- At the present time, Intel graphics chips do not support CUDA. It is possible that, in the nearest future, these chips will support OpenCL (which is a standard that is very similar to CUDA), but this is not guaranteed and their current drivers do not support OpenCL either.
- The CUDA Cards Enabler for Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects (Mac Edition) allows Premiere Pro to recognize unofficially supported CUDA video cards, which will enable hardware acceleration in these Apps. Please note that this article applies only to Mac OS X.
The After Effects CC (12.1) update is now available to all Creative Cloud members.
Among many other changes and fixes, this updates enables After Effects CC to run on Mac OS X v10.9 (Mavericks). This full update makes it unnecessary to install the previous After Effects CC (12.0.1) patch. Unlike the After Effects CC (12.0.1) patch, the After Effects CC (12.1) update can be used to update the trial version of After Effects CC (12.0).
You can install the update through the Creative Cloud desktop application, or you can check for new updates from within any Adobe application by choosing Help > Updates. One way to check for updates is by closing all Adobe applications other than Adobe Bridge, and choosing Help > Updates in Adobe Bridge; this ensures that all processes related to Adobe video applications have been quit and can be updated safely.
Ideally, you should install the updates automatically through the Creative Cloud desktop application or by choosing Help > Updates, but you can also directly download the update packages from the download page for Windows or Mac OS by choosing the “Adobe After Effects CC (12.1)” update for your operating system. (IMPORTANT: The After Effects CC updates are not at the top of the page; scroll down to find them.)
Please Note: Due to an incompatibility issue, we advise users to defer updating to Linux Kernel 5.9+ until mid-November when an NVIDIA Linux GPU driver update with Kernel 5.9+ support is expected to be available.
NOTE: See this post on how to migrate settings (workspaces, preferences, etc.) from After Effects CC (12.0) to After Effects CC (12.1).
We have also been working with several providers of plug-ins, codecs, and hardware devices to assist them in updating their software to fix some errors and crashes. Please take this opportunity to download and install updated codecs, plug-ins, and drivers from these providers, as relevant to your work.
For details of what was new in After Effects CC (12.0), see this page.
For details of all of the other updates for Adobe professional video and audio applications, see this page.
Please, if you want to ask questions about these new and changed features, come on over to the After Effects user-to-user forum. If you’d like to submit feature requests (or bug reports), you can do so here.
top new features in After Effects CC (12.1)
- mask tracker
- Detail-preserving Upscale effect
- improved performance for analysis phase for 3D Camera Tracker and Warp Stabilizer effects
- property linking
- HiDPI content viewers for Retina displays on Mac computers
- improved snapping behavior, including snapping beyond layer boundaries and to internal wireframes
- OptiX 3.0 library for GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer
- improved Cinema 4D integration
- Adobe Anywhere integration and an early preview of the Media Browser panel
resources for learning more about new features in After Effects CC (12.1)
videos by Steve Forde
other resources
(nearly) all new and changed features in After Effects CC (12.1)
Here is a virtually comprehensive list of changes, with detail beyond the summaries of the top items listed above. We’ll be posting a lot more detail over the coming weeks, and the outline below will be populated with links to in-depth articles and tutorials, so bookmark this page and check back.
mask tracker
The mask tracker transforms a mask so that it follows the motion of an object (or objects) in a movie. The tracked object must maintain the same shape throughout the movie, though it may change position, scale, and perspective and still be effectively tracked; this is why the mask tracker is sometimes called the “rigid mask tracker”.
When a mask is selected, the Tracker panel switches to mask tracking mode, showing the much simpler set of controls that are relevant to mask tracking: controls for tracking forward or backward either one frame at a time or to the end of the layer Method, with which you can choose to modify position, scale, rotation, skew, and perspective for the mask. If the Tracker panel isn’t shown, you can show it in mask tracker mode by choosing Animation > Track Mask with a mask selected, or context-click a mask and choose Track Mask from the context menu.
The result of using the mask tracker is the application of keyframes for the Mask Path property so that the mask shape matches the transformations tracked in the layer, depending on which Method setting is chosen.
You can select multiple masks before beginning the tracking operation, and keyframes will be added to the Mask Path property for each selected mask.
The layer being tracked must be a track matte, an adjustment layer, or a layer with a source that can contain motion; this includes layers based on video footage and precompositions, but not solid-color layers or still images.
The search region for the mask tracking analysis is the region encompassed by the mask, considering its Mask Expansion property.
improved performance for analysis phase for 3D Camera Tracker and Warp Stabilizer effects
The background process that analyzes footage for the 3D Camera Tracker and Warp Stabilizer effects is now much faster, largely because of being converted to use multiple threads simultaneously. The increase in speed for the analysis (tracking) phase for the 3D Camera Tracker and Warp Stabilizer has been measured at 60-300%, depending on details of the footage, et cetera.
Cuda 5.0 Mac After Effects Download Utorrent
Detail-preserving Upscale effect
The Detail-Preserving Upscale effect is capable of scaling images up by large amounts while preserving details in the image, so that sharp lines and curves stay sharp. Scaling up from SD frame sizes to HD frames sizes, or from HD frame sizes to digital cinema frame sizes is well within the range in which this effect is intended to operate with good results. This effect is very closely related to the Preserve Details resampling option in the Image Size dialog box in Photoshop.
The controls for the effect are relatively simple:
- Fit to Comp Width: sets Scale percentage so that the layer’s width matches the composition’s width, with pixel aspect ratio taken into account
- Fit to Comp Height: sets Scale percentage so that the layer’s height matches the compositions’s height, pixel aspect ratio taken into account
- Scale: Note that the minimum value is 100%, since this is just for scaling up.
- Reduce Noise: Increase this value to apply noise reduction before the scaling calculations, so that noise is not mistakenly treated as detail to preserve.
- Detail: The higher this value, the greater the sharpness/contract of edges, at the risk of introducing ringing/halo artifacts. Lower values are more smooth and natural.
- Alpha: You can choose to process the alpha channel differently than the color channels, for performance reasons. The default is to use bicubic sampling.
This effect is slower than other scaling alternatives, such as using the layer’s native bilinear or bicubic scaling in the Transform property group.
bicubic sampling option in Transform effect
The Transform effect now has the ability to use bicubic sampling for all of its transformations.
Choose Bicubic from the new Sampling menu at the bottom of the Transform effect’s properties in the Effect Controls panel. Bilinear is still the default.
OptiX 3.0 library for GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer
After Effects CC (12.0) used the OptiX 2 library from Nvidia for the GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer. After Effects CC (12.1) uses the new OptiX 3 library.
![Cuda 5.0 mac after effects downloads Cuda 5.0 mac after effects downloads](/uploads/1/1/9/6/119618568/533598597.jpg)
The new OptiX library has many advantages, with the most important being the following:
- fixes a crash on Mac OSX v10.9 (Mavericks)
- improved performance, including improvements with multiple GPUs
The new OptiX library requires CUDA 5.0 or higher.
OpenGL features enabled for all Intel GPUs
In previous versions of After Effects, the OpenGL features were enabled on Intel GPUs only if those GPUs were listed in a “whitelist” file (intel_ogl_supported_cards.txt). This was because early generations of Intel GPUs and their drivers had problems with OpenGL features, so we needed to test each individually and only allow specific known-good configurations to work. Recent Intel GPUs and drivers have been of high enough quality that we have removed this check, and there is no longer an intel_ogl_supported_cards.txt file.
For details of the OpenGL features relevant to this change, see this page: GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features in After Effects
preference for bypassing whitelist for GPU acceleration of ray-traced 3D renderer
In After Effects CS6 (11.0) and CC (12.0), the GPU Information dialog box has a Ray-tracing menu from which the user can choose GPU or CPU. If the installed hardware is not on the list of tested and supported GPUs, the GPU menu item is disabled (grayed out) and below the menu is this text: “GPU not available – incompatible device or display driver”.
In After Effects CC (12.1), we have added a checkbox: “Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of ray-traced 3D renderer.”
Enabling this checkbox will do a couple of things:
- After Effects will use the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer with any GPU that meets minimum requirements (which include 1GB of VRAM and CUDA 5.0).
- The text “GPU not available – incompatible device or display driver” will change to “Unsupported GPU enabled for CUDA acceleration” if the GPU meets the minimum requirements but is not on the whitelist. If the GPU doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, the text remains as the original.
- In the CUDA section at the bottom of the GPU Information dialog box, “(unsupported)” is added to the Devices entry if the installed hardware isn’t on the whitelist but is enabled.
