Why is Premiere Pro playback stuttering?

[ManaTap]

I understand that there are lots of factors to this situation and have been watching many vids to no avail. I have a brand new comp with this hardware.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32-Core Processor 3.70 GHz

64.0 GB (63.9 GB usable) Crucial DDR4 -3200 CL22

AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard

Samsung 860 1TB M.2 SSD in Raid

The preview window always seem to be less smooth than on my older slower comp, playback stutters horribly when using 4k vids, and for some reason Premiere decides to just use 4% of its processing power when rendering. Sometime if I shut the program down and reboot it then it will at least use 22% of the CPU power. 

Is this a codec issue? Bios? Settings? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[RobShultz]

4K Can be very challenging even with the best systems. You might want to try rendering files in the timeline or use a proxy workflow.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/proxy-workflow.html

[Jeff Bugbee]

Specs of video footage?

[ManaTap]

Its a .MP4

3840 by 2160

440253kbps

23.98 fps

If thats what you are asking.

[Jeff Bugbee]

Is this VFR footage?

[ManaTap]

Honestly I am unsure. Clients send me files and I edit them. I havnt had too many issues up until this point. 

[Jeff Bugbee]

You can use the free MediaInfo tool to analze the clip and find out 

https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download

Please post the text view results of this video

[ManaTap]

Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (mp42/avc1/CAEP)
File size : 19.2 GiB
Duration : 6 min 15 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 440 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35
Tagged date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L6.1
Format settings : 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, Reference frames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : N=1
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 6 min 15 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 438 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.205
Stream size : 19.2 GiB (100%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35
Tagged date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35
Color range : Full
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Big / Signed
Codec ID : twos
Duration : 6 min 15 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 68.7 MiB (0%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35
Tagged date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35

Other
ID : 3
Type : Time code
Format : QuickTime TC
Duration : 6 min 15 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Time code of first frame : 00:28:45:06
Time code, striped : Yes
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35
Tagged date : UTC 2022-01-26 21:55:35

[Jeff Bugbee]

Yup: Bit rate mode : Variable

And that's at Bit rate : 438 Mb/s

Ideally, you'd convert this to CFR video before editing. Or edit with proxies. VFR footage (especially high bitrate VFR footage) does not edit well, not matter the machine.

For whatever reason, Premiere/AME does not deal with VFR footage well.

I recommend downloading (the free) Handbrake app and convert one of your clips to a CFR format and bring that into your timeline. You should notice an immediate jump in performance, even with the same bitrate and resolution.

see below

[Peru Bob]

Yup: Bit rate mode : Variable

And that's at Bit rate : 438 Mb/s

Ideally, you'd convert this to CFR video before editing. Or edit with proxies. VFR footage (especially high bitrate VFR footage) does not edit well, not matter the machine.

By @Jeff Bugbee

That's Variable Bit Rate, not Variable Frame Rate.

The clip is Constant Frame Rate:

Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS

[Jeff Bugbee]

Whoops you are exactly right. I read through that too quickly.

That being said, trying to proxy edit is going to be the next thing to try. H.264 is still not ideal for editing, and just because it works on smaller files doesn't mean you should be using it at all.

If you don't want to use proxies, convert to a good intermediate codec, like Prores, which is designed for editing and will give you much better performance.

[exclusivemoose]

For me, on my windows machine and two macbooks, I've had MAJOR issues on Premiere when editing 4k footage that is10 bit, 4:2:2.  If I had to guess, that's probably what your footage is too. Adobe has no answers.  And I'm laughing at the person who suggested that your machine just can't handle 4k footage and to use proxies.  

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi exclusivemoose,

Sorry for your issues. 4K 4:2:2 10-bit is not supported on many computers. Take a look at the following article: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/What-H-264-and-H-265-Hardware-Decoding-is-Supported-in-Pr...

It appears that if you don't have 11th or 12th gen Intel CPUs, it is simply not supported.

And I'm laughing at the person who suggested that your machine just can't handle 4k footage and to use proxies.  

The AMD machine has no Quick Sync or NVIDIA GPU decoding so UHD H.264 or HEVC might be more troublesome. I think that transcoding to broadcast codecs or creating proxies is definitely worth looking at. 

Cheers,
Kevin