Preview in after effects is SLOW, please help!

Faymus Media

Faymus Media

Well-known member
i have windows 7 ultimate, and after effects pro cs4...

i have video copilot action essentials2 720p, and in the tutorial videos he can move effects around and everything with no lag...

everything i do lags like crazy....

my computer is pretty fast...or at least i think it is...

core i7 920 overclocked @ 3.2 ghz, 8mb cache
3 gb DDR3 overclocked @ 1.6 ghz
WD sata hard drive 32mb cache

nvidia geforce 8800GT overclocked....

thanks for the help
 
Do you have open GL enabled for preview? I think your card should be supported

Do you have memory & multiprocessing preferences set properly?

Do you have other processes eating up memory & cpu cycles? (e.g. virus scan, background stuff, defrag etc...)?

Some effects are slow and need to be ram previewed even with dual socket workstations
 
Is there any audio? Turn the audio preview to off and then try. We had problems here where our projects would "hang" before it started to preview.
 
i dont know if this has anything to do with it but, it was an avi file i was placing effects on top of and the effects are quicktime .mov files...

audio preview is off and i dont know how to get it on....

nothing in the background, open GL i tried every setting still slow...

what settings should i use in the multi-processing settings?

also how to adjust to ram preview and non ram preview?

thanks for all the help
 
First off, you don't have enough RAM to being multiprocessing. Adobe recommends at least 2 GB per core for multiprocessing. I have 18 GB's in my machine and I usually keep it set only to use 4 cores (on an 8 core machine) and I don't use it all the time when working, only with complex comps or when I want to get a longer RAM preview. When multiprocessing is starting up for the first time it does lag because it's spawning background instances of AE. That process takes a bit of time.

Generally I don't use OpenGL, usually keep it set to adaptive resolution 1/4. On my workstation at the office, an 8 core Mac Pro, it's off, though OpenGL is on here at my home computer, a 27" iMac with an i7. I haven't done anything crazy here at home, but I haven't noticed the OpenGL being a problem, so maybe it's a moot point. Either way, I would try using Adaptive Resolution and see what happens. It may be faster.

Not sure what you mean by adjusting for RAM and non-RAM preview. To see anything in real-time in AE you have to RAM preview. There is no hitting the play button and watching it back a la Final Cut, Premiere, etc.

If you had more specifics of what you're doing and what happens that bothers you besides just "lag", that might be more helpful to pinpointing your problem. AE is so expansive and the little things matter with problems like this.
 
so ith has nothing to do with my video card?

if i purchase 12 gb will this be enought?

also in the multi processing tabs, it shows only 3 cores are being used....i guess i dont have enough ram to use them all?

i want it to run fast...
 
I still use CS3 so I have to manually set how many cores I use via the Throttle script. Either way, I'd set it to use only 2 out of the 4 cores and get at least 6-8 GB of RAM. Remember, you need some overhead for other apps, the OS, etc. And always the more RAM the better. I don't ever use all 18 GB's, but it makes a difference.

Regarding going "fast", it depends on which part you want to be fast at. AE doesn't use the video card when RAM previewing, that's all CPU and RAM and some disk, if needed. If you want your comp window to update quickly, it helps to have a good video card, but I'm sure what kind of difference you're going to realize. My experience has always been that the video card is the least of my worries. Granted, I use an ATI 3870 because we had a lot of issues with the 8800 card from Nvidia. Mind you, we're all Mac, so I'm sure that makes a difference, but you can see what I'm getting at.

A large part of it is optimization of your workflow and how you do things. Unfortunately, that's not something anyone can teach you in a post on a forum, takes years to understand and learn that one.

I would also try keeping multiprocessing off. You might find that you get better performance that way, and just turn it back on to render.
 
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