Improving my computer to run Adobe Premiere Pro CS6?

A

analogs

Well-known member
I have the following computer setup:
Processor – Intel ® Core™ i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz 2.79Ghz
Ram: 16gb
System type: 64 bit Windows 8 Pro
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, NVidia Geforce GT430
HD: 120gb SSD for OS, 2tb 7200rpm HD for video materials
Display: 2 X 24 inch displays

When I run 1920X1080 footage full screen using Premiere or Windows Media Player it can get rather choppy and I have to make the video window atleast a quarter size to have it running smoothly.

It is also rather laggy and choppy when I am in premiere editing and I have multiple layers(3+) running at one time.

Using 4K footage is worse.

Rendering with a 12-15 layers also takes a fair bit of time. 3-4 hours for 7 minutes footage with about 12 layers(video, title, images and audio - panning, volume, 3 color correct, warp stabilizer, unsharp mask with some of these automated) and only about 5 layers playing at one time.

What do you think I need to improve to my system so that I can run and edit video smoothly both in premiere and playback on full screen?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
analogs said:
I have the following computer setup:
Processor – Intel ® Core™ i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz 2.79Ghz
Ram: 16gb
System type: 64 bit Windows 8 Pro
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, NVidia Geforce GT430
HD: 120gb SSD for OS, 2tb 7200rpm HD for video materials
Display: 2 X 24 inch displays
Click to expand...

CS-6 wants three separate spindles. That is, three separate physical drives. Mine are called "system", "sources", and "renders". So I store my sources and do my edits against my D: drive, and when I render output AME pulls from the project on D: and outputs to E:. It's fun to watch it render because it keeps all three drives hopping.

One of the problems with CS-6 is the integration with AE. That is, when rendering AE usually can only use a single core, so it becomes a bottleneck. So using AE on every frame effectively turns your multicore wonder into a single core machine. Not good for performance at all. Which is a good reason to do all your color correction (for example) in PPro and not AE.

I've never had CS-6 use more than 12 GB (I've got 16 installed), so that's probably not your problem. I've found win8.1 to be a little faster than 8.0 (maybe 5%, not a big deal).

If you can get a faster CPU, that'll help too.

Finally, make sure that CS-6 is seeing and using your video card properly. That is, edit "cuda_supported_cards.txt" and make sure your video card shows up so that the Mercury Playback Engine (MPE) can use your video card's processing during rendering or playback. This is by far the biggest "bang for the buck" as far as performance goes.

So... faster CPU, win8.1, third drive, MPE using video card processing, do as much in PPro as you can, minimize AE if you can. There are some tuning tutorials for CS-6 around on the 'net, I've forgotten where, but you can find them if you search for them.
 
Thanks Bruce.

I just checked my CPU and noticed I only have a quadcore with 8 core hyperthreading.

I have the Gigabyte P55A-UD4, wondering if I can upgrade to an 8 core CPU and keep most of my current parts like 16gb ram, case and power supply?

Am I better off upgrading my PC and stick with CS6 or will upgrading to CC Premiere Pro make better use of my current PC setup and become usable with 4K?
 
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