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Premiere Pro CS6 - Shouldn't be THIS slow..?

Jul 26, 2012 11:16 AM

Hi All,

 

I have the following spec machine:

 

Macbook Pro 2.4 Core i7 (Late 2011) 16GB RAM

Running Mac OS X 10.8

1x LaCie Thunderbolt drive (media)

1x USB 2.0 scratch disk (media cache)

Local 512Gb SSD (project files)

 

Set up like the above surely shouldn't be staggering along with fans blazing? I currently have a 2 minute video sequence 1920x1080 with 1x adjustment layer for colour correction TURNED OFF and it still can't play back properly even at half the quality...

 

Is the above setup wrong? I was always taught to split the locations of project files, media and cache... Happy to listen to anyone who knows better though? Thunderbolt drive is so fast so why oh why is this struggling..

 

Auto graphics switching is also OFF so it isn't that..

 

Andy

4013 Views   18 Replies   Latest reply: ExactImage, Aug 1, 2012 11:01 AM
 
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  • ADPrem
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    1. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 11:18 AM   in reply to ADPrem
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    PS. DSLR (h264) footage and 1x Audio track (WAV)

     
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  • ADPrem
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    2. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 11:20 AM   in reply to ADPrem
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    One thing I have noticed, is that for the first few minutes of any project it runs PERFECTLY, then all of a sudden it staggers until I restart Premiere Pro. Weird???

     
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  • Greg Baber
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    3. Greg Baber,
    Jul 26, 2012 11:36 AM   in reply to ADPrem
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    It's best to keep the file locations split, but only if all the file locations can be accessed quickly.  Do not use USB 2.0 for your media cache.  That's a very slow system.  You would be better served just letting the disc cache exist on the same drive as your project files or your media.  In your case, the SSD drive will provide the best benefit.

     
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  • ADPrem
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    4. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 12:26 PM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    Thanks mate, I have tried not using the USB drives but it persists. I cannot seem to work out what is causing the poor performance. My render bar is yellow throughout most, but it should still play through ok right? Would I be better encoding the file to something else before import like I did with FCP (i.e. prores??)..

     
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  • Greg Baber
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    5. Greg Baber,
    Jul 26, 2012 12:46 PM   in reply to ADPrem
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    No, you should not have to render to another codec, and the yellow bar means the footage is something that we should be able to playback in real-time.  The word "should" is important - the only bar that means the system will have no problem with the video is green.

     

    What is your video card?  Can you use GPU acceleration?

     
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  • ADPrem
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    6. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:10 PM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB

     

    I don't think so..

     
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  • Greg Baber
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    7. Greg Baber,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:17 PM   in reply to ADPrem
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    Your system meets the system requirements for GPU acceleration. 

     

    Go into the Project Menu, and choose Project Settings and General.

    The first choice on that menu will say "Video Rendering and Playback"

    Make sure that the Renderer field says "Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration"

     
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  • ExactImage
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    8. ExactImage,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:23 PM   in reply to ADPrem
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    DeeDigital wrote:

     

    I have tried not using the USB drives but it persists.

    Thisis probably the cause of your poor performance. You need to change the preferences and place the media cache somewhere else (preferably internal or on the thunderbolt drive).  It will onl persist in using the UBS2 drive if you don't change the settings correctly (have it either move or delete the current cache).

     

    I have a MBP of identical spec CPU/GPU (late 2011 17", 16GB, 6770M) and am running everything off an internal 5400rpm 750GB HDD and performance is perfectly acceptable (comparable in most things to my 8 core mac pro).

     
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  • ADPrem
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    9. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:51 PM   in reply to ExactImage
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    No sorry I mean the USB drives have been taken out of the equation completely and the media cache is on my Thunderbolt drive. I now also  have my project files on my SSD local drive, and the media and media cache on the thundrebolt drive - same issue (very slight improvement)..

     

    It still struggles to play back the yellow render bar  (which is pretty much solid throughout, bar a few tiny red areas) even at 1/2 quality at 50% zoom in the program monitor.

