Premiere Pro CC 2017 slow performance, crashing, & media loading problems

[Jaw327]

CC 2017 is slow as dirt, crashes constantly, fails to load media, is making me go bald.

Here is my system

MOBO: ASUS X-99 Deluxe

CPU: Core i7 5820-K (overclocked to 4.2ghz)

PSU: EVGA SuperNova 1000 G2

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i Hydro

Ram: 32gb G.Skil Ripjaws DDR4 (4 sticks)

GPU: GTX 980Ti

Storage: EVO 850 250GB SSD (OS & Programs Installed here)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM
(above 2 drives are striped together to make one 6TB drive)

OS: Win10 Pro
4TB Raid 0 WD Mybook Duo USB 3

I house my media on the Seagate drives and on the external Raid. Working off either one doesn't seem to make a difference.
I'm usually editing mixed formats, typically a mix of 4K and 1080p. Different frame rates often too.

Premiere never has problems starting up. Media is usually pending for seemingly forever and I just have to sit and wait for like 10 minutes before I can even touch anything or else it will just freeze up. When I finally can start working I usually have to drop the res down to 1/4 to get smooth playback. Constant crashes and freezes. Anytime I try to export XML and I just get a blue spinning circle of nothingness.

Basically it's just slow and completely unreliable and really pissing me off. Spent half the day just trying to get it to run before I could actually get to work. Didn't have this much trouble with CC 2016.

Title changed to reflect actual issues.

[Vidya Sagar]

Hi Jaw327,

1. What is the location of the Media Cache files & Media Cache Database?

    Have you cleared the Media Cache & regenerated for test?

2. Are you logged in as an Administrator into Windows?

    Just for test, try to login using a different Administrator account & check the performance.

3. Have you tired running Premiere Pro as an Administrator?

4. Post a snapshot of the Task Manager > Processes tab & Performance tab when Premiere Pro is loading the files.

5. Are there any error messages in Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application related to Premiere Pro?

Thanks,

Vidya Sagar.

[Jaw327]

Hi Vidya,

I clean the media cache often, both manually and with the clean option in media settings.
I've tried moving the cache location from it's default to the same drive that my media is stored on. Doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Tried running PP as an administrator, didn't make any difference.

Looking at task manager and Premiere is often using 100% of my CPU.
Here are some screen shots.

Thanks

[Jim_Simon]

I'm usually editing mixed formats

From what sources specifically?

[Jaw327]

it varies. A lot of DSLR footage (Mostly 5D MK Whatever) FS700, FS100, Canon C300, Black Magic Pocket Cam, Black Magic 4K.
It just depends what the client sends me

[Jim_Simon]

OK.

I would expect that footage to work normally.  It's also not unfair to say that PP's "normal" for H.264 media isn't...great.  It's not even good.

One thing you might test out is the use of Cineform Proxies for all H.264-based media.  (ProRes from the Blackmagic cams should work fine as is.)

[Jaw327]

yeah H.264 has never been super fun in premiere pro but feel like I've never chugged along like this before. I mean my system is no slouch but I don't know. It is what it is right now. at times in the past I've made proxies of all my media, but kinda stopped as a lot of my projects now are quick turn around things and I never noticed too much speed gain with editing proxy media. Might give it a go for this current project to see if it helps.

it is what it is.

just kind of annoying that I can run FCPX on a MacBook Air with similar type footage and have more reliable results then using Adobe Software on my main editing rig

thanks for the replies.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Jaw327,

• yeah H.264 has never been super fun in premiere pro but feel like I've never chugged along like this before.
• just kind of annoying that I can run FCPX on a MacBook Air with similar type footage and have more reliable results then using Adobe Software on my main editing rig

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Sounds like you're having the most trouble with H.264 and mixed footage Timelines. I do know that H.264 footage from Canon is tougher to decode than most other variants. I would recommend transcoding or using proxies for editing purposes. Furthermore, doing the same for the mixed formats, I feel, would also improve your performance issues. Getting all your media into common frame sizes, frame rates, and into intraframe formats (ProRes, Cineform, DNxHD) can speed performance dramatically. Can you try transcoding or creating proxies and then report back?

Also, ensure that your GPU acceleration is enabled in File > Project Settings.

Thanks,
Kevin

[andrewj35574337]

Clearing the cache and using proxies are good advice, but why would the performance of mixed formats be worse on the same system on Premiere pre-the latest update? As a few people have said here - what have you done to it? - why is it using so much more of the CPU?

What is the point of Premiere over other software if it can't handle mixed formats? I thought the USP was that it would handle pretty much any format you throw at it. I can bill Adobe for the transcode time rather than my clients if you like.

Windows 10 Pro 1607 x64

Intel i7 2.4

24 GB RAM

NVIDIA Quadro K1100M

[R Neil Haugen]

Apparently that's a laptop you're editing on. It's got a relatively slow CPU, pretty decent RAM, and an older Quadro card that on several sites is shown in comparative lists as a little less capable than an older GT 640. That GPU is shown as having only 384 CUDA cores ... which realistically, ain't much. These days, below 1,000 or so is considered minimalist.