When the user enables this preference, a dialog box appears that tells the user that using an untested and unsupported GPU is something that they do at their own risk and that technical support is only provided for supported configurations.
cards added to CUDA whitelist for Optix (for GPU acceleration of ray-traced 3D renderer)
- GTX TITAN (Windows)
- GTX 780 (Windows)
- GTX 770 (Windows)
- GTX 760 (Windows)
- GTX 680MX (Mac OS and Windows)
- GTX 680 (added for Mac OS; was already on Windows list)
- GTX 675MX (Mac OS and Windows)
- GT 650M (added for Windows; was already on Mac OS list)
- GTX 590 (Windows)
- Quadro K6000 (Windows)
- Quadro K4000 (Windows)
- Quadro K2000 (Windows)
- Quadro K5000M (Windows)
- Quadro K4000M (Windows)
- Quadro K3000M (Windows)
- Quadro K5100M (Windows)
- Quadro K4100M (Windows)
- Quadro K3100M (Windows)
- Quadro K2100M (Windows)
Let us know what other GPUs you want us to test and support with a feature request here.
property linking
You can select any property or set of properties and choose Edit > Copy With Property Links and then paste those properties on any layer in any composition. The result is that the pasted properties remain connected to the layer from which the properties were copied, such that any change made to the original property is reflected in all of the instances of the pasted property links.
One use case is to create one master effect controller and then paste property links to any number of controlled instances, so that changes can be made once and affect all controlled instances.
You can even copy an entire layer with property links and paste it to create duplicates that follow the changes made to the original.
The property links are established and maintained through expressions, but there is no need to write (or even see) the expressions that are created.
option when precomposing to trim precomposition duration to duration of selected layers
When you precompose, you have a new option: Adjust Composition Duration To The Time Span Of The Selected Layers. Choose this to create a new composition that has a duration that is the same as that spanned by the selected layers. If you deselect this option, then the duration of the newly created composition is the same as the duration of the original composition, without regard for the duration of the layers being precomposed; this has been the only option in previous versions of After Effects.
layers created immediately above topmost selected layer
In previous versions of After Effects, most commands that created a new layer would create the new layer at the top of the layer stack, regardless of whether any layers were selected.
In After Effects CC (12.1), most commands that create a new layer create the layer immediately above the topmost selected layer. If no layer is selected, then the new layer is created at the top of the layer stack. This new behavior should make many workflows more convenient, preventing you from needing to scroll to the top of the layer stack and drag a new layer down to the needed place.
Here is a list of commands to which the new behavior applies:
- Layer > New > Text
- Layer > New > Solid
- Layer > New > Light
- Layer > New > Camera
- Layer > New > Null Object
- Layer > New > Shape Layer
- Layer > New > Adjustment Layer
- Layer > New > Adobe Photoshop File
- Layer > New > MAXON CINEMA 4D File
The new behavior also applies to the respective keyboard shortcuts for these same commands.
The behavior of scripting and AEGP plug-in commands that create new layers has not changed; they still create layers at the top of the layer stack. This is to prevent breaking existing scripts and AEGP plug-ins. (Of course, if your script is using the
app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId(...))
pattern to call the menu command, the behavior will be the new behavior of creating the layer above the topmost selected layer.)user-defined location for Auto-save
In the Auto-save category in the Preferences dialog box, you can choose to either save the auto-saved projects next to the original project (the behavior in previous versions when Auto-save is enabled) or in a custom location.
improvements to keyboard shortcuts for showing properties with keyframes, expressions
The U keyboard shortcut now only shows properties with keyframes, not properties that have expressions but no keyframes. If a property has both keyframes and expressions, the U keyboard shortcut shows the property but leaves the expression field collapsed so that the expression itself is not shown. There is a new command in the Animation menu for this behavior: Reveal Properties With Keyframes.
The old behavior, of showing properties with keyframes and properties with expressions, is still available in the Animation menu as Reveal Properties With Animation. You can reassign the U keyboard shortcut to that command if you’d like to go back to the way things were before.
The UU keyboard shortcut for showing all modified properties is unchanged.
The EE (and Shift+EE) shortcut for showing properties with expressions is essentially unchanged.
command for moving anchor point to center of content
You can set the anchor point to be in the center of the layer content using the new command Layer > Transform > Center Anchor Point In Layer Content.
The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+Home on Windows and Command+Option+Home on Mac OS. You can also Ctrl+double-click (Windows) or Command+double-click the Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool to invoke this command.
A few great uses for this new command:
- setting the anchor point of a shape layer to the center of a single shape or to the centroid of a group of shapes in a shape layer
- setting the anchor point for a text layer to the center of the text
- setting the anchor point of a layer to then center of the visible area within a masked region
mask path drawn using color that differs from region in which first click to draw mask is made
In the Appearance category of the Preferences dialog box, there is a new preference: Use Contrasting Color For Mask Path. This preference relies on the Cycle Mask Colors preference being enabled, since the new feature is still cycling through the same label colors. If the Use Contrasting Color For Mask Path preference is on, After Effects analyzes the colors near the point where you first click to draw a mask and chooses a label color that is as different from the colors in that region as possible, while also avoiding the color of the last mask drawn.
improved Cinema 4D integration, with updated Cineware functionality
This version of After Effects comes with a new version of the Cineware effect. All features from After Effects CC (12.0) should behave the same, and several bugs have been fixed. This version also adds some new functionality.
There are two new settings in the Cineware effect’s Options dialog box, with which you can specify which instance of Cinema 4D to use with After Effects:
- Cinema 4D Render Path: Choose which version of Cinema 4D (R14 or R15) for rendering while working in After Effects. For example, you can choose to use Cinema 4D Studio, Broadcast, Prime, or Visualize if you have it installed. The default is CineRender, which is installed by After Effects.
- Cinema 4D Executable Path: Choose which version of Cinema 4D to use when opening a .c4d file with Edit Original or when creating a new Cinema 4D file from After Effects. The default is an installed full-featured edition of Cinema 4D (Studio, Broadcast, Prime, or Visualize), or Cinema 4D Lite if no other edition of Cinema 4D has been installed.
You must restart After Effects after changing these settings for the new settings to be used, and you should purge all memory and disk cache data (Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache) after changing the Cinema 4D rendering application. In some cases, you may need to reset your After Effects preferences after switching from one Cinema 4D rendering application to another Cinema 4D rendering application.
When you choose to use an edition of Cinema 4D other than Cinema 4D Lite, you can use new rendering capabilities within Cineware beyond the default renderer, including the Physical renderer and Sketch & Toon. You choose which renderer to use in Cinema 4D and save the .c4d file with those settings. Whichever renderer is specified in Cinema 4D is the one that will be used by the Cineware effect when the Renderer setting in the effect is Standard (Final). Most effects, including third-party plug-ins, should work within the Cineware effect when you choose to use Cinema 4D R15 (not R14 or the default CineRender) as the renderer for Cineware.
The versions of Cinema 4D that are compatible with this version of the Cineware effect are as follows:
- R14.042 or above (Use the Cinema 4D online updater to install the current version.)
- R15.037 or above
HiDPI content viewers for Retina displays on Mac computers
After Effects will now take advantage of a Retina display on a Mac computer to show each pixel of content in a viewer as a single pixel on the display. This affects the contents of the Footage panel, Layer panel, and Composition panel, including both your video content and some UI overlays and widgets within the content area.
Note that for a given piece of content to appear the same on a Retina/HiDPI display as on a non-HiDPI display, the zoom value for the former needs to be twice that of the latter, since the points are half the size. If you drag a panel from a Retina/HiDPI display to a non-HiDPI display, you’ll see the zoom value change, while the content occupies the same space on the screen.
This does not affects pointers, buttons, other panels, and various other aspects of the After Effects user interface. These are targeted at a later release, since HiDPI content viewers were deemed to be a higher priority.
snapping beyond layer edges, to align layers in 2D and 3D space along lines defined by layer features
There are two new options next to the Snapping checkbox in the Tools panel:
- Snap Along Edges Extending Beyond Layer Boundaries: Enables snapping to lines outside of a layer’s boundaries (e.g., to the line defined by the extension of a layer’s edge in 3D space). This makes aligning layers in 3D space much easier.
