Memory and storage (CS6)
Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects
Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space
Memory & Multiprocessing preferences
Memory pool shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and Adobe Media Encoder
Memory & Multiprocessing Details dialog box
Memory (RAM) requirements for rendering
Purging memory (RAM)
Troubleshooting memory issues
Online resources about memory and multiprocessing
Storage requirements for output files
Caches: RAM cache, disk cache, and media cache
The global performance cache
Video: Global performance cache
Global RAM cache
Persistent disk cache
Video tutorial: How to Optimize After Effects CS6 for High Performance
Cache work area in background
Media cache
Faster graphics pipeline
Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects
Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space
The maximum amount of RAM that a 32-bit application can use is 4 GB, which is much less than the amount of RAM that can be installed in
modern computers and addressed by 64-bit operating systems. After Effects CS4 was a 32-bit application, and it was only able to use more than 4
GB of RAM by starting separate instances (processes) of the After Effects CS4 application to render multiple frames simultaneously. After Effects
CS5, CS5.5, and CS6 are 64-bit applications, so each process can use all of the RAM addressed by 64-bit Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac
OS operating systems.
The ability of After Effects to use large amounts of RAM per process provides several advantages:
You can render much larger compositions—both for preview and for final output—with larger frame sizes and larger source files.
RAM previews can be much longer.
You can work with higher color bit depths without encountering memory limitations.
After Effects can cache more items, which reduce the frequency with which frames and components of frames are re-rendered.
Memory & Multiprocessing preferences
Set memory and multiprocessing preferences by choosing Edit > Preferences > Memory & Multiprocessing (Windows) or After Effects >
Preferences > Memory & Multiprocessing (Mac OS).
As you modify settings in the Memory & Multiprocessing dialog box, After Effects dynamically updates helpful text in the dialog box that reports
how it will allocate and use memory and CPUs.
The RAM Reserved For Other Applications preference is relevant whether or not Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously is selected. The settings
in the After Effects Multiprocessing category are relevant only if Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously is selected.
Todd Kopriva provides information about optimum memory and processor settings on the
RAM Reserved For Other Applications
After Effects and the application with which it shares a memory pool. (See
Adobe Media
Encoder.) If you know that you will be using a specific application along with After Effects, check its system requirements and set this
value to at least the minimum amount of RAM required for that application. Because performance is best when adequate memory is left for the
operating system, you can't set this value below a minimum baseline value.
Render multiple frames simultaneously
For a video tutorial about using Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing in After Effects, see the
Increase this value to leave more RAM available for the operating system and for applications other than
Adobe
website.
Memory pool shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and
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