QuickSync not working in Premiere Pro 25.x.x.

[FirmHandshake93]

Hello, 

first a bit of context:

I have a new PC (Intel 265k, 64gb ram, Z890 Tomahawk, RTX 3080) and Premiere performance is....mediocre. Just barely faster than my old rig (8th gen i7, 32gb ram...). I specifically chose Intel because of QuickSync and because it worked so well on my old PC.

-all drivers and BIOS are updated (Nvidia, Intel Graphics etc.)

-iGPU works, is enabled and shows activity in other programs (Chrome, VLC...when set to Intel graphics)

-hardware encoding and decoding is enabled (Intel + Nvidia)

My issue is, that it doesn't use the iGPU at all; so no QuickSync. Even if I disable NVENC for HW encoding/decoding it somehow still loads the GPU. It only uses the iGPU if I set the renderer to OpenCL (which is quick for playback but slower for effects). So Premiere Pro recognises the iGPU, but does not use it.

I am editing a project with Sony H264 4:2:2 footage. I have read somewhere that newer versions of Premiere Pro prioritize Nvidia for decoding instead of Intel. Why? So QuickSync is now dead all of a sudden?

Thanks in advance for all your replies.

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm wondering about that specific media, as I know there have been issues with certain bit depths of long-GOP media and QuickSync usage.

It would be interesting to see if 4-2-0 H.264 used QuickSync  on your rig.

[JonesVid]

There are known issues that many people experience with 25.1 and Qucik Sync decoding

See this thread

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/premiere-pro-25-1-igpu-stopped-decoding-my-f...

It would be interesting for you to try H264 4.2.0 as a test - as per @R Neil Haugen suggestion

[JonesVid]

I meant to add that Quicksync iGPU works for me on 25.1 using Windows 11 23H2 and H265 , but the Intel iGPU is dead for H264 media completely. This is the change they made in 25.1 to use NVidia instead. Its all under investigation at present I believe.

[FirmHandshake93]

Thank you for your reply! Super weird. I'm on 24H2. They must love Nvidia, because Lightroom also hogs 100% of VRAM on my 3080. Literally can't have YouTube open while editing in Lightroom. I have to set Chrome to run on the iGPU if I want both.

[RjL190365]

Here's the issue:

Beginning with the 25.1 (and current) point version, Adobe has changed the priority of hardware H.264 decoding from the integrated GPU to the discrete GPU (whether that discrete GPU is from Nvidia, AMD or Intel). That means that H.264 decoding will use the discrete GPU first, and then only switch to the integrated GPU when the decoding portion of the discrete GPU is completely used up. This can cause a new problem: If your discrete GPU has too little VRAM (which, by the way, hardware decoding utilizes part of), then the rendering will ungracefully switch from CUDA/OpenCL to software only with no notification at all for the remainder of exporting that timeline.

[FirmHandshake93]

Thanks for your in-depth explanation. If only there was a user setting, so I am not forced to used Nvidia just for playback.

[RjL190365]

Actually, Quick Sync never supported 4:2:2 in H.264 at all. It is restricted to 8-bit 4:2:0 like all discrete GPUs prior to the newest Nvidia Blackwell architecture (aka GeForce RTX 50 series). The latest current non-beta version of Premiere Pro (25.1) was released prior to the introduction of the Blackwell architecture, So, no matter what you try to do, and no matter which system that you're using, and no matter what video editing software you're running, all decoding of your 4:2:2 H.264 footage is entirely on the CPU, in software-only mode (and Adobe has no say in this at all whatsoever because the 4:2:0-only hardware decoding for H.264 restriction had been imposed by all of the GPU makers). Even DaVinci Resolve Studio only supports 8-bit 4:2:0 for hardware decoding of H.264 for all Intel and AMD GPUs (discrete or integrated), as well as all Nvidia GPUs up to and including the Ada-generation (GeForce RTX 40 series).

By the way, Nvidia's Pascal and later GPUs support 4:4:4 hardware decoding for H.264 since a few driver versions before the current 572.xx branch. Adobe and most other NLEs currently do not support 4:4:4 hardware decoding of H.264, nor does Adobe support 4:4:4 hardware decoding of anything at all.