Much improved hardware specs not improving export time...?

Report · Sep 27, 2017

My wife edits a lot of videos for her work. For the last couple years or so she has been using an off the shelf HP Envy Phoenix desktop -

Intel i7-4770 CPU (4 cores)

16GBs RAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640
SanDisk 480GB SSD Drive (Cant remember the exact one).

When she would encode a video it would max out the CPU to 100% and use around half the RAM. A 10 minute video would take around 2+ hours to encode.

She recently had me build her a PC in hopes that it would reduce encoding times -

Intel i9-7900x CPU (10 cores)

Corsair 32GB DDR4 (2x16)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD

ASUS PRIME X299-A Motherboard

When she tries to encode a 10 minute video now, not only does it not take less time, it actually seems to take more...

She used a video project she knew took 2 hours to encode on the old PC, encoded it on the new PC, and it still said it would take 2 hours. After a couple hours of internet searches and checking settings to try and figure out why it didn't seem to be improving the encoding time, we decided to leave the video to encode for a while to see what would happen. We went and watched TV for a couple of hours, came back, and it still said 2+ hours remaining even though the video had progressed to around half completed... so apparently it at least doubled the encoding time that her old desktop would take.

We're both very confused.

We've done searches, messed with settings, made sure all drivers are up to date, and tried old versions of Premiere (in the past, an update caused encoding times to go way up) but nothing has made a difference.

The settings are set for CUDA accelerated. Ive tried doing a clean install of the GPU drivers, Ive updated the motherboard BIOS, Ive messed with various BIOS settings for the CPU (all things Ive had people tell me to try just to see what happens) and nothing. I ran a benchmark test of the PC because someone told me there may be something wrong somewhere, and the results seemed good to me (not that I really know what Im looking at). A 10 minute video is still taking well over 2 hours to encode. The CPU is a little more than half used, RAM is a little less than half.

At one point she started a completely new project and didnt put any kind of effects or anything in it, and the encoding time was the same on the new and old computer. The old computer actually seemed to be a few minutes faster.

We both expected far better results out of this new PC, and needless to say shes very disappointed.

So what am I missing here?

Thanks.

[Moderator note: moved to best forum]

Report · Oct 02, 2017

When I open resource monitor and choose the CPU tab, it shows 20 CPUs on the right side, if thats what you meant (this is where my inexperience starts showing).

Of the 20, about half show a constant 80-100%, 7 show around 20%, 1 jumps a bit between about 20-30% and theres a few that jump around pretty drastically.

Report · Oct 02, 2017

So it sounds like Windows 10 isn't fully utilizing all cores. Similar to what i experienced before reinstalling Windows 7 and going from there.

I tried a whole bunch of things in Windows 10 to get it to function. A 1 hour video finished in about 1:15 using 2 pass. They same segment and encoding preferences took 0:42 under Windows 7 because it was utilizing all threads at near 90% - 100%.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

That's really strange though, because I've had other people telling me they're using Windows 10 as well and they get far better times than I do.

I mean I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try installing Windows 7 just to see what happens. I do have a copy of it sitting on a shelf already.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

Can you dual boot? All I know is that my experience with Windows 10 wasn't overwhelming and i get far fewer support issues with Windows 7 than 10. I had a business customer machine that was a Lenovo with Kaby Lake I5 7500 which would not update to Creator's Update. It kept trying and failing. We ended up replacing with a refurbished PC with Windows 7 and they couldn't be happier.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

I hate to burst your Windows 7 bubble but here are my PPBM results with the four exports:

"21","63","24","239", Premiere Version:, 11.1.2.22, 385.69, Win 7

"20","61","24","241", Premiere Version:, 11.1.2.22, 385.69. Win 10

Forget any +/- 1 second differences as that is the Microsoft timestamp clock resoultion. Now there might be some new effects like Lumetri that might affect this situation .

I just found an article that may explain something. I saw you are using Windows 10 Creator which I have never bother with as I am well satisfied with the vanilla version. It is hard to believe but take a look at this forum dialog on Windows 10 Creators doubling the number of processes over the non-Creators version.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

Maybe it is the Creator's Edition but i doubt it is the processes running in the background. I have lots running in the background in Windows 7 yet Media Encoder zips along. It did not zip along in Windows 10 with the same software installed such as Norton.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

I'm also using PPro CC 2015 so that i can grade in Speedgrade. PPro CC 2017 / Media Encoder still encodes zippy in Win 7.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

I think my Processes - Nuts and bolts thread which I posted yesterday explains why the process count has gone up with the Creators Edition, (which is simply the latest Windows 10 update). Check that out cause the # of running processes reported in prior versions is no doubt less than are actually running.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

Incidentally, both the Windows 7 and my Windows 10 test happen to be running 62 processes.

Report · Oct 03, 2017

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bill+Gehrke wrote
Incidentally, both the Windows 7 and my Windows 10 test happen to be running 62 processes.

Yes, but per the MS article I linked to in the Processes thread, the counting is different since Windows 10 version 1703. (April 2017 upgrade) IE: the current Windows 10. So, in order to get an Apples to Apples / Orange to Oranges test, it will be good to see your numbers when you finally upgrade. I'm hoping my 92 is about right with the new individual threaded / non-grouped processes of the earlier versions you are using. IE: 92 is the new 62!