- Snap To Features Inside Collapsed Compositions And Text Layers: Turns on internal wireframes for layers inside of compositions with collapsed transformations and for individual characters in per-character 3D text layers. This can be useful, for example, for snapping a layer’s anchor point to the baseline of a specific text character.
rectified audio waveforms
By default, audio waveforms are shown as “rectified” audio waveforms, as in recent versions of Premiere Pro. This means that the magnitude of the audio is shown only in one direction from the horizontal axis, and the magnitude is shown on a logarithmic scale that makes it easier to see how loud a sound will be perceived to be. You can switch back to the old method of showing audio waveforms by deselecting Rectified Audio Waveforms in the panel menu of the Timeline panel.
added iris and highlight properties for camera layers to the expression language menu
irisShape
irisRotation
irisRoundness
irisAspectRatio
irisDiffractionFringe
highlightGain
highlightThreshold
highlightSaturation
new (additional) folder from which scripts are loaded, so that users without administrator privileges can install scripts
There is a new (additional) folder from which After Effects will load scripts, and it’s in the same location as preferences files:
- Windows: Users[user_name]AppDataRoamingAdobeAfter Effects12.1Scripts
- Mac OS: /Users/[user_name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/12.1/Scripts
These are in a folder that regular users have permissions to alter, so there is no longer a need for administrator permissions to install scripts.
automatically opening and closing folders in Project panel when dragging
If you pause with the pointer over a folder during a drag operation in the Project panel, the folder will open so that you can drop the items into a folder deeper within a hierarchy of folders.
Cuda 5.0
default number of Undo operations available increased from 32 to 99, and preference removed from user interface
We have increased the default number of Undo operations available to 99 and removed the preference from the Preferences dialog box. The lower setting was needed in the past when computers typically had far less RAM.
commands for turning logging on and off and for revealing log files
To enable logging by the After Effects application, so that it records details of the session to a set of text files, choose Help > Enable Logging.
You’ll need to restart the application for logging to begin.
Logging has some negative effects on performance, so After Effects will disable logging after 24 hours if logging was enabled through this menu command.
To see the log files, choose Help > Reveal Logging File.
new Enable QuickTime Video Preview preference in Video Preview preferences category on Mac OS
We have isolated the recent problems with QuickTime files to a conflict with a QuickTime component distributed with the Apple video applications (Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor). Specifically, the problematic component is the Apple DVCPROHDVideoOutput QuickTime component, which is used for previews to an external video monitor. This problem with this QuickTime component makes the QT32 Server component crash when After Effects probes the computer system for QuickTime video preview devices. The QT32 Server component is needed for all QuickTime features in After Effects, so having it crash causes failures in QuickTime features in After Effects.
To prevent this crash of QT32 Server, we have disabled the automatic probing of the system for QuickTime video preview devices. To re-enable this feature, you can turn on the Enable QuickTime Video Preview preference in the Video Preview preferences category. Turning this preference on will allow After Effects to use QuickTime video previews to external devices, but it may also cause the crash in QT32 Server This preference is a temporary measure, meant to protect users from the failures in importing and exporting QuickTime movies while we work on replacing the QuickTime video preview system with a system based on Mercury Transmit that doesn’t have these problems. We are working toward having a better system in place in the near future.
better error message for duplicate plug-ins
In previous versions of After Effects, if there were duplicate plug-ins (with the same match names) installed, After Effects would show multiple error messages – one for each duplicate – but it didn’t identify where the duplicates were located on disk.
In After Effects CC (12.1), there is one consolidated error message for all duplicate plug-ins, and it shows the file path for each duplicate.
better expression error messages
The error messages that appear when an expression is disabled because an item (e.g., layer, composition, effect) is missing are now consolidated and more user-friendly.
removal of extraneous warnings regarding missing custom effects
If you used an animation preset based on a custom effect (such as those defined in PresetEffects.xml), you could get a warning that an effect was missing, even though nothing needed for the animation preset was missing.
This has been fixed, but it requires a specific action on the part of the person creating the animation preset: The matchname must be 31 characters or less and begin with the string “Pseudo/” or with another string that has been defined by After Effects. (At this time, other matchname strings are “Prolost_Burns”, “Prolost_Boardo”, “Prolost_Fader”, “Prolost_Oscillate”, “Vignette_Controls”, “Beautify”, “Typist”, “Wiggly”, “Mikey’s_Split”, “Mikey’s_Distress”, “Mikey’s_Flare”, “Mikey’s_Control”, “Mikey’s_Burn”.)
Be sure to increment your matchname any time that you make a change, or else you won’t be able to use both versions within one project.
Adobe Anywhere integration
After Effects CC (12.1) includes the first phase of After Effects integration with Adobe Anywhere.
miscellaneous new and changed features
- The preference Write XMP IDs To Files On Import (in the Media & Disk Cache preferences category) is now disabled by default.
- The Color Key effect and Luma Key effect are now in the Obsolete category. (In most cases, you should be using superior effects such as Keylight and the Extract effect.)
- The Create Shapes From Vector Layer command works on multiple selected layers.
- The Cycle Mask Colors preference is enabled by default.
- The Viewer Quality preferences are set to More Accurate Except RAM Preview by default, rather than Faster (which wasn’t all that much faster and looked bad).
- The kerning option in the Character panel persists so that you no longer need to set the kerning option in the Character panel to Optical every time you want to use this option.
- In previous versions of After Effects, if you made a change to the composition while the composition view was not centered (e.g., because you used the Hand tool to look at another part of the composition), the composition view would become centered after the change. This forced you to drag again with the Hand tool to get back to the part of the composition that you were looking at. This is fixed. Of course, if the change made to the composition affects the size or aspect ratio of the composition, it will still be re-centered.
- Freezing the segmentation for the Roto Brush & Refine Matte effect operates on all spans withing the entire composition duration, instead of only within the work area.
- Wireframes for cameras and lights are shown by default, even when these layers not selected.
- After Effects now gives a better message and an alert sound when you try to open a layer in the Layer panel that can’t be opened there (e.g., precomposition layer with collapsed transformations, continuously rasterized layer, shape layer).
- Indexed-color PNG files and grayscale PNG files with transparency can be imported.
- Photoshop Large Document (.psb) files can be imported.
- CMYK JPEG files can be imported.
- Dashes and gaps are now explicitly numbered (Dash 2, Gap 2, …) when adding multiple dashes and gaps to a shape layer stroke. (This makes referring to them with expressions easier.)
- The Brightness & Contrast effect has been improved and now matches the filter in Photoshop. You can still choose to use the legacy algorithm, which allows HDR results.
- You can now open a dialog box for editing values for 3D Point Control effect (by context-clicking and choosing Edit Value).
- There are significant performance improvements in propagation for Roto Brush and Refine Matte effects.
- The layer index number is now shown in the menu for choosing a target for motion tracking data (opened with Edit Target button in the Tracker panel).
- The correct name of the 3D renderer is shown for third-party renderers (e.g., AtomKraft).
- Added Center property for shape layer Twist path operation.
- There is now an improved error message telling people to update their CUDA drivers.
- When converting a layer based on an Illustrator file to a shape layer, the Video (eyeball) switch of the original layer is turned off only if the conversion is successful.
- Improvements to Shift-parenting behavior when the target layer already has a parent layer.
- Improved performance with imported DPX image sequence read over network.
- Ability to use the RED Rocket-X and EPIC Dragon footage.
a few choice bug fixes
We fixed a lot of bugs in this update. Here are a few that I think are especially worth calling out:
- Between clicking a menu to open it and the menu actually opening, several seconds could elapse on some computers. The same problem occurred for keyboard shortcuts. This is fixed.
- Crashes using Timecode effect, Basic Text effect, and Numbers effect. These are fixed.
- Crash with message “After Effects error: CT bad param: TrueType or CFF font expected (83 :: 2)”. This is fixed.
- Custom output modules were ignored by aerender and lost when the full After Effects application was started. This is fixed.
- Crash because of missing interface font, with message saying unable to load or unable to create font (Verdana or Arial). This is fixed.
- Exported DPX files had wrong results when negative color values present in composition. This is fixed.
- Performance with DPX files being read across a network was poor. This is fixed.
- CC Force Motion Blur and CC Wide Time caused very long delays, making the application appear to hang. These are fixed.
- Crash using Timewarp effect on Mac OSX v10.9 (Mavericks). This is fixed.
- Error “Unable to invert matrix (17::45)” when using the snapping features. This is fixed.
- scripting: The
onClose
callback wasn’t called when closing an embedded panel using the close (x) button on the panel’s tab. It works now. - scripting: Scrollbars in ScriptUI panels were drawn in the wrong place under some circumstances. This is fixed.
