Making AE run faster....not sure what to do

#1

Ok, so I have quite a fast computer (Intel Core i7 CPU i7-920 2.66GHz 8M and 4gb DDR3 RAM) but I want to make sure I’ve optimised my computer for After Effects.

I’m not very technical and in fact, don’t really know what that means (what I’ve typed above), but know that it has something to do with the Open GL settings or something.

I was looking through the preferences - just putting things here but not sure what would be helpful:

Installed CPUs - 4, Installed RAM - 2.99 GB, Total AE Memory usage - 1.2GB, RAM for others - 0.5GB.

And under previews: Adaptive Resolution 1/4
Its also ticked on Enable Open GL and enable adaptive and accelerate using Open GL.

So I have NO idea what any of these mean, but during RAM preview, it does get a bit slow sometimes…can anyone help me and tell me what I can change so I get more interactive previews when working on my files.

I was told once that in the main composition window its better to have the previews option on off…if that makes any sense.

Sorry for these dumb questions.

#2

Honestly - upgrade to Vista 64bit and throw in full 12/ 24GB of RAM, then we can talk. Running a Core7i with a 32bit Vista is simply a waste. Your slowness is very likely caused by the Hyperthreading stuff in combination with OpenGL. In fact I tend to think that your system is processing frames too fast for what little RAM you have and then it begins tu shuffle around memory, trying to find some empty space…

Mylenium

#3

Yes, considering your general system specs, the OS being 32bit and so the memory address space being small, really is a bottle neck.

I won’t pretend that RAM is everything, we coped fine years ago, but today that really is a bottle neck that is easily removed in your case, with an OS swap and a relatively cheap ram upgrade.
Even 8gb fully addressed in 64bit will probably give you what feels more like 4x more ram to really work with.

Throw in a dedicated 10,000rpm scratch disc for AE to use when it does need to fall back to using hdd then that will help too (you can’t beat dedicated discs for swapping memory etc, as ultimately you will always end up back to the hdd’s with such apps)

AE really is a resource hog, and as soon as it drops to HDD you lose a huge amount of speed. Stop that happening as soon and you will gain alot of speed with your system!

For general tweaks, I’ve never found the 1/2 or 1/4 viewport pre-comp make that much difference, make sure multi-processing is off, since it uses loads of ram and takes a while to start operating/rendering frames (for interactive use it’s not nice imho)
I prefer to turn layers on and off or effects on and off. Ie, can you pre-comp out your effect heavy footage to an intermediate while you edit other elements etc… it might work out quicker in the long run because your UI speed is so much quicker.

If your problem is outright rendering speed out to files, then ram is less important, but it is still a huge bottleneck in your system, mainly down to the OS being 32bit and then you only having 4gig…

Dave
Dave

#4

I’d second 12GB ram with a 64bit OS.
You could also safely overclock the i7 to 3.5GHz with proper settings and cooling.

is it possible to get 24GB on an i7 mobo that will have 6 slots? are there any single 4GB ram chips atm?

Even in 8core MacPro / Xeon systems the jump from 2GB sticks to 4GB ones is ridiculously expensive…

#5

Thanks Dave, I actually have only bought this computer a while ago so don’t really want to spend more money getting RAM upgrades and OS upgrades - so part of what you’ve suggested will be helpful.

#6

I’ve recently discovered the joys of having solid-state drives for your OS and scratch disks - blazing fast read speeds means After Effects (and other programs) load in a snap, not the 15 to 20 second splash screen loads of old.

#7

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