Premiere Pro extremely slow render/export time

[tgthe1]

Recently exported a 6 minute video and it took approx. 2 hours. Same file in another application (Camtasia) on my computer took about 12 to 16 minutes. Used to take 12 to 16 minutes in Premiere Pro but lately it's been extremely slow. Anyone suggestions? Anyone else having these issues?

[excited_Genie16B8]

Export times are defined by the project and the hardware.  Outside of turning on CUDA (if it's off), there's really no way of speeding things up without changing one or both of those tings.

[tgthe1]

Can you advise me where to look to see if CUDA is enable?

[excited_Genie16B8]

Project Settings.

[Sven_Koik]

I'm experiencing the same issue with CUDA acceleration enabled and I'm really at loss with figuring out a solution. I'm running with Nvidia GTX 690. The same problem appears with latest versions of Premiere and AME.

I have a really simple 2 minute project. Lately I've been forced to used software rendering only (and wait ~20x the time to finish the render), since GPU acceleration really chokes up my whole computer. Right away when I start rendering with CUDA enabled, the estimated time shoots off to over an hour for that 2 minute project. Software rendering takes about 30-40 minutes to finish.

Now here's a weird thing that happened:

I usually use a bigger (HDMI-only) display via a DVI -> HDMI adapter. Today I tried to completely disconnect that display and use my smaller display with a DVI-cable (without any adapters). I opened Premiere, exported the 2 minute project via AME and (with CUDA enabled) it rendered in just over 2 minutes! This speed is what my setup really should be capable of doing every time.

At first it seemed like the DVI-HDMI adapter was causing the crazy long render times. After noticing this I switched back to my bigger display to double-check that it was really the adapter causing the problem. I found out that after switching back again to the smaller display, the problem wasn't solved at all and the estimated time went right back to over an hour when I tried rendering.

This is really frustrating when doing projects for clients with tight deadlines. I've tried pin down the problem with everything from benchmarking GPU & CPU, rolling back GPU drivers to resetting BIOS to defaults in case this was a memory or CPU related, but I have a really strong hunch it's the GPU and Adobe CC not working together properly. I'm simply running out of options to diagnose what the core of the problem is. Really would love to find a solution.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey Sven,

Sorry to hear about your encoding woes.

I don't have a precise answer for you but I had a performance issue with my PC with the NVIDA Quadro 4000 recently after updating video drivers. Rolling back to the original drivers helped solved the issue and I'm now operating as I did before without issues. I suggest you look back and take stock of what you have installed between the time you started having the issues and today. It may be something simple, as it was with me, like rolling back drivers, an OS update, or by uninstalling an application or plug-in.

Do you have an integrated GPU installed along with your NVIDA GPU? If so, make sure that the NVIDIA GPU is one enabled in your Control Panel for high performance applications.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi TGthe1,

Did you ever solve this issue? If so, let us know what worked.

If you do not return, we'll assume that you solved the issue by enabling GPU acceleration in AME & Premiere Pro.

Thanks,
Kevin

[KaneLauck]

This question has not been answered so...

[Kevin-Monahan]

This question has not been answered so...

Hey Kane,

The OP has not returned, so we can't be sure. We can only assume.

You can always create your own post in the future. You can also work with our support agents.

Thanks,
Kevin

[KaneLauck]

I am having this issue as well and its extremely frustrating. I have a Windows 10 box, Xeon E3-1230 v3 3.3ghz quad core CPU, 16 gigs of 2400mhz RAM, AMD Radeon R9 290, and an SSD.

No matter what I do, export from PPro, queue in Media Encoder, different export settings, ALWAYS it only uses around 20 to 30% of my CPU power. I've tried the CPU parking hack, but supposedly Windows 10 doesn't have that. I've tried turning off "Import sequences natively", no difference. I've tried software rendering only, no difference.

WHY is this happening! It makes these products essentially useless! Please help!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Kane,

I am having this issue as well and its extremely frustrating.

Sorry for your issues. While I think you'll be better served by our agents, let's see if we can figure out what's going on with assistance from the community.

I am having this issue as well and its extremely frustrating. I have a Windows 10 box, Xeon E3-1230 v3 3.3ghz quad core CPU, 16 gigs of 2400mhz RAM, AMD Radeon R9 290, and an SSD.

Sounds more than reasonable. You might actually be experiencing expected behavior as the GPUs can offload quite a bit of processing depending on your sequence. See this blog post: FAQ: How do I speed up rendering, exporting, or encoding?

