Problem with AMD RX570 (Sapphire) and GPU Acceleration

Hey there Lukas,

Neil is correct. You need significant CPU power for H.264 media—a terrible codec to edit with. To combat this, you can try things like:

• Lowering playback resolution
• Disabling High Quality Playback (Settings - AKA "The Wrench" menu > High Quality Playback) in the Program Monitor
• Using the proxy workflow
• Copying original media to a high speed disk that is separate from the OS and connecting it via Thunderbolt or similar high speed data connection

If you are looking for smooth native H.264 playback — your expectations may be too high for this unbalanced NLE workstation.

Setting up your current system optimally would help playback for H.264 footage a lot, one of the least performant codecs on the planet (HEVC is even worse). You need to purchase a more powerful CPU. If that is not in your immediate plans, you can transcode or create proxies to edit that footage.

Here are the potential problems with your current computer system and attempting to cut H.264 footage natively, and some potential solutions for you:

• You have quite a powerful GPU, but your CPU (an i5 Gen 6) is definitely underpowered for native H.264 workflows, meeting only the minimum system requirements for HD 1080p footage.
• Here's what I would do:
  • Update the CPU to match the power of your 8GB VRAM GPU,
  • Install enough RAM to balance out the system, probably another 16 GB.
  • Add a second high speed SSD connected via a high speed data connection (Thunderbolt, etc.). This should be used to serve up media and to render preview files to for Premiere Pro, as is standard NLE setup protocol.
  • A third SSD for media cache would make the system function even better, and so on. Add on when budget allows.

Let me know if you want to move this post to the hardware forum for further discussion around getting your system refreshed.

Thanks,
Kevin

There's maybe a couple things here.

First ... the GPU will not be involved with basic playback on most any format, period. Premiere uses the GPU for certain things ... major resizing say going from 4k media to a 1080 sequence or Warp Stabilizer, Color work such as Lumetri effect, some other things.

For general playback of H.264 media, Premiere will not be using the GPU for much of anything at all.

Second ... that dialog that no GPU acceleration will be used is a concern. I would suggest putting a couple say 4k clips on a 1080 sequence, or 1080 clips on a 720 sequence, and do some major Lumetri work to both clips. Just a short little test project.

Then export, and watch CPU/GPU use during export. Between full resizing and major Lumetri color work, that should use the GPU if Premiere "sees" it.

Neil

I am having the same issue here... did you fixed?