- Many other causes of crashes and other errors and misbehaviors were fixed.
Sep 09, 2012 Download Text File: Install Cuda for Mac OSX 1) Download and Install Cuda Drive for Mac: http://www.nvidia.com/obje.
Understand the GPU and GPU driver requirements for the November 2019 (version 17.0) and later releases of After Effects.
What GPU should be used for the best performance?
New GPU chipsets are always being introduced, and the After Effects team does not qualify or recommend individual GPU chipsets, however, here are some guidelines you can follow to get the best GPU for your workflow.
- Individual GPU technologies are less important than overall GPU performance. After Effects supports OpenGL, OpenCL, CUDA, and Metal to varying degrees. Choose a high-performance card that meets your individual budget and system needs.
- Premiere Pro utilizes the GPU more broadly than After Effects currently does, and its technology is shared with After Effects. The list of recommended GPUs for Premiere Pro (see Adobe Premiere Pro CC system requirements) is a good place to start.
- Other applications in your workflow may have a GPU requirement that is higher than After Effects. Take all of them into consideration.
- Check if you have Multiple GPUs in the same machine.
- Check if you have unsupported GPUs on your Mac machine.
After upgrading to After Effects version 17.0, there may be driver issues, and you may need to upgrade your driver.
Some of the driver issues that you could face are: Remove unicode characters online.
- System incompatibilities that are known to cause instability and crashes that lead to data loss.
- The current version of your network device software may cause issues with your Adobe application
- Intermittent crash while editing.
- You can get error messages such as, 'This version of your operating system is incompatible with your Adobe application.'
- No previews, garbled previews, frame drops, performance issues including slow playback or frame glitches.
This article explains what is needed for using CUDA graphics with the 2019 versions of After Effects (17.0 and higher).
NVIDIA CUDA graphics acceleration requirements for MacOS and Windows
Note:
Adobe strongly recommends updating to NVIDIA driver 430.86 or later when using After Effects. Drivers prior to this have a known issue which can lead to a crash.
NVIDIA CUDA graphics acceleration requires CUDA 9.2 drivers.
CUDA is not a requirement for running the Adobe video apps, but if you prefer CUDA graphics acceleration, you must have CUDA 9.2 drivers from NVIDIA installed on your system before upgrading to After Effects versions 17.0 and later.
These drivers are updated regularly so check the NVIDA website to be sure you have the most current version for your GPU.
You can find the latest GPU drivers here:
Updating display driver and CUDA 9.2 driver for MacOS
- Requires macOS 10.13.6 (most recent version of High Sierra).
- A current NVIDIA GPU with at least 4 GB of memory.
- NVIDIA display driver version 387.10.10.10.40.105.
Note:
The current version of your NVIDIA drivers for macOS 10.13.6 do not support CUDA 9.2 and cause issues with your Adobe application. Adobe does not recommend upgrading beyond macOS 10.13.6 as Mac0S 10.14 (Mojave) does not currently support CUDA.
Make sure you update the device driver before you install the CUDA driver. You can update the device driver from the following locations:
Cuda 5.0 Mac After Effects Downloads
- Display driver: version 387.10.10.10.40.105 (direct download).
- CUDA driver: You can update the CUDA driver in the CUDA panel in System Preferences or follow this link - 130_macos (direct download).
There is a host of After Effects features that use GPU to accelerate rendering. To view these effects, select Project Settings > Video and Effects Rendering. For a list of GPU-accelerated effects and features, see GPU-accelerated effects.
Some third-party effects, like Element 3D by Video Copilot uses the GPU independently of After Effects. Refer to the documentation from the publisher for guidance on what GPUs and technology are supported. Effects such as Magic Bullet Looks, hook into the Mercury GPU Acceleration pipeline (such effects are also GPU-accelerated in Premiere Pro).
Mercury GPU Acceleration allows After Effects to render supported effects using the GPU, which can significantly improve render time.
You may recognize the Mercury name from Premiere Pro. After Effects uses the same technology that is used by Premiere Pro Mercury Playback Engine for rendering. (The playback engine in After Effects is otherwise different from Premiere Pro, so After Effects only uses the rendering component of that technology.)
Mercury GPU Acceleration is a project setting. To enable it, select File > Project Settings, click the Video Rendering and Effects tab, and set the Use option to Mercury GPU Acceleration. Depending on your computer and GPU, you may see multiple such options. After Effects supports the following GPU technologies:
- OpenCL (macOS and Windows)
- CUDA (Windows only, with a Nvidia GPU)
- Metal (macOS only, 10.12 and later)
Note:
NVIDIA CUDA is not supported in MacOS 10.14 and later. If you are using an Apple-authorized NVIDIA GPU, you can continue to use the Metal Mercury Playback Engine.
A couple of technical points worth noting about the above list:
- All of the VR effects such as VR Blur only work on the GPU. Unlike the other effects, they do not currently have a CPU fallback. We recommend a GPU with high VRAM, 4GB or better, to use these effects. Their advantage for VR over other effects is that they are seamless, and they wrap the ends of the VR image together. Also, some of them are useful on non-VR footage because they are wholly new to After Effects, like VR Chromatic Aberrations.
- Layer transforms and layer quality require layer motion blur to be enabled because by themselves, they do not render significantly faster on the GPU. But rendering motion blur on the GPU requires it to be aware of the transforms and quality, so these calculations are done on the GPU when motion blur requires it. This is an opportunity to point out that in a mixed CPU and GPU rendering environment, there is a performance cost to moving frames between CPU and GPU memory. If an effect is not faster to render on the GPU than on the CPU, you lose performance time while copying the frames back and forth.
- The Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels option in Preferences > Previews is enabled by default, and uses OpenGL to prepare the rendered frames for screen display during previews/playback. Once After Effects renders the frame, it next prepares that frame for display, taking into account the screen resolution, scaling, overlays like guides and layer handles, and color management. Specifically, View > Use Display Color Management, when a working space color profile has been enabled for the project. When the Hardware Accelerate option is disabled, After Effects processes all of that on the CPU, but the GPU can accelerate this process, especially color management. The GPU requirement for this is very low, and any modern video card with a small amount of VRAM is adequate.
Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Legal Notices Online Privacy Policy
NOTE: With the release of Adobe After Effects CC 2015 you no longer need to use the CUDA.BAT program for After Effect to recognize your video card. Now all you need to do is go into Preferences, then Previews and select GPU Information. Then follow these steps:
Check the box that says 'Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of ray-traced 3D render.'
Next, right above it, set Ray-tracing to GPU (unsupported)
That's it.
Check the box that says 'Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of ray-traced 3D render.'
Next, right above it, set Ray-tracing to GPU (unsupported)
That's it.
Download Cuda 9.0
When Adobe came out with Adobe After Effects CS6, they offered a new Ray Traced 3D Rendering Engine that would take advantage of the NVidia video card's GPU and the CUDA cores for offering faster rendering of ray-traced 3D images.
While Adobe still offers the ray-traced 3D render engine in After Effects CC and CC 2014, they now consider this an obsolete feature and are no longer supporting it. Because they are no longer supporting the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine, the newer video cards will not work and they will give you this error if you try to enable them:
After Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed. (5070::0)
You will get this error with the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards. So with these video cards do not enable the GPU for Ray Traced 3D in After Effects.
After Effects only used the NVidia CUDA cores with the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. It does use the GPU with OpenGL for a few other minor things. For these things the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards will work just fine. It is ONLY the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine that can't be enable.
Adobe has bundled Cinema 4D Lite with the later versions of After Effects and this is what you will need to use instead of the Ray Trace 3D Renderer.
If you are running any other program, such as Adobe Premiere, you can still the the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards without any problems.
For a more detail explanation you can read our blog post about the After Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed. (5070::0)
Adobe has only “certified” a few video cards for use with the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. (See Note 1, About Adobe's Certified Video Cards). If you don't have a certified card, there is no problem. You can just edit a file (raytracer_supported_cards.txt) and add your video card to a list of certified video cards. Once you do that, Adobe After Effects will use your NVidia video card's GPU with the ray-traced 3D rendering engine. (Except, with the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards.)
In this article I will show you two ways to add your video card to the list. One, is with a small program I wrote. The other way is by manually editing the file.