Further ... I don't know the drive numbers, types, and connections on your rig. If you're running an SSD for system/OS, good. If you don't have a additional third-generation SSD for media and project files, not good. Additional drives ... how many, what kind, and how connected to the mobo ... that's another huge part of the puzzle to make this all work better. You've not shared that information.

So from what I ​do​ know, you're running a system not particularly long on resources according to the needs of PrPro at the current time. It can still work, ​but​ ... as to why you might need to transcode & use proxies, well ... that hardware is the reason. Even on a much more resourceful machine, transcode/proxy workflow can be a big help for real-time playback and renders if one uses many of the the Heavy-Lifter effects, such as Lumetri, Warp Stabilizer, de-noising video, lens distortion, a number of others.

So ... I'd check your system for what ails your workflow.

And for that, there's a lot of great and practical advice available on the Hardware forum ...

https://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere/hardware_forum

Much of the "information" on how to build/buy an editing machine on the web in general is crap. The Hardware forum is frequented by people like Bill Gehrke, who's running the Tweaker's Page ... and has test results for more gear running PrPro on real-time exact-same projects than anywhere else. Including knowledge on how to get laptops running better. His latest testing on third-generation SSD drives, and using the EVO Pro and others of say m.2 or NVMe nature to get better performance is solid.

Neil

[andrewj35574337]

Really helpful, thanks Neil.

I would just like to say to Adobe that all the components in the laptop I had built for 4K editing a year ago with internal Extreme Pro SSDs for rushes and a GRAID Thunderbolt external for previews contains components listed here and I've never had to use proxies exclusively with any previous generation of APPCC

Premiere Pro System Requirements for Mac OS and Windows

[R Neil Haugen]

Would be darn nice if this stuff just always worked. Truly.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Andrew J,

I would just like to say to Adobe that all the components in the laptop I had built for 4K editing a year ago with internal Extreme Pro SSDs for rushes and a GRAID Thunderbolt external for previews contains components listed here and I've never had to use proxies exclusively with any previous generation of APPCC.

Thanks for your response. Neil has pretty much hit the nail on the head. Editing 4K Long GOP video is no joke. You need a full blown fire breathing system to have decent performance with it. If you had a passable experience with the previous version of software, that is no guarantee that the new versions won't have higher performance needs even with the exact same formats.

When customers have laptops or other portable editing gear (with limited hardware resources), I will always recommend a proxy workflow with 2K or larger formats. You'll have a much easier time editing with it for the reasons that Neil pointed out (higher throughput and resources are needed for color correction and effects workflows, for example).

Regards,
Kevin

[andrewj35574337]

So that was hogwash, wasn't it? As the latest update of 2017 appears to have solved all the issues discussed - and I'm still on the same system.

[R Neil Haugen]

What was all hogwash?

Neil

[cbenci]

Certainly wasn't hogwash for me.

[rylandc23229871]

Is your cache folder set to your SSD or your Seagates? I would recommend having it set to your SSD if it isn't. Also maybe allocate a little bit more RAM for Premiere in Preferences > memory. I also see you are on windows, try unchecking this option and see if it helps Preferences > Media > Uncheck "Enable Accelerated Intel H.264 Decoding"> and then restart premiere. See if that helps

[R Neil Haugen]

Of course, I'm not "Adobe" ... all staffers have an Adobe badge on their avatar. And the product team members do not normally view these forums, the staffers here are Product Support under Kevin-Monahan  ... a very experienced editor with some colorist background also.

From reading the posts on here and elsewhere it's clear that with the code changes of the 11.x build series  (2017.x), some users have had performance difficulties and many (like myself) are getting very good performance.

Clearly not all hardware/OS/GPU/media and driver combinations work as well as others.

What has become obvious in numerous threads is the 2017/11.x builds do better on systems built with NVMe/m.2 and newer fast SSD drives.

Most people with multiple "new media" drives with decent CPUs and GPUs are doing great. Some folks even with RAID 0 setups of spinners that used to be The Thing are having troubles with 4k performance.

Neil

[andrewj35574337]

Wasn't passable - was butter. 2/3 layers of 4k h.264s mixed with prores, dnxhd, mp3s, after effects-linked sequences, nests, etc. etc.

And here was me believing what the Adobe engineer who spent two hours on my machine on teamviewer said with the other week - 'you need to experiment with different preview codecs to get the same performance you're used to'.

It's back to vers. 2015.4.6.1.2016.2.5 for me!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Jaw,

We haven't heard back from you in quite some time. Did you solve your issue? If so, how? If not, please let us know so that we can assist you.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Did you ever fix this issue, Jaw? Let us know if you still need help.

• Others coming to this thread that don't have the issue on Windows shoiuld create their own post.
• This post has become a dumping ground for other issues which are similar but not quite the same in many instances.
• If the OP does not return to the thread, we will lock it.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Jaws,

Since you never returned to your post, I can only assume that an update or the like solved your issue. For others having similar issues, kindly contact support: Contact Customer Care

Thanks,
Kevin