Upgrade Graphics Card or add ram- or both?

[Michael Szalapski]

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]

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]

[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]

[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