If you are running other Adobe programs, such as:
Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC and CC 2014
Adobe After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014 (and you are not using the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards)
Adobe Media Encoder CC and CC 2014
Adobe SpreedGrade CC and CC 2014
Adobe Prelude CC 2014
NOTE: If you are using After Effects CC (12.1) or After Effects CC 2014, Adobe has added this checkbox – “Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of Ray-Traced 3D Renderer.” Go ahead and simply check the box or follow the steps below to add your video card to the list of approved video cards. Either way, After Effects will allow you to use the Ray-Traced 3D Render Engine will use your video card.
UPDATE: I have heard from a few people, that even though they checked the box for 'Enable untested, unsupported GPU..' They had some strange problems. However, once they added their video card to the raytracer_supported_cards.txt file list, their problems stopped. So I would recommend adding your video card to the list.
This article covers a lot of information, not just how to add your video card to the raytracer_supported_cards.txt file. The information is important, so PLEASE read the article in it's entirety.
PLEASE NOTE: Studio 1 Productions does not sell video cards, Adobe products or other products mentioned in this article. We are simply users of Adobe and Sony Vegas products. So we are not trying to sell you anything by providing this article or the unlock software.
We invite you to take a look at the products we do offer, simply place your mouse over the products link at the top of the page or click on the products link at the top of the page.
Please Update to the Latest Version
Please check to make sure you are running the latest updated version. This is very important as Adobe has made several fixes for the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine so it is more compatible with other NVidia video cards. (Except the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards)
When ever you Update After Effects
The file called raytracer_supported_cards.txt file contains a list of NVidia video cards that allow After Effects to use the GPU with the ray-traced 3D rendering engine.
When ever there is an update to Adobe After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014, this file gets over written, so you will need to run the program I wrote or manually edit the list to add your video card.
Video Card Drivers
Important - DO NOT use the video card drivers from the video card manufacturer or from Windows, they are almost never current.
Important - DO NOT use auto-updates for the video card drivers, they don't always have access to the latest version.
It is very important that you are using the latest drivers from NVIDIA. Please go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers.
Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7, 8 or 10 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running.
Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. Then Reboot your computer after you have installed the latest drivers.
DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers.
If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Note: This FAQ article is for Adobe Premiere, but the on board sound fix will be the same.
OpenGL
After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014 will use OpenGL to provide a faster and more responsive working environment when drawing images on the screen. Thus, giving you real-time draft renderings.
Adobe recommends OpenGL 2.0 or higher and Shader Model 4.0 or higher.
To see if you existing video meets this requirement, simply follow these steps:
1. Start After Effects CS6 or After Effects CC and CC 2014
2. Select EDIT at the top of the screen and a drop down menu will appear.
3. Choose Preferences at the bottom of the menu.
4. Select Preview
5. Then click on GPU Information.
A window will open up showing you information on the GPU. Look under the section for OpenGL and it will show you the following information: (Your information may be different than mine)
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Device: GeForce GTX 570/PCI/SSE2
Version: 3.0.0
Total Memory: 2.46GB
Shader Model: 4.0 or later
There are two lines above I have highlighted in red. The version line shows you the OpenGL version and the Shader Model is the version of the Shader Model you are running.
Version should be 2.0 or higher and Shader Model should be 3.0 or higher. If they are not, update the video card driver, reboot the computer and check again. If they are still not what is recommended, it is time for a new video card.
CUDA Cores
Each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU.
Above, under OpenGL, I showed you how to get information on you GPU. Follow those steps again and this time look at the bottom section marked - CUDA.
Look at the driver version, it has to be 4.0 or higher. If is is not, then update your video card driver with newer video card drivers from the NVidia website. Then reboot the computer and check again. If is is not 4.0 or higher, then it's time for a newer video card.
While Adobe still offers the ray-traced 3D render engine in After Effects CC and CC 2014, they now consider this an obsolete feature and are no longer supporting it. Because they are no longer supporting the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine, the newer video cards will not work and they will give you this error if you try to enable them:
After Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed. (5070::0)
You will get this error with the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards. So with these video cards do not enable the GPU for Ray Traced 3D in After Effects.
After Effects only used the NVidia CUDA cores with the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. It does use the GPU with OpenGL for a few other minor things. For these things the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards will work just fine. It is ONLY the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine that can't be enable.
Adobe has bundled Cinema 4D Lite with the later versions of After Effects and this is what you will need to use instead of the Ray Trace 3D Renderer.
If you are running any other program, such as Adobe Premiere, you can still the the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards without any problems.
For a more detail explanation you can read our blog post about the After Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed. (5070::0)
Adobe has only “certified” a few video cards for use with the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. (See Note 1, About Adobe's Certified Video Cards). If you don't have a certified card, there is no problem. You can just edit a file (raytracer_supported_cards.txt) and add your video card to a list of certified video cards. Once you do that, Adobe After Effects will use your NVidia video card's GPU with the ray-traced 3D rendering engine. (Except, with the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series video cards.)
In this article I will show you two ways to add your video card to the list. One, is with a small program I wrote. The other way is by manually editing the file.
If you are running other Adobe programs, such as:
Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC and CC 2014
Adobe After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014 (and you are not using the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards)
Adobe Media Encoder CC and CC 2014
Adobe SpreedGrade CC and CC 2014
Adobe Prelude CC 2014
NOTE: If you are using After Effects CC (12.1) or After Effects CC 2014, Adobe has added this checkbox – “Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of Ray-Traced 3D Renderer.” Go ahead and simply check the box or follow the steps below to add your video card to the list of approved video cards. Either way, After Effects will allow you to use the Ray-Traced 3D Render Engine will use your video card.
UPDATE: I have heard from a few people, that even though they checked the box for 'Enable untested, unsupported GPU..' They had some strange problems. However, once they added their video card to the raytracer_supported_cards.txt file list, their problems stopped. So I would recommend adding your video card to the list.
This article covers a lot of information, not just how to add your video card to the raytracer_supported_cards.txt file. The information is important, so PLEASE read the article in it's entirety.
PLEASE NOTE: Studio 1 Productions does not sell video cards, Adobe products or other products mentioned in this article. We are simply users of Adobe and Sony Vegas products. So we are not trying to sell you anything by providing this article or the unlock software.
We invite you to take a look at the products we do offer, simply place your mouse over the products link at the top of the page or click on the products link at the top of the page.
Please Update to the Latest Version
Please check to make sure you are running the latest updated version. This is very important as Adobe has made several fixes for the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine so it is more compatible with other NVidia video cards. (Except the GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti and the GTX-900 series of video cards)
When ever you Update After Effects
The file called raytracer_supported_cards.txt file contains a list of NVidia video cards that allow After Effects to use the GPU with the ray-traced 3D rendering engine.
When ever there is an update to Adobe After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014, this file gets over written, so you will need to run the program I wrote or manually edit the list to add your video card.
Video Card Drivers
Important - DO NOT use the video card drivers from the video card manufacturer or from Windows, they are almost never current.
Important - DO NOT use auto-updates for the video card drivers, they don't always have access to the latest version.
It is very important that you are using the latest drivers from NVIDIA. Please go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers.
Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7, 8 or 10 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running.
Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. Then Reboot your computer after you have installed the latest drivers.
DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers.
If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Note: This FAQ article is for Adobe Premiere, but the on board sound fix will be the same.
OpenGL
After Effects CS6, CC and CC 2014 will use OpenGL to provide a faster and more responsive working environment when drawing images on the screen. Thus, giving you real-time draft renderings.
Adobe recommends OpenGL 2.0 or higher and Shader Model 4.0 or higher.
To see if you existing video meets this requirement, simply follow these steps:
1. Start After Effects CS6 or After Effects CC and CC 2014
2. Select EDIT at the top of the screen and a drop down menu will appear.
3. Choose Preferences at the bottom of the menu.
4. Select Preview
5. Then click on GPU Information.
A window will open up showing you information on the GPU. Look under the section for OpenGL and it will show you the following information: (Your information may be different than mine)
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Device: GeForce GTX 570/PCI/SSE2
Version: 3.0.0
Total Memory: 2.46GB
Shader Model: 4.0 or later
There are two lines above I have highlighted in red. The version line shows you the OpenGL version and the Shader Model is the version of the Shader Model you are running.
Version should be 2.0 or higher and Shader Model should be 3.0 or higher. If they are not, update the video card driver, reboot the computer and check again. If they are still not what is recommended, it is time for a new video card.
CUDA Cores
Each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU.
Above, under OpenGL, I showed you how to get information on you GPU. Follow those steps again and this time look at the bottom section marked - CUDA.