     
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  • ADPrem
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    10. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 2:53 PM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    Greg I'll check that as soon as this render is finished. I'm sure this box was checked when I set the system up but I'll double check. I thought the other questioin referred to something different, like NVidia specific enhancement.

     
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  • ADPrem
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    11. ADPrem,
    Jul 26, 2012 3:23 PM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    It was indeed already set to that Greg. Interesting point though, it is almost like the machine is playing it through the in-built graphics chip rather than the AMD one. The "auto graphics swithching" is definitely off though..

     
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  • joobny
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    12. joobny,
    Jul 31, 2012 8:52 AM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've also been experiencing super slow performance with Premiere Pro CS6.

     

    My setup is as follows:

     

    MacBook Pro

    2.2GHz i7

    8GB DDR3 RAM

    500GB Harddrive with 30GB available

    AMD Radeon HD 6750M

     

    I'm editing footage from a 550D DSLR, which comes out the camera in H264 format.

     

    The project I'm currently working on should by no means be very processor intensive. It simply cuts between 10 different shots of a person talking to the camera, and there are only 13 video clips imported into the project.

     

    I experienced very choppy and slow playback until I read your post Greg. I had GPU acceleration turned on, so I decided to try turning it off. I instantly noticed improved performance. Is my machine simply not cut out for GPU acceleration?

     

    Thanks,

    Jonnie.

     
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  • Greg Baber
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    13. Greg Baber,
    Jul 31, 2012 12:17 PM   in reply to joobny
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    I do not know why turning off GPU acceleration would improve your performance unless your video card is not acting properly - it should be a supported card.  Does it have at least 1 GB of VRAM and are you running OS X Lion (10.7.x)

     

    The only thing that raises immediate red flags is your hard drive space - generally you need to look at cleaning out your hard drive when you have less than 25% still available for use.

     
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  • joobny
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    14. joobny,
    Aug 1, 2012 1:21 AM   in reply to Greg Baber
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    Thanks for the speedy reply.

     

    I just checked and it has 512MB of VRAM, and I'm running Lion 10.7.4. By the sounds of things I could do with upgrading the video card to have a bit more VRAM? If I was to do this, would it also improve export times through Media Encoder?

     

    I'm trying to clear out some harddrive space now, hopefully that'll help a bit too. Thanks again.

     
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  • joobny
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    15. joobny,
    Aug 1, 2012 7:47 AM   in reply to joobny
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    I was just having another look in my System Information, and realised that I also have an Intel HD Graphics 3000 card, which is also 512MB of VRAM. So I guess that makes my total 1GB with the two cards combined.

     
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  • Greg Baber
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    16. Greg Baber,
    Aug 1, 2012 8:39 AM   in reply to joobny
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    It really doesn't work like that.  The first card, the AMD, is the one that Premiere will use, and 512 MB is not enough for GPU Acceleration.  So, my answer is D) Your machine is not cut out for GPU acceleration.  Final Answer.  Sorry.

     
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  • BEL Eiendom AS
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    17. BEL Eiendom AS,
    Aug 1, 2012 10:48 AM   in reply to ADPrem
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    Sorry to inerrupt, but you said you had 16 GB Ram ? Where did you get that, what brand .

    When I bought my new Macbook Pro 17 max RAM from Apple is 8 GB

    BR

    Bjorn

     
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  • ExactImage
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    18. ExactImage,
    Aug 1, 2012 11:01 AM   in reply to BEL Eiendom AS
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    BEL Eiendom AS wrote:

     

    Sorry to inerrupt, but you said you had 16 GB Ram ? Where did you get that, what brand .

    When I bought my new Macbook Pro 17 max RAM from Apple is 8 GB

    BR

    Bjorn

     

    Crucial sells RAM kits for the MBP.  I have 16GB in mine.  Note that not all MBPs can take it - but some can - even though Apple only offer it with 8GB.  Mine is a late 2011.  The first thing I did was throw out the 4B that it came with and put 16GB in.... within about 10 mins of it arriving!

     
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