Ensure Performance in Premiere Pro With A Few Quick Settings data-src=https://cdn.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/letter-avatars/opensans/96/latin_d.png data-srcset=https://cdn.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/letter-avatars/opensans/96/latin_d.png 2x class=lazyload avatar avatar-80 photo height=80 width=80 />
Dave Helmly January 14, 2021
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DAV TechTalk Blog #3
A few tweaks on your editing system can make all the difference when it comes to performance. This quick blog will go over a few of these commonly overlooked settings.
The first and by far the most important thing to check is graphics drivers (GPU). I would estimate that 80%, or more, of issues we see are related to graphics drivers. These are more common on Windows 10 than on macOS, due to the sheer number of choices you have when it comes to graphics cards. Between NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel Iris, there are sometimes weekly driver updates. Since macOS GPU drivers are 100% controlled by Apple and their OS updates, it's a bit more predictable on that front.
To help stay on top of GPU drivers, we have a System Compatibility Report in Premiere Pro and After Effects which checks your system and flags driver versions if they're out of date.
If an issue is detected, the System Compatibility Report warns you when you launch Premiere Pro or After Effects. We align the GPU driver update with major releases of Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Adobe Media Encoder. This will also typically align with newer GPU technology like NVIDIA RTX/Ampere and AMD Vega, which will see driver updates to support those changes in newer GPU chipsets.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08203156/Blog-3-Quick-Performance-Tweaks_v3_final_01042021.docx.jpg alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2349610/>Golden Rule for Windows 10 users: If your system is working and the System Compatibly Report is not flagging you for an update - LEAVE IT ALONE do not update your GPU driver. Just because there is a new graphics driver does not mean you see will better performance.
General Rule for macOS users: Stay as current as you can on macOS updates (currently 10.14, 10.15, or 11.0). Nearly every macOS update has GPU changes as Apple tweaks their Metal acceleration layer. Nearly every macOS update has GPU changes as Apple tweaks their Metal acceleration layer. If you are new to Apple Metal, it provides near-direct access to the GPU, which maximizes the GPU and CPU/chipsets for threading, shaders, and more. All our current macOS GPU work is based on Apple Metal and the hardware that supports it. We work closely with Apple's Metal engineering team on performance for Premiere Pro and After Effects, resulting in recent performance improvements for rendering and playback on macOS. Note: if you are a Windows 10 users - Apple Metal is the equivalent of DirectX 12 on Windows.
There have been rare occasions where there was an OS update that also updated GPU drivers and caused crashes in some applications. This is one of the reasons we built the System Compatibility Report. It's critical tool to help monitor GPU driver changes.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08203341/Blog-3-Quick-Performance-Tweaks_v3_final_01042021.docx.png alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2349611/>If you are prompted to send a report to Adobe after a crash, please fill in a few details before you hit send: context helps us to identify issues faster. Also feel free to add your contact information, in case we need more details. These crash reports are often part of the first line of defense when OS GPU driver changes happen and your reports help all users.
Performance Tuners/Performance Advisors applications
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08203507/Blog-3-Quick-Performance-Tweaks.jpg alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2349612/>All of our main PC workstation/laptop providers like Dell, HP and Lenovo have tuner or advisor apps that turn on/off options, which can increase performance. Complex options in your PCs BIOS can affect the performance of many different applications as well as other key settings to the specific workstation/laptop. Generally, you'll see a list of applications that have been performance tested in their labs. These apps are free and totally worth testing out.
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PugetBench for Premiere Pro
Custom PC builders, like Puget Systems, also tune their editing systems as part of their custom build. Puget Systems also has a set of Premiere Pro and After Effects benchmark projects that you can run and test your systems performance. I highly recommend these benchmark projects.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/PugetBench-for-Premiere-Pro-1519/
Testing Premiere Pro performance with DogEars
Premiere Pro has a built-in onscreen engineering level performance checker known as DogEars mode, which has been included in the application for nearly a decade. It's an on-screen internal engineering tool we use to read requested FPS, Prefetch Latency, and current codec being read by the Playhead. Most importantly it shows dropped frames in real time. The Downsample field shows where your playback quality is set. 1.00 = Full quality, 2.0 = quality and so on.
data-src=https://gcs.creativecow.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08203941/Blog-3-Quick-Performance-Tweaks_v3_final_01042021.png alt= class=lazyload wp-image-2349614/>Using it can seem a little tricky but follow these steps and you'll find that it's easy to turn this mode on and off.
Steps:
Make sure that no video is playing as the toggle switch gets set when nothing is playing
Press these 3 keys macOS [Cmd] [Shift] [F11] Windows10 [Ctrl] [Shift] [F11] to
