AE only using 25 percent of my CPU

Question

I would like to get faster renders.  I have noticed that after effects is only using 25 percent of my cpu.  Is there any way to crank that all the way up to 100 percent like Premier does automatically?

Answer 1

CARLOSA345 wrote:
First of all do you  work for Adobe?
I do not work for Adobe. I'm a user like you. People on forums helped me out a lot when I was first learning AE over a decade ago and I like giving back to the communities that helped me so much.
CARLOSA345 wrote:
All 3d applications which are doing more intense calculations than AE dont require fine tuning to work properly.
This is a very valid frustration. It certainly seems as if it should behave differently.
However, your statement also demonstrates the core of the reason for the RAM/CPU behavior you've described. 3d software is doing more intense calculations. That's why it maxes the processors out, but look at the RAM use. For many of the 3d renders I do, the RAM isn't even halfway used yet all the cores are cranking away on my computer (plus all the cores on all the other computers I've wrangled into the render farm). After Effects is doing a lot of things that 3d software doesn't do, and so it uses system resources differently. It needs more RAM (for some compositions) and thus you're waiting on RAM while the processors seem to sit idle.
I've seen some folks with very footage-heavy compositions where their RAM and processors are sitting pretty idle because the bottleneck is their hard drive. If you're pulling 45 1080P clips at once for a shot, it's gonna take a bit for a normal hard drive to serve that up (luckily for me at my full-time job, I don't use normal hard drives).
But this is the crux of the problem. AE is such a versatile toolbox. It does things like DOF, 3d lights, soft shadows, particles, etc. but it also does keying, rotoscoping, stabilization and many other tasks. Some may rely on system resources other than the processors. That's why Adobe has made AE as tweakable as it is - they serve such a wide variety of uses.
Although, speaking of tweaking, have you seen how much tweaking you can do on C4D? It has a LOT more things in it to tweak than AE does. It doesn't usually crash though, but then, neither does my AE (which is why I suggested we could help figure out your issues).
And speaking of things sitting there idle, I would love for C4D to implement some form of GPU rendering natively as an option. I have very powerful GPUs in my computers at work (because my boss didn't listen to my technical request) and so it just sits there while C4D pounds on the processors. We haven't had time to do research into all the various GPU rendering plugins for C4D in order to make a choice and it frustrates the heck out of me to have all that horsepower just sitting there, idle.
CARLOSA345 wrote:
Also you tell me that the team is working on the problem so what good would it do to start a thread on it you can find threads on this subject by the bunches and its never really resolved.
The reason I suggested starting a thread was that I hoped the folks here in the forum could help you get your systems running without crashing on you. While I may have over a decade of experience, if you put the experience of the other folks on the forum together we have many centuries of experience. The veterans on these forums don't have the crashing issues you seem to be describing. Thus, I thought we might be able to help resolve your problems and remove the frustration you're experiencing.
Other threads from other people are running different systems than you are. Different OS, different hardware, different third-party plugins... If the majority of AE users had the crashing problems you're describing, AE wouldn't be the powerhouse in the industry that it is. That is what sparked my hope that there may be something fixable for you. RAM filling up while the processors sit at 25% might not be fixable by troubleshooting, but crashing probably can be.
And yes, the AE team says they're working on making it better, but it takes a while to rewrite software that is as complicated as AE is. This is not the kind of change that comes in a month or two. So, in the meantime, I thought we could help you work within the parameters of your current toolset until it improves.
I'm sure you've already been through these resources, but if you don't want to get help from the folks on the forums, it wouldn't hurt to take another look:
Optimizing for performance: Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
Video2Brain - Optimizing CPUs
FAQ: What are optimum memory settings for best performance in After Effects?
A recorded event where the Premiere and AE team discussed how their programs use system resources: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=set_registered&id=2490687&loc=en_us
Like I said, I'm just a user like you and I'm only on these forums to try to help everyone else learn enjoy using AE as much as I do. Hopefully some of this helps you too.