No matter what I do, export from PPro, queue in Media Encoder, different export settings, ALWAYS it only uses around 20 to 30% of my CPU power. I've tried the CPU parking hack, but supposedly Windows 10 doesn't have that.

That's frustrating. However, we need to know a lot more about your project, media, hardware, and workflow to determine if you are actually having a problem or just expected behavior. Consider these questions and give us any further observations:

• Project
  • Is this a brand new project or an updated one from a previous version?
  • Does the same problem occur in all projects or just this one?
  • Does the same problem occur in a new project?
  • Have you ever seen +90%-99% CPU usage with Mercury Playback Engine (GPU acceleration) enabled in previous versions?
• Media
  • What is the format of your source media?
  • Is it QuickTime wrapped media?
    • If so, how do other formats react?
• Export Process
  • What is the preset you are using for export?
  • 1 pass or 2 pass encoding?
  • Is Maximum Render Quality enabled?
  • Do you have the GPU enabled for the Mercury Playback Engine (GPU acceleration) in Premiere Pro?
    • If so, what happens if you switch it off?
    • When switching it off, does CPU usage go up or down?
  • Do you have the GPU enabled for the Mercury Playback Engine (GPU acceleration) in Media Encoder?
    • If so, what happens if you switch it off?
    • When switching it off, does CPU usage go up or down?
• Timeline
  • Any third party effects applied?
  • Any scaling, deinterlacing, or blending modes?
  • Any GPU accelerated effects applied?
  • After Effects compositions in the timeline?
  • Any other non-standard formats or frame rates in your timeline?
  • Any adjustment layers?
  • Any Lumetri effects?

• Computer
  • Does the user account have admin privileges?

See also the following threads:
Very slow encoding AME

HELP: Premiere Pro CC not using all CPU and RAM during rendering and export

Thanks,
Kevin

[KaneLauck]

So I've figured out that the Lens Distortion effect severely slows down exporting. I find it a bit absurd that Adobe can't figure out how to multi-thread rendering when this effect is used.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Kane,

So I've figured out that the Lens Distortion effect severely slows down exporting. I find it a bit absurd that Adobe can't figure out how to multi-thread rendering when this effect is used.

Sorry for that workflow bottleneck. Yes, we've got a bug logged indicating that the effect badly needs GPU acceleration capability. I will add your post to the bug, which should help. I hope more customers experiencing this issue will file a bug here, as well. The more that file, the more likely we'll see a fix in the future.

Regards,

Kevin

[Sven_Koik]

In my case it seems that the slow encoding was caused by my GPU (GTX 690). I tried to render out the same project with GTX 960 and that 2 minutes project finished in about 2 minutes. When switched the 690 back in, the problem was present again.

Could it be that Premiere/AME fails to utilize the dual-core system that is present in 690? I know that Premiere isn't even supposed to benefit anything from dual-core GPU, but it seems that when encoding, rather than being just unused excessive thing, dual-core is a burden that drastically slows down rendering times even when compared to just CPU encoding.

"Good" reason for me to switch to 980 TI though

[citrapw]

Hi,

I have some issues with my Premiere Pro CC too just recently and I have been inspecting my files.

Turns out if you have more than one Adjustment Layer stacked to each other, it would slowwww downn the process so much.

(you have this because you know, you are grading a video and the client suddenly requested "all good but I think overall video is yellowish and you just put another adjustment layer to solve that ---> lazy)

So, I suggest to check for stacking adjustment layers and combine them if possible.

Hope that helps.

[enforcer5151]

It's diffinatly the effects in the project doing this, I have a 5 min video that I added 2 default Lower thirds graphics ( the gaming ones) has a little bit of animation. Had it on and was in the same situation my CPU would only go 20-25% useing the new AMD 2700x with GTX 1080 TI andf a min into the render it would start showing an hour and a half to render!!!!. I removed the graphics and ran it again done in 4 mins and my CPU was 70-90% all the way. Adobe needs to fix this, that is just ridiculaus to have us loase 75% of our CPU power for such small graphics. I mean these graphics are less than 10 secs log so a total of 20 secs of graphics increases our render time that much, sorry but totally unacceptable. I love Adobe suite and everything in it, but I can't make deadlines if I have a 1 hour project that's going to take a day or more to render, I may need to find something else to render externally with or drop Premeire all together

[Cytorev]

Not sure about this one, but i had cross dissolve in my video. So all i did was remove cross disolve and it worked perfectly. This is probably not the same issue as you're having, but this is just an example.