Low CPU, GPU and RAM Usage - Premiere Pro CC (2018)

[sjmikalonisedit]

System:

Window 10 - 64 BIT

Intel i7-6700K @3.20GHz (8 Core)

64 GB DDR4 RAM - 2133MHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080ti

Premiere/OS on 2 x 500 GB SSD in RAID 0

MEDIA - 10G Ethernet/Local  as well as 7200 RPM HDD

Premiere during playback is dropping frames like crazy and is barely utilizing the system in any way.

RAM uses at most 10 GB of the available 64 GB of memory and I have the memory preference set to performance with only 6 GB reserved for other resources.

CPU usage floats around 3% - 7% at most (even during renders and exports)

GPU is barely being used at all. Ever.

Similar systems in our office are utilizing the full potential of the hardware and playing back the exact same sequence without any issues, but my system has a strange bottleneck somewhere that I cannot locate.

Please tell me how to increase performance so that I can get stable playback.

Both rendered and unrendered sequences playback with hundreds of dropped frames.

I have tried both mercury playback only and CUDA GPU acceleration. I've literally attempted all various preference changes to maximize hardware usage and nothing seems to change anything.

Any idea what's going on here?

Thanks!

[Moderator note: moved to best forum.]

[Brandon Loshe]

Not sure if this will help you, but worth a shot. When is the last time that you deleted unused cache files in your Premiere project? Every once in a while I have to clear mine out, and then performance seems to run smoother. On PC I believe that it is under Edit > Preferences > Media Cache. Then you can hit Delete Unused.

Also in the Preferences window there are options under Memory. To be honest, I've never adjusted the "RAM reserved for other applications" nor the "Optimize rendering for:" settings. But I would first try clicking "Delete Unused" in your Media Cache preferences,  and seeing if that helps.

Good luck,

-Brandon

[sjmikalonisedit]

Unfortunately I already tried working with my cache with no change in performance. I've located my cache on both my SSD and the HDD and stressed tested both scenarios with no performance difference noted.

Seems like a deeper problem than that.

Thank you though for the response and the suggestion.

[R Neil Haugen]

Bill Gehrke's site includes a testing process that can give you hard data on every part of your rig in PrPro. The PPBM8 process includes a project file and it's short sequence, you open that in PrPro. You install the logging apps that come within it, export the sequence, and the resultant data gives hard numbers of time for parts of your computer including actual drive read/write speeds within PrPro, GBU and RAM use, CPU use, all of that. You'll know precisely where any problems lie.

Tweaker's Page ... http://ppbm8.com/index.html

Neil

[paolodetrane]

same thing here, PP never hit more than 13% of CPU usage....sos strange, and the UI is very slow as well

[MarkWeiss]

I have a strong suspicion that Premiere is incompatible on some low level system hardware specific layer with some motherboards. I have never gotten an Adobe product to run smoothly on a Supermicro X10DRi motherboard. After $16K invested in fast Xeon CPUs, 128GB RAM and a top of the line nVidia GPU, it still barely edges out a ten year old Core2Quad on playback performance.

[R Neil Haugen]

Apparently mobos can make a huge difference. Looked over the offerings fro Puet Sound Systems and SafeHarbor Computing and talked with them about a potential build later in the fall.

Both tech guys noted that only a few mobos have a bus structure diverse enough to build a decent performer on, and it isn't a price thing so much as a simple design pattern of the various mobos.

Neil

[MarkWeiss]

I looked into Pudget Systems back before I built my system, but they wanted $30K for an similarly configured system.

I have long suspected the motherboard to be defective or just not compatible. It runs Maya like a scalded jackrabbit, but Premiere, foggettaboutit!

[R Neil Haugen]

I had a defective mobo my last build.Took us 6 months of us to figure out why, every so often, this really weird thing happened. Would shut me down for a couple hours, then go away. My builder finally figured out how to throw work at it to trigger the thing. But couldn't figure out what "it" was.

Builder in extreme frustration ordered in another exact same mobo. Replaced the one in the rig with it. Ragged the crap out of my machine like 14 hours straight without issue. Wrote up a full report on the issue, Newegg took the old one back with full refund.

Unfortunately he left the area recently. I'll need a new build soon. Not ... eager do I feel?

Neil

[MarkWeiss]

I kept going back and forth with SuperMicro tech support on this for a year and a half, but they insist it must be Adobe's fault.

No doubt the board is out of warranty after 3 years in system.

My next NLE will be from Wal-Mart. No sense mortgaging the house for a machine that doesn't work any better than the cheapest entry level system.

[R Neil Haugen]

Ha!

Check in the Hardware forum for build ideas and such. Even the ADK, Pugent Sound Systems, and SafeHarbor Computing guys that hang there are most helpful on what works and what ain't as slick.

Neil

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

[MarkWeiss]

Thanks. I'll pay more attention to hardware compatibility next time instead of trying to build a bleeding edge system.

[R Neil Haugen]

Been there done that, got hoarse throat from screaming at the wall.

Yea, hard knocks school of choosing a computer for specialized work. Ouch that sucker hurts, especially when you do like me, overshoot the budget to really push the machine and realize that 1) everything is fully functional so there's no acceptable reason for sending all the parts back ... sigh ... and 2) with the money ya blew on it, you're stuck for a while.

'Twas a painful if effective lesson learned.

Neil

[MarkWeiss]

Well, I got curious tonight, so I updated the beta of DaVinci Resolve to the final version that just was released.

I loaded up the troublesome clips and played them. Interesting.. frame rate stays on 24FPS and smooth playback and smooth scrubbing.

So then I added a Sony LUT (FS7 footage) and played it. Again, smooth as can be. Open Task Manager.. 9% CPU. Now added some color correction and sharpening.. CPU use peaks at 14%, but mostly stays around 11%. GPU-Z reports 9% GPU utilization. Fans are quiet and not spinning up to high speed.

Tried to do a render to h.264. Render failed. "Failed to encode the video frame". So they got the playback there pretty good, but the projects are trapped because the rendering is broken.

I'm thinking Adobe is just fundamentally incompatible with SuperMicro motherboards.

[R Neil Haugen]

Interesting info. You got good stuff going both sides, eh?

Neil

[MarkWeiss]

It's like I got a great hammer, but no nails, only screws!

[R Neil Haugen]

Ouch ...

Neil