Render times are significantly slowed by the 14.4 (and beyond) update!

I would dare say that the only fix would be to implode everything and redesign the program completely from scratch. (Of course, this would partially or completely break all compatibility with older or legacy hardware and video formats.)

Every single version of Premiere Pro that included hardware encoding with a discrete GPU has major issues. 14.2, the first version that included hardware encoding for anything other than an Intel CPU with integrated graphics enabled, has a serious bug that caused the program to crash when run on default settings if the installed discrete GPU lacks any hardware encoding capability whatsoever.

Hello again to everyone,

I have read every comment done in this thread in the last hours. I am afraid to tell you that I could not agree more in Th3birdman's case because I am suffering exactly the same issues in my 2 PC setups. And let me explain about this:

I am also a content creator and I also have both AMD and Intel processors and I could compare because I have been suffering exactly the same as him.

My Intel setup is an i9-9900k, 32gb RAM and RTX 2080ti. And my AMD setup is a 3950X, 32gb RAM and RTX 2080 Super. CUDA is, for me, a must. And even if it weren't the case, it would work equally well on both systems.

My main working setup is the AMD due to its cores and threads. I have been creating ProRes proxies from +3hr video files in less than 20 minutes until 14.4 came out for both Media Encoder and Premiere (taking more than 1 hour and 40 minutes for one ProRes proxy file). Exporting a simple H.264 1080p mp4 video is using CPU and GPU at the same time and rendering times got slower. It is a software developing error and I can confirm and hightlight it.

In fact, I realised this is a ".4" issue when I was uninstalling Media Encoder 14.4 and rolling it back to previus version but keeping Premiere to 14.5/14.6 and trying to render directly on Premiere. I also compared 14.3.2 render times and man... performance is very different.

What @Andy 1968 has shared is something very basic and I am more than experienced in that point. The main problem is that, regardless of Windows updates, Premiere performance (and also Media Encoder) must be at least the same as in previous versions and is worse. Moreover, Intel's QuickSync is not panacea and is not the solution, of course it is discarded for AMD users and also for the rest of users who want CPU or GPU encoding. We are in 2020 and this performance is NOT admissible.

Let me invite you to open Davinci Resolve, which I saw in your video that you have it installed and it is your Task Bar and please compare GPU usage while rendering and render times... your mind will change.

@Kevin-Monahan I would like to suggest you to take this case to the Premiere and Media Encoder tech team because this is not a hardware issue. There is big differences in rendering performance after jumping to 14.4.

Current solution is rolling back to 14.3.2 or rendering outside Adobe's ecosystem.

There is also one major thing not being discussed here.  I use Media encoder for pretty much every export.  The latest versions use the GPU for both decode and encode.  In the preferances in media encoder you can now tweak it to use CPU for Decode and only GPU for encode, or other combinations like CPU for encode, and GPU for Decode.

I have done some extensive testing as part of my work of switching over to the RTX 3090 and I can say that in some cases, turning on CPU for Decode and GPU for encode works signficantly faster than GPU for both encode/decode work.  I have not spent enough time to figure out in what cases this can be repeated.  But the this change, might be why you are seeign differances,  the older versiosn you referance, only used GPU to encode and always used CPU to encode.

I suggest, if you have nto already, to try this setting in media encoder preferances and see if explains some of your concerns.

Birdman,

Sorry. I actually have seen this and I think that something may have gone awry with some settings or am missing a workflow issue some are engaging in while others are not (personally, my exports fly, even on this old machine because it has Intel Quick Sync, perhaps).

Can we get your full system specs so we can see what's going on? Otherwise, I have no idea what to suggest. (Edit: I watched your video). It sounds like some component of your system might not be working. 

Another issue is that an inordiate amount of people seem to be checking off export options that are not needed, and they drastically affect export times, like "Render at Maximum Render Quality" and "Render Maximum Depth." (Edit: what happens if you disable these? I noticed you had Render at Max Quality enabled). I did notice you had these enabled in both situations.

I would also look at your GPU and how it is working with Mercury Playback Engine, and especially for Hardware Encoding and its associated preferences. (Edit: these seem to be enabled accordingly).

A closer inspection of these items is where I'd start in the troubleshooting process. Hope I can assist.

Thanks,
Kevin 

My system works. The video below might be worth watching.

I would like to highlight this problem after trying all versions for hours. Both for proxies and for video export, in Premiere and Media Encoder renders are extemely slow. This is not happening in 14.3.2 but renders are much slower in following versions.

I have both Intel (9900k) and AMD (3950X), GPU 2080ti, 32gb RAM 3600mhz and render times are awful. They are fine in 14.3.2 and earlier versions. BIOS, Windows updates and everything are OK.

Adobe, please, PLEASE, fix this issue.