Premiere not using my GPU correctly?

[EBalma]

I've noticed lately that Adobe Premiere and Media Encoder have been suffering in performance and may not be using my GPU correctly, despite me using the GPU accelerated (CUDA) Mercury Engine.

I've noticed that a couple of times when I try to render something through Adobe Media Encoder, the render fails. I can't remember the error code exactly but I remember googling it, and the article suggested my GPU was being overloaded. Granted, the same article also said the same error could be caused by using Lumetri on several clips, which I had done.

But the "kicker", as it is, is that I'm getting dismal results when I run the Puget Systems Benchmark for Adobe Premiere. I keep getting a GPU score of around 25-20 when it should be 55. Admittedly, this benchmark was running off a traditional "platter" HDD, not an SSD, but Premiere itself and the cache files are on an NVMe SSD.

I have swapped out my GPU for another and faced the same problem. I've also tried resetting my preferences and uninstalling/reinstalling my NVIDIA drivers to no avail. I don't have onboard graphics, so that can't be interfering with my renders.

I have just realised that I am constantly deleting my media cache for other reasons, but didn't specifically do so for this error, so I'll give that a shot and post an update.

Is there any way I can fix this and have my GPU Acceleration work correctly?

My relevant specs are:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk Wifi

32GB (2x16) 3200Mhz RAM

Windows 10 Home 64bit

ZOTAC AMP RTX 2060 Super (which I temporarily replaced with an MSI VENTUS OC RTX 2060 Super, with no effect)

Cooler Master PcIe 3.0 vertical GPU riser (which seems to have little effect)

Premiere Pro version 14.5
Media Encoder version 14.5

NVIDIA Studio Ready Driver 456.71

Puget Benchmark for Premiere Pro version 0.92

[Andy 1968]

We need to see your stats like in the video below. A video would be best but a screen shot will work.

https://youtu.be/pE6t1ryanO4

[RjL190365 · Accepted solution]

The reason for such underwhelming performance is that the platter disk isn't fast enough to handle decompressed-on-the-fly 4k video. You see, when any effects whatsoever are applied, all NLEs decompress video to full uncompressed on-the-fly for playback. This demands an extremely high bandwidth for the disks.

Worse, platter disks, when used as working media disks, cannot sustain transfer speeds more than about 75 MB/s (in actual disk I/O throughput, not just one-way transfers since that same disk does both reading and writing simultaneously, which the SATA interface itself cannot perform). For such decompressed-on-the-fly video, platter disks end up just barely adequate for handling even 1080p30 video content, let alone 4k60p. As a result, you will definitely need an SSD for the media/projects disk in order to achieve the best results with that system and your content.

What happens here is that both the CPU and the GPU sit idle while the platter disk tries to catch up with even reading and processing the video. This will severely drag down both the live playback and the GPU scores, especially since the live playback score with that CPU/GPU combo should have been well into the 60's (as it stands, your system struggled to even achieve a Standard-preset live playback score of 40).

[EBalma]

That makes total sense, but I've just copied PugetBench onto my SSD and got an even worse GPU score of 14!

Granted, this is my only SSD, serving as also my boot drive and Media cache, so I'm guessing that would have an effect?

[RjL190365]

That will also impact your scores in a negative fashion. You should really have not one, but two or more SSDs, in any video editing system. Your media and projects must be located on the second SSD. Not on the OS SSD.

And just curious, what are your CPU temps when running and rendering in Premiere Pro?

For the record, my secondary mini-ITX system, now with the Ryzen 7 3700X, 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, a GeForce GTX 1650 Super GPU and two SATA SSDs, scored about where it is expected, limited only by the weaker GPU (which delivered a GPU score of just over 37)..

[EBalma]

Yeah, I thought that might be the case. I've been thinking about getting another SSD for a while, so I'm out getting one now. Let's see how it goes.

I haven't been monitoring my CPU temps during rendering, but I use an AIO cooler so there should be no issue there. I'll have a look when I get the chance.

[Andy 1968]

Windows task manger will show that stats for hard drvie, ethernet, CPU, GPU, RAM. If something is getting pegged at 100% you know it is the weakest link.

[EBalma]

Hey! that seems to have done the trick!

Just installed an NVMe SSD and my PugetBench GPU score leapt up to 43-5. I bet if I removed my (shamelessly decadent, purely aesthetic) Vertical GPU Riser, I could claw back another 5 points as was the case with my earlier pre-SSD tests.

It's not the 60 points you predicted but it's a start. I'll look into CPU temps like you suggested and see where that gets me.

[EBalma]

Hmm...I ran PugetBench another time with Core Temps running with the Graph plugin active, and the GPU score dropped again to 34. Odd. I'd assume Core Temps was having an effect but I assume that's a very lightweight program.

On the plus side, my temps and whatnot seem fine. Even during the 8K RED and ProRes 4444 parts of the test, I was maxing out at 65-70 degrees and 100% utilization - surely not much of a concern for a Ryzen 7 3700X. My clock speeds also averaged around 4000-4300Mhz, occasionally dropping to around 3700 but only for moments at a time.