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AE CS4 Render Settings – Why is Multiframe much slower?
I thought I had a pretty good handle on AE render setting (at least in CS3), I’ve researched this a lot, especially for large renders with image buffer problems. I know about the secret purge setting. I know about changing the prefs text document so that processors used is limited to 1 processor for every 2 gigs of available ram (for CS3). But I just got CS4, and it seems like everything has changed, and not in a good way.
I am using an 8-core mac with 12gb of ram running on snow leopard. I have tried several render setting variations, but it seems like no matter what I do, it always renders much faster with multiframe processing turned off. How can this be? In at least one instance, I rendered the same comp with MP on it took 2 hours, with it off it took 10 min.
What am I missing here? Any ideas?
Thanks a lot!
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5 Replies
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Start by reading this.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment. -
Thanks, I did actually come across that article and it was the most helpful thing I’ve read. It did raise more questions though, as I thought I had honed in on a sweet spot with my system/settings. I’ve been watching my activity monitor, and every time RAM usage got to 11.99 of 12gb I knew it was bad news, and that ae was about to get choked up. So I kept dialing the settings back until the RAM usage stayed under that number. I think I ended up using 4 of my 8 processors, and leaving 6gb of RAM for other apps.
The problem is, after dialing in these settings, multi-frame processing still took the same amount of time as rendering without it.
So are these render options pretty much useless unless I have 32gb of RAM?
I should be able to achieve some kind of render speed advantage having 8 cores and 12gb of RAM, but a quad core machine with 4GB on the lowest render prefs that we have in the office will typically render much faster, especially with render-intensive projects.What’s the deal?
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Perhaps this excerpt from “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” will shed some light:
“Using the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing feature does not speed up the rendering of all compositions. The rendering of some compositions is memory-intensive, such as when you are working with very large background plates that are several thousands of pixels tall and wide. The rendering of some compositions is bandwidth-intensive (I/O-intensive), such as when you are working with many source files, especially if they are not served by a fast, local, dedicated disk drive. The Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing feature works best at improving performance when the resource that is most exercised by the composition is CPU processing power, such as when applying a processor-intensive effect like a glow or blur.
Because antivirus software operates by monitoring every read and write operation, such software can decrease rendering speed, especially with the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously preference selected. ”
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment. -
Also, from the page that I just pointed to, here’s an important tip:
“Tip: In many cases, performance is improved by using fewer than the maximum number of processors for Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing, even when you have enough RAM for all of the processors. After Effects is a multithreaded application that can also use other forms of multiprocessing beyond just Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing, and it is possible for the processors to become “overscheduled” if these threads are competing for the same resources as the background processes used for rendering with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. Therefore, the best approach is to begin by using a small number of processors for Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing; and then increase the number of processors used until you find the optimum number for your computer system and compositions.”
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment. -
Yeah, this makes sense. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
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