Music Composers and After Effects Animators, what PC you have?

Hi guys, I’m curious about your gear for work with complex music in software like Cubase, Ableton, FL Studio and video editing in After Effects. Lately I upgraded my PC to AMD FX 8320, 32 GB Ram and GTX 960, and it is completely sufficient for every music software, even if I use a lot of instruments and effects I didn’t have any problems with lags, hangouts or stuff like this, but It is still bit laggy in After Effects, I’m using CS5 and I think this is the problem, because I’ve heard that stability issues are fixed in the latest versions of AE, should I upgrade to the latest version of After Effects? What is your gear and opinions about that? Thanks for any answers.

I’ve got an i7-4770 3.40GHz Quad Core with 32GB of RAM and a GTX780, and it runs really well. Had it for about 18 months. Although I was on a series of laptops before that, so anything seems better than it used to!

I work in CS6 and CC14, both are pretty comparable when it comes to speed. Although I’m not 100% sure of the exact difference between each version, I know there are a lot of improvements on later versions when it comes to memory usage, caching, GPU usage and the like… so I’d probably recommend upgrading. I’m holding off on CC15 for now… I like to wait until it’s been out for a while.

It would be worth checking out your settings in AE, make sure you’re using the recommended settings for multiprocessing and all that jazz. I wouldn’t use all eight cores if you are, probably four max at 6GB per core.

And a big one is your hard drive. You can have a 60 core processor with 320GB of RAM, but if you’ve got one 5,400rpm hard drive then it’s going to lag. Ideally you want two or more SSDs, pop After Effects on one of them and have all your files you’re working with on another.

Even the most hardcore dual CPU workstation it is lagging in After Effects. Depending on your workflow and what are you doing with the software. Heavy effects always will generate slow performance regardless the hardware. On the other hand, AMD FX are not the best choice for Adobe software due to “twin” core architecture that is radical different from traditional “core” architecture. Even the most hardcore AMD CPU to date, FX9590, falls behind Intel’s core i5 CPUs in productivity software like Premiere or After Effects.

I have an iMac Mid 2011 with 20GB and it runs ok. I’m not making hardcore projects but it served me with honor those years. The new CC 2015 version of AE has some performance improvements, the new caching system helps if you have a fast SSD for scratch disks. You can always download a trial version and try it. Also try to optimize your software, tweak the multiprocessing options and designate as much RAM as possible for each core.

Mac Pro - late 2007 (consider it “Vintage” :smile: )
2 x 2 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
2 Monitors 1920 x 1080
16 RAM 667 Mhz DDR2
250 GB HD SSD
750 GB HD 7200 rpm
750 HD 7200 rpm
500 HD 7200 rpm
Wired mouse (but don’t tell anyone) :smiley:

CPU Intel Core i7 3770k
RAM G.Skill Ripjaws 2x8 GB
SSD Plextor 128 Gb
SSD noname 256 GB
HDD Western Digital 1GB
GPU Nvidia GeForce 650ti 1GB

Since 2013

I’m currently using a high end laptop, but will be building a PC soon for music production. Primary specs:

  • i7 6700k (forgot the clock speeds)
  • 32GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
  • 500GB SSD (until I can afford a higher capacity
  • 2TB HDD
  • No graphics card (yet!)
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Thanks for answers, I see then that everyone uses Intel cpu, I knew the truth about comparisons with AMD, but I always liked AMD processors for it’s good proportions in terms of price and performance ratio, but I know that I have to buy Intel in near future. PC I want to buy especially for After Effects is i7 4790k, GTX 980, 64 GB RAM and some SSD’s and I hope I will be happy in after effects with this machine, because this kit will cost me a lot. I think I will leave my AMD for the music creation only (usual affection)

For audio, I use a PC with an Intel i7 3930K six-core running in turbo mode @ between 3.8 and 4.1 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 3 drives: 500 GB programs, 1 TB for audio files, 3 TB for sample library storage. All drives are 7200, no SSD. Audio interface = Steinberg UR28M. Graphics card is a Radeon HD 7700 series card. This is way more than I need to record music without glitches, even when using multiple sample libraries streaming simultaneously for orchestral mockups with numerous tracks and numerous VST FX. It’s definitely not enough for serious video and After Effects work.

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GTX 980 is not that helpful in After Effects so it is a waste of money, Even if you are using Element3D or other GPU intensive plug-ins, a GTX 970 will be ok. Also, replace the i7 4790k with the a LGA 2011-3 6 core Haswell-E CPU like i7 5820K or 5930K. 6 core and DDR4 memory is faster.

I use an Octo Core - 5960X CPU overclocked at 4.4 Ghz and Watercooled
32Go DDR4 Memory
GTX 780 Ti
3 x SSD 256Go Samsung 850 Pro Disks (System / Work / Cache)
Windows 8.1 64Bits

This is a high end Workstation for 3D Rendering and Motion.
And it works not bad :wink:

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Compared to other my rig is the most obsolete here :

  • AMD Phenom II X4 840
  • 8 GB RAM DDR3
  • Radeon R9 280x 2GB
  • 1TB + 500GB Internal HDD 7200 Rpm + 1TB External HDD 6400 Rpm
  • Focusrite Scarlett Solo
  • UMX 610

I tried to render 3d fast topography in Cinema 4d with AO+DOF+GI and Animate the scene for just 5 seconds, it took 4 days to complete.

So I ovecrclocked my FX 8320 CPU from 3.5 Ghz to 4.3 Ghz and I bought SSD disk for media/cache folder in After Effects. I see an improvement with render time, for example: 1 minute scene with trapcode particular, element 3D and optical flares was rendered in 33 minutes before upgrades and OC (mp4 container), now render of the same scene dropped to 28 minutes, so I’m satisfied with render time, however I didn’t noticed any improvements in Project Panel, still moving between frames is laggy, even on quarter resolution, but I was prepared for this scenario.