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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Upgrade Graphics Card or add ram- or both?

  • Upgrade Graphics Card or add ram- or both?

    Posted by Stephen Heppell on May 1, 2014 at 9:39 am

    Hello There
    I might be about to take on a job making a trailer that may be shown in cinemas. I think I need to upgrade my computer to be able to work efficiently in 2K.

    I currently have 8GB ram and a AMD Radeon HD7570 graphics card.

    Should I upgrade the graphics card or add more ram to the computer or both?

    Any help greatly Appreciated!

    Stephen

    Hepsi Cola

    Walter Soyka replied 12 years ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Michael Szalapski

    May 1, 2014 at 1:16 pm

    Except for one obsolete thing (the ray-traced renderer), After Effects doesn’t use the GPU to render at all. (Some third-party plugins do though, such as Element 3d, Red Giant Universe, etc.)

    More info on the GPU in AE here [link].

    Premiere does use the GPU though, so if you’re editing and not just doing motion graphics, you might want to look into Premiere’s requirements.

    CPU is most important in AE. More RAM would also be advised.

    Watch this event [link] for more info on how After Effects and Premiere use your system resources and how to optimize your setup.

    Also, this post [link] would be helpful.

    – The Great Szalam
    (The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

  • Thomas Leong

    May 1, 2014 at 1:57 pm

    For RAM addition, it also depends on your operating system, assuming you are using Windows 7 (don’t know about Mac).

    Home Premium 64-bit can only use max 16GB…because MS assumes anyone using Home would not need more. It will see more, but cannot use it.

    To use more, eg. if you have 32GB RAM, you need Pro or Ultimate.

    Not sure about Win 8, but google may help.

    Thomas Leong

  • Walter Soyka

    May 1, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    [Michael Szalapski] “CPU is most important in AE. More RAM would also be advised.”

    Building on this, more RAM lets you use your more CPU.

    Ae has a feature called multiprocessing, which launches multiple copies of the Ae renderer at the same time in order to render multiple frames at the same time. Each runs on its own CPU core — but each requires its own RAM. Without enough RAM, you cannot effectively use multiprocessing.

    What kind of CPU do you have?

    Walter Soyka
    Principal & Designer at Keen Live
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
    RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
    Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

  • Walter Soyka

    May 1, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    [Stephen heppell] “I think I need to upgrade my computer to be able to work efficiently in 2K.”

    With only 8 GB of RAM, you could use an upgrade — but don’t be too scared of 2K. It’s only marginally bigger than HD (2048×1080 versus 1920×1080).

    Walter Soyka
    Principal & Designer at Keen Live
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
    RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
    Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

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