Premiere GUI in Windows extremely sluggish

Report · Mar 11, 2024

I'm helping a friend edit a project in his machine. I built it for him in 2019 and these are the specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 core hyperthreaded)

RAM: 32 GB

System drive: Samsung SSD 970 Pro 512 GB

Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB VRAM

So it's not a speed demon but it's a very capable machine. However, the Premiere GUI is super sluggish. Going back and forth in the timeline is feels like I'm using a computer much older and slower than this. In fact, I remember using Premiere in this computer when I built it for him back in 2019 and it was fine.

The footage plays fine, this is not a matter of a slow drive, even if for now the project is not on an SSD. But the footage plays smoothly, it doesn't skip frames. What feels really sluggish is when I grab the handle at the bottom and move through the timeline.

The preferences have the compatibility check enabled, and it doesn't show anything when I load Premiere. It detects the CUDA card just fine, as it shows in the project settings. Now, I remember that Premiere had a setting years ago that allowed you to check whether or not to use the graphics card to accelerate the GUI, but now it's gone. This feels as if Premiere wasn't using the card to accelerate the GUI, even if it detects the card just fine.

Any suggestions?

Report · Mar 11, 2024

Delete the Media Cache and Media Cache files:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-how-to-clear-your-media-cache-in-30-seconds-in-premi...

If that doesn't work, try resetting the preferences:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-how-to-reset-trash-preferences-in-premiere-pro/td-p/...

If that doesn't work, try resetting the Workspaces:
Reset a workspace
Reset the current workspace to return to its original, saved layout of panels.
1. Do one of the following:
• Click the Workspace menu icon and select Reset to Saved Layout.
• Choose Window > Workspace > Reset to Saved Layout.
from here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/workspaces.html

If that doesn't work, try Preferences > Audio Hardware and set Input to None.

If that doesn’t work, try updating or rolling back your graphics driver directly from the video card manufacturer’s site. If NVIDIA, do a clean installation of the latest Studio Driver (NOT the Game Driver).

If that doesn't work, try creating a new project and import the old one into it.

Report · Mar 11, 2024

The GPU is outdated. Mostly, you will have this kind of sluggish move when you are using mp4 clips, because your hardware is not capable of decoding the clips fast enough for a smoother playback. You shouldn't have this problem if your clips are encoded using broadcast codecs such as ProRes or Cineform.

Report · Mar 11, 2024

You shouldn't have this problem if your clips are encoded using broadcast codecs such as ProRes or Cineform.

By @Ali Jaber

Does that mean that using proxies will help?

https://creativecloud.adobe.com/cc/learn/premiere-pro/web/proxy-media?locale=en

Report · Mar 13, 2024

But that's exactly what I said doesn't happen. The playback IS smooth. What is not smooth at all is the GUI in general. I don't have timeline thumbnails enabled. But moving the timeline back and forth, or even zooming in and out is a bag of hurt.

Report · Mar 14, 2024

@Sebasvideo

Have you tried all the suggestions I previously posted?

Report · Mar 17, 2024

I did, short of starting a new project and importing the older one, but honestly I don't see how that would help. I've been using Premiere since the late 90's, that never solved any problems. Usually the problems are because Premiere is buggy as hell.

And the MP4s have nothing to do with it. The GPU would perhaps be outdated if we were talking about 2160p 100 Mbps clips, but these are 1080p clips from Canon DSLRs, at around 30 Mbps.

But let's say that the clips are too much for the GPU. Well, a few nights ago I left them all converting to proxies overnight, and to Prores Proxy, which I can tell because when I toggle the timeline between proxy and original, there's a big difference in picture quality, not much in the responsiveness.

Right now I'm editing this project that I can't wait to get done, and I can't even preview it on my TV set because Mercury Transmit is broken, and the playhead is static while it plays. I have to stop playback so the playhead catches up. It's the worst editing experience.

Report · Mar 18, 2024

I've been dealing with the same issue for years (also built my pc in 2019, with a 3950X). Although Premiere is pretty buggy, I started to think it was more of a Windows or RAM issue with the Ryzen 3000 generation. Getting UI lags upon opening Chrome/Firefox as well.

Honestly I just gave up and I've been dealing with it for the past few years. I might drop it off at a computer store to get it checked and do a complete refresh.

Edit: Weirdly enough, I've never had this happen in After Effects. Is it the same case for you?

Report · Mar 18, 2024

Well, this machine belongs to a friend of mine that is letting me use it to edit a project of his. And I told him, I don't have a single piece of Adobe software in my Mac Studio, and I will not install it no matter what. So he's letting me use his machine, but I haven't even opened AE yet, in fact, he didn't even have it installed, I installed it because I need to do something in it for his project.

But the GUI being sluggish is 100% a Premiere problem. I'll tell you why. Last night I posted that the playhead wasn't moving at all. Well, the project had two adjustment layers, one had a crop to fake 2.39:1 AR, and I had added another one that was rather temporary with a simple gamma shift FX, because the footage is too bright. So I wanted something easy that wasn't a full blown Lumetri FX.

At one point, it occurred to me to click the eye in that track, so as soon as it was disabled, the playhead began moving just fine. So you might think, the adjustment layer with the gamma shift was too heavy. No! Because when I clicked the eye again, the playhead kept moving just fine.

Premiere is like most Adobe software. Dinosaurs that are 20, 30 years old, with a lot of old code mixed with new code. So it's clunky, especially on Windows. But unfortunately everybody uses Premiere because everybody uses Premiere. Same can be said for Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator and so on. It's a vicious circle with no end in sight unfortunately.

I use Adobe products only on work machines, I haven't subscribed to CC since 2020, and I don't plan on it. The only Adobe software I have in my old PC is Encore, which was a great Blu-ray authoring program, and still use it sometimes.