Look at the driver version, it has to be 4.0 or higher. If is is not, then update your video card driver with newer video card drivers from the NVidia website. Then reboot the computer and check again. If is is not 4.0 or higher, then it's time for a newer video card.
Video Card Memory
Your video card will need a minimum of 1 Gig of video memory, preferably DDR5 memory.
Video cards come with different types of memory, such as DDR2, DDR3, and DDR5 type of memory.
Video cards with DDR2 memory can be too slow for the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. If you have a older video card with DDR2 memory, replace it, plain and simple.
If you have a video card with DDR3 memory you will be fine with that, however you will get better performance with a video card with DDR5 memory. So you might consider replacing your video card.
If you are buying a new video card, the newer video cards come with either DDR3 or DDR5 memory:
Your video card will need a minimum of 1 Gig of video memory, preferably DDR5 memory.
Video cards come with different types of memory, such as DDR2, DDR3, and DDR5 type of memory.
Video cards with DDR2 memory can be too slow for the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine. If you have a older video card with DDR2 memory, replace it, plain and simple.
If you have a video card with DDR3 memory you will be fine with that, however you will get better performance with a video card with DDR5 memory. So you might consider replacing your video card.
If you are buying a new video card, the newer video cards come with either DDR3 or DDR5 memory:
Cuda 7.5 Download
- The lower end cards generally come with DDR3 memory
- The mid-level cards can come with either DDR3 or DDR5. In this case, go for the DDR5 version
- The higher end cards come with DDR5 memory.
DDR5 memory is faster than DDR3 memory, when all things are equal.
Chart of NVidia Graphic Cards
Here is a chart of the different NVidia Graphics Cards.This chart will open up in a separate window so you won't loose your place here in the article.
It will show you how many CUDA cores are on each card, the Memory Interface Width, the Memory Bandwidth Speed, the Recommend Size of the Power Supply.
NOTE: The specs and power supply requirements listed in the chart are based on NVidia's web site. PLEASE check with the manufacturer of the video card you plan on purchasing to see what their power supply requirements are.
Power Supplies
The Power Supply - Before you run out and buy an NVIDIA video card, you need to know how big your power supply is in watts. Different video cards will require that you have a minimum number of watts power supply. So open your computer, if you are comfortable doing that, otherwise, find someone who is.
Look on the label on the power supply for the number of watts it is rated. It may say something like 300 watts, 450 watts or higher. Once you know the watts, then you can select a video card that will work with your power supply.
For example, the NVIDIA GeForce GT730 will work fine with a 300 watt power supply. But, the GeForce GT780 will require a minimum of a 600 watt power supply.
This is why you need to know your computer’s power supply size before you run out and buy a video card. You don’t want to use a video card that your power supply can’t handle. For example, if you decide you really want a GeForce GT780 video card and you only have a 300 watt power supply, then you will need to upgrade your computer’s power supply.
If you don’t want to bother upgrading your power supply, then make sure you stick with a video card that will work with what every the size of your power supply is.
In the chart above, we list a minimum power supply size needed for the each video card. This list above are based on NVidia's web site recommendations.
We have received email about what the video card box states as the minimum power supply requirement. For example, the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory, the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply. So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply?
Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply. But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor. Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts. Okay so what is going on here?
According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked. (See Note 2 on Overclocking). MSI recommends a 350 watts if you are a gamer and are going to overclock the video card. If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply.
If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will generally have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger. This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply. The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts. For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts.
Also, I was informed by several other video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer. This way, they will be on the safe side.
Video Card Cooling
Video cards generate a lot of heat, especially when the GPU is in high use, such as when rendering.
In order to get the best performance from your video card, you need to make sure it is not over heating. Otherwise you will have performance problems.
If you don't have any way to monitor you CPU and GPU temperatures, I wrote an article on monitoring your computer's temperatures and a source for free temperature monitoring software.
Even if you already have a video card, please keep reading. There are things you are going to want to know about your video card and options for cooling it. In addition, we will show you how to keep your existing video card cooler, thus performing better.
If you haven't bought a NVIDIA video card yet, we are going to show you what you should look for for the best cooling options for a video card.
Please note, there are several manufacturer's of video cards that use the NVIDIA chipset and these manufacturer's may make several models of the video card using the same chipset. Below you will see photos of video cards from MSI, these are simply the video cards we use here at Studio 1 Productions.
Chart of NVidia Graphic Cards
Here is a chart of the different NVidia Graphics Cards.This chart will open up in a separate window so you won't loose your place here in the article.
It will show you how many CUDA cores are on each card, the Memory Interface Width, the Memory Bandwidth Speed, the Recommend Size of the Power Supply.
NOTE: The specs and power supply requirements listed in the chart are based on NVidia's web site. PLEASE check with the manufacturer of the video card you plan on purchasing to see what their power supply requirements are.
Power Supplies
The Power Supply - Before you run out and buy an NVIDIA video card, you need to know how big your power supply is in watts. Different video cards will require that you have a minimum number of watts power supply. So open your computer, if you are comfortable doing that, otherwise, find someone who is.
Look on the label on the power supply for the number of watts it is rated. It may say something like 300 watts, 450 watts or higher. Once you know the watts, then you can select a video card that will work with your power supply.
For example, the NVIDIA GeForce GT730 will work fine with a 300 watt power supply. But, the GeForce GT780 will require a minimum of a 600 watt power supply.
This is why you need to know your computer’s power supply size before you run out and buy a video card. You don’t want to use a video card that your power supply can’t handle. For example, if you decide you really want a GeForce GT780 video card and you only have a 300 watt power supply, then you will need to upgrade your computer’s power supply.
If you don’t want to bother upgrading your power supply, then make sure you stick with a video card that will work with what every the size of your power supply is.
In the chart above, we list a minimum power supply size needed for the each video card. This list above are based on NVidia's web site recommendations.
We have received email about what the video card box states as the minimum power supply requirement. For example, the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory, the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply. So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply?
Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply. But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor. Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts. Okay so what is going on here?
According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked. (See Note 2 on Overclocking). MSI recommends a 350 watts if you are a gamer and are going to overclock the video card. If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply.
If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will generally have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger. This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply. The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts. For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts.
Also, I was informed by several other video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer. This way, they will be on the safe side.
Video Card Cooling
Video cards generate a lot of heat, especially when the GPU is in high use, such as when rendering.
In order to get the best performance from your video card, you need to make sure it is not over heating. Otherwise you will have performance problems.
If you don't have any way to monitor you CPU and GPU temperatures, I wrote an article on monitoring your computer's temperatures and a source for free temperature monitoring software.
Even if you already have a video card, please keep reading. There are things you are going to want to know about your video card and options for cooling it. In addition, we will show you how to keep your existing video card cooler, thus performing better.
If you haven't bought a NVIDIA video card yet, we are going to show you what you should look for for the best cooling options for a video card.
Please note, there are several manufacturer's of video cards that use the NVIDIA chipset and these manufacturer's may make several models of the video card using the same chipset. Below you will see photos of video cards from MSI, these are simply the video cards we use here at Studio 1 Productions.
Let's take a look at the video cards above.
The two video cards on the left are standard video cards. They both have standard size cooling fans and the bottom video card is completely enclosed with only one fan to keep the video card cool. With the enclosed video card, the air will have to vented out the back.
Now, the two video cards on the right are designed for overclocking. They both have larger fans and offer better cooling than the standard video cards. They are also open in design allowing air to circulate around the components on the video card, which helps with the cooling.
While most standard video cards will work fine, they will run a little warmer than a video card designed with larger fans.
So if you haven't purchased a video card yet, you may want to look at purchasing a video card that is like the ones on the right side since they will run cooler.
Cooling your Existing Video Card
If you have an existing video card that is a standard (non-overclocked version), like the video cards shown above on the LEFT side, you can add a slot fan to your computer to help keep the video card cooler. Here is an Article that covers slot fans and cooling. This article will open up as a separate window so you won't loose your place in this article.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Studio 1 Productions does not sell video cards, Adobe products or other products mentioned in this article. We are simply users of Adobe products. So we are not trying to sell you anything by providing this article or the software. If you would like to see the products we do offer, simply place your mouse over the products link at the top of the page or click on the products link at the top of the page.
What Video Card to Buy
Some people think they should run out and buy a video card with the most cuda cores (for example a GTX-780 Ti). However, that may not be the best idea, especially with programs that use OpenGL, such as After Effects.
