OMG please update Dust & Scratches for GPU acceleration, M1, etc.

Pleae update this effect!! I need a solution for for removing sensor dust spots.

Pleae update this effect. Getting dust on Nikon mirrorless cameras is a major issue, no matter technique, especially in challenging field conditions that demand multiple lens changes and video at f16 where the dust shows. We're a non-profit and can't invest in more equipment. We rely on Adobe to perform what, is in our opinion, basic edits. Without this feature, in addition to other frustrations, we'll be looking to switch platforms and encourage the schools we work with to do the same.

I've just used this effect within a tiny mask on some 4k 25p footage, no other effects or motion on the clip and 2 mins of interview took 10+ mins to render out on a m2 max mbp. From what I can tell there is no other solution within premiere for removing sensor dust spots. The effect should be removed from 'obsolete' and subsequently optimised for faster rendering. Please let me know if there is another option that works for this use case? 

That there is an excellent idea! Wish I'd brought this up sooner! 😄

Since it's now marked as 'obsolete', there is non-existent chances of it being GPU-accelerated. In your case (The effect in question is the last in render que) optimal solution would be just split the job to 2-stage process:
1 - export fast with all the effects except D&S;
2 - re-import and apply the D&S

Thanks for this. Yes, based on what I have read it's possible that if this was the first effect applied perhaps that might have significantly improved performance, so that no other GPU accerlerated effects had to pass through it and render in software only mode. Unfortunately this project was time sensitive and had Lumetri color correction on the multicam source sequence,  then Warp Stabilizer on individual clips in the timeline with Fast Analysis turned off and Detailed Analysis turned on, and then Dust & Scratches somewhere after that (because dust removal is usually one of the last things I do as sort of a luxery item if time is running out). The project was time sensitive, and some of the Warp Stabilizer stuff had been finicky to get right, and I found that moving Dust and Scratches to the front of the chain would cause Warp Stabilizer to have to re-analyse, which I did not have time for. So this project did have a few layers of Lumetri and I suppose a fair amount of heavy lifting, especially considering it was all 4K footage. However the M1 MacBook Pro could still export all of that pretty quickly if not for the addition of Dust & Scratches. So I am still hoping D&S will be updated so that it can be used as flexibly as all the other more modern effects.

Likely that much slowdown is not because Dust&Scatches is itself so slow, but bc of the combination with other filters. Probably addition of it turns whole render que in the Software mode. My pretty outdated Ryzen 1700 system is able to run this filter in realtime at 1080p resolution. Did you try how it works outside of the main project, with same file but without any other effects?