replacing the 14900kf.  Overall speed single core dropped from 6.2 to 5.8ghz (locked) which is fine, I can see why gamers want unlocked though. At the time of writing this, the unlocked version was an over $700 so I passed.  Oddly the multithrread is faster in benchmarks.  But of course, the best part is now Premiere does indeed allow me to preview while editing much better.  Exports are now "software" based at an even lower bitrate, but I'm seeing 40% or so CPU usage now, which is the highest I've ever seen on the CPU and as much as 40% with the nvidia GPU.  So while I still think Adobe should utilize all horsepower, this was a good tip, thanks.  Noticeable results.  

[Ajed]

Note: My Asus z790a wifi II motherboard automatically disables and enables onboard graphics depending on if you plug an HDMI into the port or not.  Of course, there's a setting in BIOS under advanced to just enable it.  Now in AME, you get the option of OPEN CL encoding using the intel iGPU.  

After some encouraging initial results, I now see both GPUs and CPU still not getting to 50% usage on a regular basis so still rooting for this to get better.  Live previews with light effects is not real time at full resolution, heavy effect mogurts get a little sluggish, but overall I'm glad I was made aware of Smartsync, every extra edge matters.  This should be promoted a little as who wouldn't want this?  I went with K processors the last 6 years due to ignorance, and I thought I researched it reasonably well.  Good luck everyone and thanks for the help.

[Ajed]

After some recent updates (OS and apps) Adobe AME and Premiere crash consistently if I encode using openCL (intel iGPU).  Encodes to the very end then crashes AME or PREMIERE if outputting directly.  Switching to CUDA (nvidia encoding) works fine.  Frustrating again no other app has any issue.