The more CUDA cores, the wider memory interface width and the faster memory bandwidth, the better performance the video card has to offer. Remember, just because the video card has more to offer, doesn't mean the rest of the computer system will take advantage of it. Most of the time the video card's GPU will be waiting on the rest of the computer to feed it the data to process. When the GPU gets a hold of the data, the more CUDA cores the faster it will process the data. Then it hands this data back to the CPU. The wider the memory interface width and the faster the memory bandwidth, the faster the data will move back and forth to the CPU.
For example, the GTX 570 video card has 480 CUDA cores, while the GTX680 has 1,536 CUDA cores. Since the GTX680 has more than 3X the number of CUDA cores over the GTX570, you might expect the GTX680 to be 3X faster than the GTX570. But, they are not. They are only few seconds difference. The reason is, the memory interface width is smaller on the GTX6XX series of video cards, even though they have more cuda cores. Where the GTX5XX series of video cards have a much wider memory interface width, which helps makes up for them having fewer CUDA cores.
The newer GTX700 series video cards have even more CUDA cores, plus they have a much better memory bandwidth and a higher memory bandwidth than older video cards, thus giving them a better data transfer rate. This makes these GTX700 series video cards a better buy for After Effects, Premiere and other video editing programs.
The GTX 700 and GTX 900 series of video cards run cooler and require less power than the older video cards.
If you have an older computer, such as a quad core running at 2.5 Ghz with only 4 gigs of memory, then buying the GTX-780 would be over kill. On this system, you are better off adding more memory to the computer and using a GTX-760 video card video card.
Since everyone has a different level of acceptable editing performance. Some people are fine with a working on a slower system, while other people need a high end, super fast system. A lot depends on whether they are a hobbyist, semi-pro or a professional editor, as to what their needs are.
With After Effects there are a lot of things that make up the system performance. Having a fast CPU, with 4, 6 or 8 cores, lot's of memory. 8 gigs bare minimum, with 16+ gigs being better and 32 gigs even better. After is more dependent on the CPU than the GPU.
I have run some tests with the Ray Trace 3D Render Engine, on several different computer systems using a GT240, GTX 650 TI, GTX 660, GTX760 and a GTX 680 video cards. I found the GTX 760 giving me the best performance for the money.
With the test I ran, the GTX 680 was only a few seconds faster than the GTX 760, except when it came to using the Raytrace 3D render engine. Here the GTX-680 was faster.
The best bang for the buck video card for After Effects seems to be the GTX 760 or GTX 770. If you have the money and want all the speed you can get, then look at the GTX Titan or GTX 780 Ti video card. Both of these video cards are super fast with the Raytrace 3D Render Engine and Elements 3D.
As far as what video card you should buy, that is really up to you and your budget. If it was me, I would go with the GTX 760 or GTX 770. Remember you can NOT use the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine with the GTX-750, GTX-750 TI or the GTX 900 series of video cards.
Quadro or GeForce Video Cards
The only reason to use a Quadro video card with Adobe programs is if you are using 10 bit source material and a 10 bit monitor like the HP Dreamcolor or similar. Otherwise, the Quadro’s are under powered and over priced.
Let’s take a look at some of the Quadro cards.
The Quadro 2000 - This video card only has 192 CUDA cores and a 128bit memory interface. Basically, it is just an GTS 450 with a slower clock speed. In other words, the GTS450 would be slightly faster. Also, the GTX 550 Ti, with it’s 192 CUDA cores and 192 bit memory interface would be faster than the Quadro 2000, due to the wider memory interface and slightly faster clock speed.
The Quadro FX 3800. This card is now 3 generations old and is based on the GTX 260, but with only a 256 bit memory interface. The GTX260 has a wider memory interface at 448 bit and would produce faster results than the FX 3800.
The Quadro 4000 - This video card is based on the same GPU that was used on the GTX 470. However, it performs much slower than the GTX470. In fact, the performance level is like the GTX 460 SE. Even a regular GTX 460 (not the GTX 460 SE version) would give you better performance due to the Quadro 4000 have only 256 CUDA cores, while the GTX 460 has 336 CUDA cores.
Quadro 5000 - This is based on a GTX 465, with a wider memory interface 320-bit memory bus giving it an edge over the GTX 465. However, it would be slower than a GTX 470 or GTX 570.
Quadro 6000 - This video card is on par with the GTX470, although the Quadro 6000 is much more expensive.
I do not recommend a Quadro video card, unless you have a specific program that requires a Quadro video card or you have the HP Dreamcolor monitor. You will get better performance for a lot less money with the GeForce cards.
Making Your Computer Run Better and Faster for After Effects
There are two things you can do to keep your computer performing well. First, use a good program for defragmenting the disk, not the disk defrag program that comes with Windows. By keep your hard disk defragmented, file and programs will load faster. Second, run a Registry Cleaner at least once a month.
There are two programs that I use and recommend and they are from Auslogics.com and they are FREE. For more information about them and how to set them up for your computer, just watch the video on our blog page.
One of the best places to you can spend your money to make After Effects run faster is upgrading your RAM. At a minimum you should have 16 gigs. After Effects loves memory, so upgrading to 16 gigs will help a lot. Take the ram to 24 gigs or 32 gigs will be even better for when you are rendering.
Turning on OpenGL in After Effects CS6 and After Effects CC 2014 and CC
While the ray trace 3D render engine use Cuda acceleration, After Effects CS6, After Effects CC and After Effects CC 2014 also offers GPU acceleration with OpenGL. The OpenGL acceleration is available to AMD (ATI), Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset and NVidia graphics cards.
The OpenGL acceleration is used for render previews, screen displays of the Composite, Layer and Footage panels to the screen and for some effects. With the Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset, After Effects will use the GPU for Fast Draft, Hardware BlitPipe, and the Cartoon effect) on a Windows or Mac OS system.
To use OpenGL for fast previews, click on the Fast Preview button, as shown below:
The choose Fast Draft. This will use OpenGL to render previews.
Also, you can turn on Hardware Accelerate Composition.
Select Edit
Then Preference
Then Display
Check the box next to Hardware Accelerate Composition.
Then click OK
As for certain effects using the GPU via OpenGL, please check with you After Effects CS6, After Effects CC or After Effects CC 2014 documentation.
After Effects CS6 Error Message: After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
After you set After Effects CS6 to use GPU mode, you may get this error message: After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
1. Download and Install the latest updates from the Adobe website.
2. Make sure you are running the latest video drivers for your video card. Go to www.NVidia.com to download the latest drivers.
3. Make sure you are NOT using a GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti or any of the GTX-900 series video cards.
4. You can read more on our blog page.
If you are on a MAC system, please do a Google search on After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
You will find several solutions, depending on what is causing the problem.
The two video cards on the left are standard video cards. They both have standard size cooling fans and the bottom video card is completely enclosed with only one fan to keep the video card cool. With the enclosed video card, the air will have to vented out the back.
Now, the two video cards on the right are designed for overclocking. They both have larger fans and offer better cooling than the standard video cards. They are also open in design allowing air to circulate around the components on the video card, which helps with the cooling.
While most standard video cards will work fine, they will run a little warmer than a video card designed with larger fans.
So if you haven't purchased a video card yet, you may want to look at purchasing a video card that is like the ones on the right side since they will run cooler.
Cooling your Existing Video Card
If you have an existing video card that is a standard (non-overclocked version), like the video cards shown above on the LEFT side, you can add a slot fan to your computer to help keep the video card cooler. Here is an Article that covers slot fans and cooling. This article will open up as a separate window so you won't loose your place in this article.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Studio 1 Productions does not sell video cards, Adobe products or other products mentioned in this article. We are simply users of Adobe products. So we are not trying to sell you anything by providing this article or the software. If you would like to see the products we do offer, simply place your mouse over the products link at the top of the page or click on the products link at the top of the page.
What Video Card to Buy
Some people think they should run out and buy a video card with the most cuda cores (for example a GTX-780 Ti). However, that may not be the best idea, especially with programs that use OpenGL, such as After Effects.
The more CUDA cores, the wider memory interface width and the faster memory bandwidth, the better performance the video card has to offer. Remember, just because the video card has more to offer, doesn't mean the rest of the computer system will take advantage of it. Most of the time the video card's GPU will be waiting on the rest of the computer to feed it the data to process. When the GPU gets a hold of the data, the more CUDA cores the faster it will process the data. Then it hands this data back to the CPU. The wider the memory interface width and the faster the memory bandwidth, the faster the data will move back and forth to the CPU.
