Playback BIG LAG Issues in Premiere Pro 2025

[00rems_4555]

Hi everyone,

Since I’ve been editing my latest project, I’ve run into some severe playback issues that are making the process unbearable. Here's the problem:

When I try to play my timeline after adding illustrations and effects, the playback behaves erratically:

• Pressing the spacebar doesn’t immediately play the video.
• When it does play, pressing spacebar again doesn’t pause it—it just keeps going for 5 seconds and then pauses.
• Everything feels delayed and out of sync.

I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix this, but the issue persists. Here’s what I’ve already done:

1. Updated my GPU drivers.
2. Reset Premiere Pro preferences.
3. Cleared the media cache.
4. Imported a portion of the project into a new timeline to isolate the problem.

Here are my system specs and setup:

• GPU: RTX 4060
• CPU: i5 13500H
• RAM: 16GB (Premiere uses about 13GB during editing)
• Storage: All media is stored on an HDD (I suspect this might be part of the issue).
• Premiere Pro Version: 2025 (v25.0). I can’t downgrade to 2024 due to the project version.
• Sequence Settings: 1920x1080, 60fps, QuickTime H.264
• Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA). Tried OpenCL, but no luck.

I can provide a video demonstration of the issue if it helps. https://youtu.be/yfFvhiz6my4

If anyone has experienced something similar or has suggestions, I’d really appreciate your help!

Thank you so much!

[R Neil Haugen]

Ok ... for editing purposes, that's essentially a 4 core computer. The other 'efficiency cores' or whatever they're called don't add that much. A full 8 cores is pretty minimalist these days. Premiere will use up to somewhere depending on 12 to 16, depending on who's counting.

Your RAM is really, really low. I don't personally advise being under 32 GB of RAM with 24.x and later Premiere. The coding is built assuming more hardware will probably be available. It works on less, but not as enjoyably.

Then using an "old style" spinning disk is another issue. Going to an internal SSD for active project media would also probably help. Maybe a lot.

Then ... 60fps long-GOP H.264 media ... that's a massive load right there. 4K RED would probably play a lot easier.

Using a low-resolution ProRes proxy might make for a much better experience, using the 1/4 res proxy preset.

[00rems_4555]

Thank you so much for your detailed response!

Regarding the processor, I believe mine has 12 cores (it’s an i5 13500H), though maybe some of those are efficiency cores as you mentioned.

For the RAM, I had a feeling 16GB might be limiting—thank you for confirming! I’ll upgrade to 32GB soon.

I’ll also look into upgrading to an SSD for my active project media, as that might help a lot.

As for the 60fps long-GOP H.264 media, I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean. Could you explain how that impacts performance? I also didn’t catch the part about 4K RED media—if you could clarify, I’d appreciate it!

Thanks again for your help! 😊

[Ann Bens]

Set Preview codec to Prores LT and try to reduce the amount of tracks used. The more you stack the slower it gets.

Try to avoid non GPU acc effects and get yourself some SSDs and some more RAM.