If you can, install a Windows 10 / 1703 version on one of your test drives to get an idea, or post on that thread once you finally do upgrade.

Processes - Nuts and bolts

Report · Oct 04, 2017

If I get around to it I will clone my current Windows 10 SSD to another SSD and try the upgrade.

Report · Oct 01, 2017

MichaelMill81 wrote
Should the disks be showing fast read/write speeds in Task Manager? Because I had it open while exporting and they arent showing much activity at all. The C drive, where the project was being exported to, was barely passing 200 KB/s write speed.
I tried seeing what happened if I had everything on the C drive, like I was doing before, and the most it seemed to show was 1 MB/s.

If you run the PPBM Disk I/O test you will see an export out of Premiere that looks like this:

Your exports are much more CPU dependent and so you see much less disk usage

Just for your information here is the same test on my hot desktop showing you the 960 pro write speed direct from Premiere Pro.

Check your export settings, with that great GTX 1080 Ti GPU I hope you do not have an these checked.

Report · Oct 01, 2017

Great point Bill. Video encoding is 99% CPU intensive so disk writing will be a minimum.

Report · Oct 01, 2017

I would have to disagree with that 99%, That just is not the case, I know it is very high CPU intensive but but it will always be media and workflow affected.

Report · Oct 01, 2017

All i know is that Windows 10 was the major problem in my case. Under Windows 7 all works great. I just encoded a should 10 minute video in about 8 minutes. Source files were on 7200 RPM drive #1. Export onto 7200 RPM drive #2. Both drives are WD Black drives. Very minimal disk activity during encode. All 12 threads were 85% to 100% utilized. Similar experience in Windows 10 showed maximum of 60% with an average of 35% - 45% on threads.

Report · Oct 02, 2017

Well my Windows 7 boot drive finally finished up updating and today next is tuning it and then I hope to dactivate one of my Premiere installations so I can activate Premiere 2017. I suspect that you had the situation of too many processes running in Windows 10 that may have made the difference.

Report · Oct 02, 2017

Actually i had very little running in Windows 10 Pro. Just Office and Adobe Suite installed. Same for Windows 7 to make the test the same. I just think it's poor organization of Windows 10, especially when it comes to older games and compatability. I'd have to dump several steam games i like plus older games that used DRM.

Report · Oct 01, 2017

Why then have I gotten such fantastic CPU results PPBM submitted with the 16-core Threadripper? Now I will admit that PPBM does not test for new features, it was not designed for making software code evalution it was strictly designed to test your CPU, GPU, and Strorage speed using Premiere Pro for the benchmarking..

Report · Oct 01, 2017

Because the threadripper is a super fantastic cpu. It is far superior so you'd expect to get fantastic results from in it.

Report · Oct 04, 2017

Saw on another thread. Try creating or modifying a file called "cuda_supported_cards" and putting it in the Premiere Pro directory?

Report · Oct 04, 2017

That is for CS6.

Report · Oct 04, 2017

I know but it helped on the other forum and i assumed he wasn't running CS6

Report · Oct 05, 2017

Well we made some form of progress yesterday. Turns out one of the major culprits was a plugin my wife uses when she edits videos.

We knew it was the reason hours were being added to encoding time, because one of the various things we did while trying to figure out why encoding time didnt change with the new machine was to take a project and see how long it took to encode without using that plugin - on both the old and new computer. The time went down by hours, but still took the same amount of time to encode on either machine.

She ended up finding a new plugin, and it cut the time down to basically how long it took to encode without the old plug in there at all. The GPU basically handles it like its not even there, I guess. So, thats good, times were cut down by hours, but at the same time its clearly taking "way" longer than it should be taking to encode videos as it takes just as long as the old machine.

DavidROfficer6198's advice is that its Windows 10 not fully utilizing the CPU, and using Windows 7 may help that. I still have to try that because I need to put a DVD drive in the new computer. I didnt bother buying one with it because we never seem to use them. I dont doubt that suggestion, but Ive had people telling me that theyre using Windows 10 and are getting better times than me, so I dont know what to make of that. Plus my wife isnt too keen on moving back to Windows 7, but is willing to if that actually makes enough of a difference.

Other than the Windows 10/Windows 7 theory, I have yet to figure out why this particular PC isnt encoding any better than the old PC.

So, I have to ask... and I know Im reaching here, because its kind of the point that Ive gotten to, is there any chance that maybe my CPU is "malfunctioning" in some way without any signs?

The PC runs fine and I havent encountered any errors at all that would lead me to believe something might be wrong, but I thought it might be worth asking if its possible. I considered exchanging the CPU just for the hell of it to see what would happen. But, like I said, I know its kind of just reaching.

Report · Oct 05, 2017

I don't think the CPU is malfunctioning. You'd have a lot more issues if it were. Is there any way you could stick with Windows 10 and install the Anniversary Update and not the Creator's Update? I never tried that but i've seen all sorts of comments on the update.

I still maintain that i had virtually the same results using Windows 10 Creator's Update with encoding not fully utilizing the cores and switching to Windows 7 solved the issue.

Report · Oct 05, 2017

download prime95 and run it. Double check resource monitor and see if all threads are in use. If you run this stress test program and it uses all threads near maximum, then we narrow it down to how Premiere and Media Encoder interact with Windows 10