For example, the GTX 570 video card has 480 CUDA cores, while the GTX680 has 1,536 CUDA cores. Since the GTX680 has more than 3X the number of CUDA cores over the GTX570, you might expect the GTX680 to be 3X faster than the GTX570. But, they are not. They are only few seconds difference. The reason is, the memory interface width is smaller on the GTX6XX series of video cards, even though they have more cuda cores. Where the GTX5XX series of video cards have a much wider memory interface width, which helps makes up for them having fewer CUDA cores.
The newer GTX700 series video cards have even more CUDA cores, plus they have a much better memory bandwidth and a higher memory bandwidth than older video cards, thus giving them a better data transfer rate. This makes these GTX700 series video cards a better buy for After Effects, Premiere and other video editing programs.
The GTX 700 and GTX 900 series of video cards run cooler and require less power than the older video cards.
If you have an older computer, such as a quad core running at 2.5 Ghz with only 4 gigs of memory, then buying the GTX-780 would be over kill. On this system, you are better off adding more memory to the computer and using a GTX-760 video card video card.
Since everyone has a different level of acceptable editing performance. Some people are fine with a working on a slower system, while other people need a high end, super fast system. A lot depends on whether they are a hobbyist, semi-pro or a professional editor, as to what their needs are.
With After Effects there are a lot of things that make up the system performance. Having a fast CPU, with 4, 6 or 8 cores, lot's of memory. 8 gigs bare minimum, with 16+ gigs being better and 32 gigs even better. After is more dependent on the CPU than the GPU.
I have run some tests with the Ray Trace 3D Render Engine, on several different computer systems using a GT240, GTX 650 TI, GTX 660, GTX760 and a GTX 680 video cards. I found the GTX 760 giving me the best performance for the money.
With the test I ran, the GTX 680 was only a few seconds faster than the GTX 760, except when it came to using the Raytrace 3D render engine. Here the GTX-680 was faster.
The best bang for the buck video card for After Effects seems to be the GTX 760 or GTX 770. If you have the money and want all the speed you can get, then look at the GTX Titan or GTX 780 Ti video card. Both of these video cards are super fast with the Raytrace 3D Render Engine and Elements 3D.
As far as what video card you should buy, that is really up to you and your budget. If it was me, I would go with the GTX 760 or GTX 770. Remember you can NOT use the Ray Traced 3D Render Engine with the GTX-750, GTX-750 TI or the GTX 900 series of video cards.
Quadro or GeForce Video Cards
The only reason to use a Quadro video card with Adobe programs is if you are using 10 bit source material and a 10 bit monitor like the HP Dreamcolor or similar. Otherwise, the Quadro’s are under powered and over priced.
Let’s take a look at some of the Quadro cards.
The Quadro 2000 - This video card only has 192 CUDA cores and a 128bit memory interface. Basically, it is just an GTS 450 with a slower clock speed. In other words, the GTS450 would be slightly faster. Also, the GTX 550 Ti, with it’s 192 CUDA cores and 192 bit memory interface would be faster than the Quadro 2000, due to the wider memory interface and slightly faster clock speed.
The Quadro FX 3800. This card is now 3 generations old and is based on the GTX 260, but with only a 256 bit memory interface. The GTX260 has a wider memory interface at 448 bit and would produce faster results than the FX 3800.
The Quadro 4000 - This video card is based on the same GPU that was used on the GTX 470. However, it performs much slower than the GTX470. In fact, the performance level is like the GTX 460 SE. Even a regular GTX 460 (not the GTX 460 SE version) would give you better performance due to the Quadro 4000 have only 256 CUDA cores, while the GTX 460 has 336 CUDA cores.
Quadro 5000 - This is based on a GTX 465, with a wider memory interface 320-bit memory bus giving it an edge over the GTX 465. However, it would be slower than a GTX 470 or GTX 570.
Quadro 6000 - This video card is on par with the GTX470, although the Quadro 6000 is much more expensive.
I do not recommend a Quadro video card, unless you have a specific program that requires a Quadro video card or you have the HP Dreamcolor monitor. You will get better performance for a lot less money with the GeForce cards.
Making Your Computer Run Better and Faster for After Effects
There are two things you can do to keep your computer performing well. First, use a good program for defragmenting the disk, not the disk defrag program that comes with Windows. By keep your hard disk defragmented, file and programs will load faster. Second, run a Registry Cleaner at least once a month.
There are two programs that I use and recommend and they are from Auslogics.com and they are FREE. For more information about them and how to set them up for your computer, just watch the video on our blog page.
One of the best places to you can spend your money to make After Effects run faster is upgrading your RAM. At a minimum you should have 16 gigs. After Effects loves memory, so upgrading to 16 gigs will help a lot. Take the ram to 24 gigs or 32 gigs will be even better for when you are rendering.
Turning on OpenGL in After Effects CS6 and After Effects CC 2014 and CC
While the ray trace 3D render engine use Cuda acceleration, After Effects CS6, After Effects CC and After Effects CC 2014 also offers GPU acceleration with OpenGL. The OpenGL acceleration is available to AMD (ATI), Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset and NVidia graphics cards.
The OpenGL acceleration is used for render previews, screen displays of the Composite, Layer and Footage panels to the screen and for some effects. With the Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset, After Effects will use the GPU for Fast Draft, Hardware BlitPipe, and the Cartoon effect) on a Windows or Mac OS system.
To use OpenGL for fast previews, click on the Fast Preview button, as shown below:
The choose Fast Draft. This will use OpenGL to render previews.
Also, you can turn on Hardware Accelerate Composition.
Select Edit
Then Preference
Then Display
Check the box next to Hardware Accelerate Composition.
Then click OK
As for certain effects using the GPU via OpenGL, please check with you After Effects CS6, After Effects CC or After Effects CC 2014 documentation.
After Effects CS6 Error Message: After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
After you set After Effects CS6 to use GPU mode, you may get this error message: After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
1. Download and Install the latest updates from the Adobe website.
2. Make sure you are running the latest video drivers for your video card. Go to www.NVidia.com to download the latest drivers.
3. Make sure you are NOT using a GTX-750, GTX-750 Ti or any of the GTX-900 series video cards.
4. You can read more on our blog page.
If you are on a MAC system, please do a Google search on After Effects error:Ray-traced 3D:Initial shader compile failed
You will find several solutions, depending on what is causing the problem.
Special Notes for Laptop Owners.
If you laptop has Optimus Technology or a built-in graphics card with an additional NVidia graphics card, then you will need to do some special setup with the NVidia Control Panel in order for the Ray Trace 3D Render Engine to run in GPU mode.
Finish reading this article and follow the procedure below for unlocking your video card first.
If you can not get it to work, then read this article:
Note: If the video does not show up in the Preview and/or Program monitor windows in After Effects CS6, After Effects CC or After Effects CC 2014, then the NVidia Optimus is enabled.
Finish reading this article and follow the procedure below for unlocking your video card first.
If you can not get it to work, then read this article:
Note: If the video does not show up in the Preview and/or Program monitor windows in After Effects CS6, After Effects CC or After Effects CC 2014, then the NVidia Optimus is enabled.
Video Card Drivers
This needs to be repeated as a lot of people seem to think this isn't that important, but it really is.
Important - DO NOT use the video card drivers from the video card manufacturer or from Windows, they are almost never current.
Important - DO NOT use auto-updates for the video card drivers, they don't always have access to the latest version.
It is very important that you are using the latest drivers from NVIDIA. Please go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers.
Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running.
Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. Then Reboot your computer.
DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers.
If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Note: This FAQ article is for Adobe Premiere, but the on board sound fix will be the same.
This needs to be repeated as a lot of people seem to think this isn't that important, but it really is.
Important - DO NOT use the video card drivers from the video card manufacturer or from Windows, they are almost never current.
Important - DO NOT use auto-updates for the video card drivers, they don't always have access to the latest version.
It is very important that you are using the latest drivers from NVIDIA. Please go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers.
Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running.
Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. Then Reboot your computer.
DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers.
If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Note: This FAQ article is for Adobe Premiere, but the on board sound fix will be the same.
Now how to Unlock your NVIDIA Card for After Effects CS6, After Effects CC and After Effects CC 2014
For Windows Users
For Windows Users
Cuda Mac Install
NOTE: If you download and install any updates to After Effects CS6, After Effects CC or After Effects CC 2014 you will have to go back and unlock the card again using either the Automatic Method or the Manual Method.