Adobe Premiere Pro - Playback lag with this computer setup - settings help

[YolevonALLin]

Ok guys, really need some help. I think my Adobe Premiere Pro 2015 settings/configuration is preventing me from having lag free playback during editing. It starts out fine, then 15 or so seconds into playing a clip before I start slicing it up, huge LAG (1080p 60fps and 4K).

Here are my machine specs below. I recently did the upgrades in red, the original specs are the #'d bullets. To clarify the lag is with 1080p 60fps footage.. but it happens with all footage so far. I've tried changing the "GPU settings" but no help. I think my laptop, with the upgrades, is enough juice to handle PP for my simple editing needs and minor color grading.. Nothing huge or major edits here. Just need lag free settings. Exporting to youtube ready file has worked fine.. Just the playback lag that makes to so hard to use the program.

• What exact GPU settings do I need to use? Any other settings in Adobe that I need to use based on my machine below?
• Do I need to "render" all the videos in my sequence first? (I think this has still resulted in lag in the past).
• Any other best practices to avoid playback lag? SSD/HDD management? I tried to get these up to where they need by having windows and PP on my SSD..

Thanks!

Asus Q551LN-BBI706 - Convertible notebook.

1. 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4510U processor
   • With a 3MB L3 cache and 2.0GHz processor speed with Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz.
2. 8GB DDR3 memory (2, 4GB chips, only one is removable and upgradable to 12 total)
   • Expanded to 12GB total (max) with Crucial DDR3 upgrade.
3. 1TB hard drive (5400 rpm)
   • Upgraded to Samsung 500GB SSD (Windows 8.1 and PP2015 saved here here)
   • Moved 1TB HDD to CD/DVD Bay and have it as my media drive
   • I wiped this things clean and started over with a new windows and new adobe products.
4. Nvidia GeForce GT 840M 2GB video card
   • This is probably my weakness right?

 

[noiseboy72]

Have you enabled Mercury rendering on the graphics card in Premiere? On older versions of Premiere Pro, you needed to do a "hack" to enabled un-certified, but now any card can be used, albeit with a warning.

My MSI machine is a similar spec to yours, but with a hybrid, not SSD drive and it runs 2K fine and 1 stream of 4K without issue.

You should wait for clips to conform before attempting to play and ensure everything else is shut down.

Ensure your timeline is set to the native resolution of the clips, but TBH, this won't affect stuttering but the final output quality.

Can't think of anything else that would cause you issues.

 

[YolevonALLin]

Have you enabled Mercury rendering on the graphics card in Premiere? On older versions of Premiere Pro, you needed to do a "hack" to enabled un-certified, but now any card can be used, albeit with a warning.

My MSI machine is a similar spec to yours, but with a hybrid, not SSD drive and it runs 2K fine and 1 stream of 4K without issue.

You should wait for clips to conform before attempting to play and ensure everything else is shut down.

Ensure your timeline is set to the native resolution of the clips, but TBH, this won't affect stuttering but the final output quality.

Can't think of anything else that would cause you issues.

Yeah I did the Mercury GPU setting, in 2015 its a selection. By conform, do you mean just drag and wait, or do some sort of action? Sorry for the novice question.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[noiseboy72]

Yep, just drag and wait! Also check where your scratch and file discs are located. It is best to have them on separate physical drives if possible.

 

[Vandrel]

Rendering the videos will help with the problem. Ensuring you have no gaps between clips on the video timeline will also help. Without rendering those clips though it's going to cause that issue on most common hardware setups.

 

[aheydeck]

Good morning.

I looked at the benchmark for your processor, which wasn't great (3943). It's ok, but not great.12gb ram is good, and probably more than you'd need if you're not editing 4k.

If you are running dual hard drives, make sure the ssd is the one that is not the one running the os and applications. The ssd should be your scratch disk, and also where you store your source files on.

Your weakness isn't your graphics card. Editing video is mostly a cpu consuming process. What you should be spending money on is pretty much everything else but on graphics card.
As i can tell from your specs, the problem is in the processor right now.

Also, is there a reason for why your are filming in 60fps? If there is no particular reason/need for it, then shoot in 30fps or 24fps.

Hope it helps!

 

[Casper2015]

Firstly, ensure you are plugged in to the mains supply when editing.

Secondly, your processor will be pumping out a lot of heat. You need to get rid of that using a fan or special cooler pad if you don't want to be heat throttled.

Thirdly, try playing with the GPU settings in Premiere Pro. With a low end video card, it might be better to use your CPU only to render files.

Fourthly, read up about proxy video editing e.g. at this link:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/premiere-pro-quick-tip-how-to-create-proxies/.

Proxy video editing allows you to use a lower resolution file as a proxy for your high resolution file, and so be able to edit fast. You substitute your high resolution file for the final render.