Premiere Pro/Media Encoder crashes when exporting in H.264 format but works fine with HEVC

[Farhan_Khan]

I'm facing an issue where Adobe Premiere Pro and Media Encoder crash when rendering in H.264 format, but they work fine with HEVC. The crash occurs consistently, making it impossible to export videos in H.264.

System Specifications:

OS: Windows 11

Processor: 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900K, 3000 MHz, 24 Cores, 32 Logical Processors

Motherboard: ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

RAM: 64GB DDR5 4000MHz

Storage: 2TB SSD

Adobe Version: Adobe Premiere Pro 25.1 & Media Encoder 25.1

The software usually has no issues rendering a few seconds of simple edited footage, but when rendering complex or even basic edits, it becomes nearly impossible, consistently leading to crashes. Additionally, sometimes while rendering heavy and more complex edited files, the system crashes and leads to a blue screen, though this happens rarely.

I've already tried troubleshooting steps like updating GPU drivers, clearing the cache, and reinstalling Adobe apps, but the issue persists.

Any suggestions and any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Mod note: Title was changed for search purposes: "Rendering" was changed to "Exported." Thx

[Peru Bob]

Try turning off Hardware encoding in the Video tab of the export settings.

[Farhan_Khan]

I have already tried that. Sometimes it works, but other times, I face the same issue.

[JonesVid]

There has been changes in 25.1 which forces the discrete GPU to take the load from the Intel iGPU for H264. There has been lots of on-line discussion about that in the Adobe Community :

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/premiere-pro-25-1-igpu-stopped-decoding-my-f...

It still does not align with why your system is crashing though?.

>>Under preferences Media - try (as a test)  by disabling NVidia for decoding so all H264 decoding is done by the iGPU for H264. See attached. Mine is still enabled.

I assume your system is stable under heavy loading for other conditions ?

Which build of Windows 11 do you have - 23H2 or 24 H2?

[Farhan_Khan]

I am using Windows 11 Version 23H2 and have already tried the Intel iGPU workaround. While it works at times, I still occasionally face the same issue. The iGPU takes significantly longer to render compared to NVIDIA, which makes me wonder—what’s the point of having a GPU?

[JonesVid]

The Intel iGPU on a 13900K is very efficient at decoding H264 and H265 media so what you are experiencing is definitely not normal.

Have you tried going back to Premiere Pro 25..0 and seeing if you are still experiencing crashes ?.

If you are - then I'd say you may have a PC config issue on memory timing . Make sure Bios is at latest version and select default timings with XMP 1. 
Select PCIe as primary GPU for your Nvidia 4080.

Ensure iGPU enabled in bios of course.

Finally have you checked the Task manager in Windows 11 / performance to see activity levels on iGPU and Nvidia GPU. For premiere 25.0 iGPU will be active for H264 . For 25.1 it will be at 0 % for H264 due to the software change they made. Disabling Nvidia in Prefs media should show some activity on the iGPU.

One last thought - have you got the latest Chipset drivers installed for your motherboard.?.

Let us know how you get on.

[Carlos Ziade]

Did you try to update GPU drivers directly from the vendor's site

and downloaded the 'Studio' driver instead of the gaming one?

[Farhan_Khan]

Yes, I am using the latest version of the Studio Driver.