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noah.killeen
Participant
May 14, 2021
Answered

Nvidia G-Sync causing intermittent stuttering in Premiere (and After Effects)

  • May 14, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 14788 views

Just ran into this issue recently, but I have a hunch it's been around for a little while. It's an annoyance more than anything, but it seems like something that could be fixed.

 

I have a monitor that supports G-sync (Nvidia's adaptive sync technology) that I use for games. By default, G-sync will remain "on" globally (even on the desktop) unless you force it off. I've noticed that, when it's on, if I'm in Premiere then (about 50-75% of the time) whenever I start/stop playback, move a clip on the timeline, or open something in the source monitor there is a brief half-second or so where the mouse cursor skips around like the program is hanging or freezing. It makes the program feel a lot more sluggish than it actually is.

 

It took a bit of troubleshooting to realize that G-sync is the issue, but it definetely is. If I turn it off the weird stuttering goes away (and everything is nice and smooth). If I just move the Premiere window fully over to to my second non-gsync monitor, it goes away. If I just move the playback window to the second monitor, but leave everything else behind, it goes away. 

 

Seeing all this, I turned the "G-sync indictator" on in the nvidia drivers. This shows when G-sync is on or off, and it pretty clearly revealed what was happening.  As you start and stop playback, or make any other big "change" to the program or source monitor, it switches G-sync off and then back on for some reason. This seems like either a bug in Premiere or in the Nvidia drivers, I'm not sure which. I've had a g-sync monitor and used Premiere for quite some time, so I know this hasn't always been the case.

 

I should mention that this happens in After Effects as well, but not any other programs on my computer as far as I can tell (or at least am able to notice).

 

Right now I'm just turning off g-sync whenever I'm editing, but I feel like there has to be a better solution to this. Does anyone else have experience with this weird behavior?

    Correct answer Alex_Slobig

    I found a fix for this issue for anyone else that may have this problem down the road.

     

    The problem isn't Adobe or Nvidia Drivers, The blame falls on Microsoft. Windows has a feature called "Multiplane Overlay". It has been known for years to cause a lot of flickering, green screens, stutters when resizing windows, and apparentely weird stutters in PrPro. The purpose of this feature is to save battery life and system resorces.

     

    How To Do It:

    1. open registry editor

    2. Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm

    3. Right click in blank space and click: New > DWORD (32-bit) Value

    4. Name it: OverlayTestMode

    5. Right click it and Select "Modify" then change the Value from 0 to 5 and hit OK

    6. Restart PC and you're done.

     

    I hope this helps whoever comes across this. If you experience any issues after doing this just delete the entry you created and after a restart you should be back to normal.

    4 replies

    Alex_Slobig
    Alex_SlobigCorrect answer
    Participant
    July 17, 2024

    I found a fix for this issue for anyone else that may have this problem down the road.

     

    The problem isn't Adobe or Nvidia Drivers, The blame falls on Microsoft. Windows has a feature called "Multiplane Overlay". It has been known for years to cause a lot of flickering, green screens, stutters when resizing windows, and apparentely weird stutters in PrPro. The purpose of this feature is to save battery life and system resorces.

     

    How To Do It:

    1. open registry editor

    2. Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm

    3. Right click in blank space and click: New > DWORD (32-bit) Value

    4. Name it: OverlayTestMode

    5. Right click it and Select "Modify" then change the Value from 0 to 5 and hit OK

    6. Restart PC and you're done.

     

    I hope this helps whoever comes across this. If you experience any issues after doing this just delete the entry you created and after a restart you should be back to normal.

      Kevin-Monahan
      Community Manager
      Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      January 7, 2025

      Thanks for sharing your solution, @Alex_Slobig! The community appreciates you.

       

      Cheers,
      Kevin

       

      Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
      A
      Anonymous
      July 8, 2021

      I have the same problem. I think I managed to solve it by going to the Nvidia control panel and under "Set up G-sync" I checked the Enable for full screen mode. Hope it works for you.

        A
        Andy 1968
        Inspiring
        May 14, 2021

        That is good to know.

          R Neil Haugen
          R Neil Haugen
          Legend
          May 14, 2021

          I might rush to the assumption you're using the game-ready drivers? As you mention gaming on that rig.

           

          Unfortunately, the game-ready drivers are a constant source of troubles in PrPro. The studio drivers are far more solid. For whatever reasons.

           

          Neil

          Everyone's mileage always varies ...
            N
            noah.killeenAuthor
            Participant
            May 14, 2021

            Ah, that is a very good point. Currently I'm using the newest 466.27 game-ready driver. I'll be able to test out the studio driver later and will post the result.

             

            Yes, this computer is used for games as well so that it would certainly be annoying to have to pick between performance in games and stability in Premiere, but that may just be the way it is!

              N
              noah.killeenAuthor
              Participant
              July 3, 2022
              Same with me...had a 1080ti and no problems.. changed to a 3070 and this
              problem started

              Nothing works...tried everything..only thing works is turning off Gsync

              Anyway wish you all the best in trying to find another solution....hope you
              do

              I actually DID end up finding a solution that worked for me! (Well, a solution that isn't just toggling g-sync on and off whenever I needed to edit video vs. playing games.) Thanks for making these recent posts since it slipped my mind and I definetely wanted to update you guys here!

               

              I found a totally unrelated set of forums posts about "flickering" happening in certain applications since nvidia driver 461.09 (so I was right on the money with my earlier tests!). You can find the official nvidia support post about it here:
              https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5157

               

              Here is a reddit thread about the same issue in the Unreal Engine editor:
              https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/r18jjh/nvidia_bug_help_please_im_having_this_issue_since/

               

              There is a windows feature called "multiplane overlay" which, in certain specific configurations of software, hardware, and drivers causes random flickering whenever the applications are resized or updated in a signifigant way. My understanding is that, most of the time, the purpose of multiplane overrlay is to give applications the freedom to control and ovveride certain video settings (like V-sync) where they couldn't before. It seems to have created some additional complications as a result, however.

               

              For me it was night and day. I went to that official nvidia page (linked above), downloaded the registry patch and applied it, turning off multiplane overlay. After a reboot the flickering in adobe apps was gone completely, regardless of my g-sync setting. If I re-enabled multiplane overlay the flickering came back instantly, and didn't go away until I disabled mpo again. So it's very clear that multiplane overlay is the culprit here.

               

              It's possible that nvidia has fixed this issue natively in newer driver updates, and I've also upgraded my GPU since I originally had this issue, so I can't comment on how universal this fix is. But it definetely worked for me, and seems to have worked for a lot of other people too. It only seems to crop up with specific combinations of hardware and software, so its possible this issue will haunt us for a while.

               

              If any of you are able to test out disabling MPO, let me know the results!

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