Premiere Pro Pegging CPU at 100%

[General81]

This issue primarily occurs when viewing and editing 4K clips and only gets worse when adding layers, FX, etc. I'll literally have a single 4K clip playing in Premiere Pro and my CPU usage will jump to and stay at 100% while my GPU hardly does anything even though GPU acceleration is enabled.

When I'm working with lower resolution clips (1080p, for example), things seem to work fine, even if I have multiple layers, multiple FX, and multiple other applications open.

My system specs (please let me know if you need more info):

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor 3.40 GHz
• RAM: 64.0 GB DDR4
• OS: Windows 10 Home, Version 21H2
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
• Drives:
  • Internal M.2 SSD (C Drive): Model CT1000P5PSSD8, 1 TB
  • External USB 3.0 M.2 SSD (D Drive): Model Samsung Portable SSD T5 SCSI Disk Device, 2 TB

I'm running Premiere Pro version 23.0. I use Adobe Creative Cloud, so I always have the latest version installed. I tried reverting back to version 22.6.2 to see if it fixed the issue, but it didn't.

Recent system changes, in response to trying to get Premiere Pro to work smoothly again:

• Increased RAM from 48 to 64 GB
• Replaced boot drive by swapping out SATA with SSD
• Replaced GPU by swapping out GTX 1660 with RTX 3090 TI
• Replaced PSU by swapping out 500W with 1000W (primarily to support the higher GPU needs)

All my software is up to date and all my hardware is running the latest drivers.

Troubleshooting I've done so far, mostly in Premiere Pro:

• Enabled Mercury GPU acceleration
• Enabled H264/HEVC hardware accelerated encoding and decoding
• Reduced video preview resolution to 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8
• Turned off all FX globally
• Disabled High Quality Playback
• Increased RAM allotted to 52 GB
• Completely cleared my media cache
• Directed media cache storage to a different drive
• Disabled auto-save
• Increased audio latency to 200 ms
• Optimized rendering for performance
• Restarted my computer multiple times

Rendering the entire sequence in to out temporarily "fixes" the issue, but as soon as I make a single edit that edited section becomes laggy again during preview, thus requiring a re-render.

FYI: My video clips are all captured from PS5. Since PS5 captures 4K clips in .webm format, which Premiere Pro doesn't accept, once I transfer them to my computer I convert them to MP4. I use a program simply called "File Converter" (fileconverter dot org), although the website doesn't appear to be reachable right now. I specifically chose MP4 format because that's what I've been using in Premiere Pro for years with little issue until recently. However, I didn't start editing 4K clips until around May of this year. Prior to that, my clips were all 1080p or lower.

[Ann Bens]

Instead of converting to mp4 try Prores 422 HQ. See how that goes.

[General81]

Hi, Ann. Thanks for the suggestion! My file converter doesn't have Prores 422 or Prores 422 HQ formats as options. Are there free online/downloadable converters or maybe other file formats that you recommend? 

[Ann Bens]

Shutter Encoder encoding|converting video FREE PC|Mac

[General81]

Thanks, Ann! I'll give that a shot and report back on how it goes.

[Yesung Lim]

if the codec of the clip is h.264, h.264 has a high data compression rate for high efficiency in video playback. it has low efficiency while editing.

I also had the same problem recently, and I converted my all mp4 clips to Preres 422 HQ😂

[Michael Grenadier]

are your files variable frame rate?  This can cause intermittent and unpredictable issues...   Don't know about files captured from PS5 but screen captures and material shot on a smartphone are often vfr.  Here's how to diagnose and fix the issue

use mediainfo to determine whether your source is variable or constant frame rate
https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download
if it's variable use handbrake to convert to constant frame rate setting the quality slider in the video panel to maximum
https://handbrake.fr
and here's a tutorial on how to use handbrake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=xlvxgVREX-Y

[General81]

Thanks, Michael! I also downloaded MediaInfo and confirmed that my source files are already in constant frame rate (59.94), so at least that's one less variable for concern. Anyway, I downloaded handbrake too and will report back on how it goes with converted files. I do wonder if my existing file converter (converting .webm to .mp4) is doing something strange to the files, making them difficult for Premiere Pro to work with. I'll do some investigation and report back on my findings.

[General81]

Okay, following up because I just got Premiere Pro to run efficiently again. Here's what I did, in order:

1. Downloaded Handbrake file converter: https://handbrake.fr
2. Dropped my source .webm file into Handbrake.
3. From Preset, selected preset Vimeo YouTube HQ 2160p60 4K.
4. In Summary, switched from MP4 to MKV and then back to MP4. For some reason, if I just left this option as is, it would always save the file as an M4V even though MP4 was selected. Toggling this option back & forth got it to actually save the file as an MP4.
5. In Filters, changed Colourspace to BT.709. Otherwise, the colors get washed out after conversion, which would require extra work in Premiere Pro to correct. I'd rather just avoid that extra work altogether.
6. In Video, set Framerate to 59.94, although I think using Same as Source would achieve the same result for my use case.
7. In Video, selected Constant Framerate.
8. In Video, set Constant Quality to 23. I tried setting it to 0 (maximum/lossless), but it made the file size 10x larger than the source file, which is overkill for my use case, but to each their own.
9. In Chapters, unchecked Create chapter markers, but this is more of a preference than anything.
10. Clicked Start Encode.
11. Dropped the converted file into Premiere Pro and confirmed it ran smoothly.
12. Went back to Handbrake and clicked Save New Preset so I can re-use the same settings moving forward.

Anyway, the issue seems to be resolved for now. I'll follow up if I experience any further issues. Thanks for your responses, everyone! 

[R Neil Haugen]

Besides the other very useful comments here ... your computer is a bit mis-balanced. That CPU is the weakest part of your hardware, yet the CPU is the center of the process. Your RAM, GPU and drives are all way more capable for what will be asked of them with that CPU than the CPU.

So naturally, the CPU is working flat out while other parts coast.

And the GPU is not simply "another CPU with a different name" ... but a completely different tool for specific functions. A helper for the CPU, not an extender. The app runs totally in the CPU, which sends some processes to the GPU as it is coded to do so.

Neil

[General81]

Hi, Neil. Thanks for the feedback. I understand what you're saying, but why would my CPU suddenly start getting pegged when it operated fine before with the same file types, same settings, same usage scenarios, etc.? That's the $64,000 question. This issue started before I upgraded all of the "peripheral" hardware. It wasn't until the past month or so that editing 4K clips suddenly became difficult.