This Effect Requires GPU Acceleration [FIXED]

If you have used Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects for some time, then you must be familiar with the “This effect requires GPU acceleration” error. It’s the old nemesis of video editors when they try to add special effects to their videos.

Key Takeaways

• GPU acceleration utilizes the GPU’s processing power along with the CPU to provide real-time playback of effects and transitions without rendering them.
• This effect requires GPU acceleration error can appear due to many reasons.
• There are several ways to fix this error. You can restart the computer, enable GPU acceleration, reorder the effects, uninstall third-party plugins, update the graphics driver, and much more.

Also Read: How To Lower GPU Temperature? [Ultimate Guide]

What Does GPU Acceleration Mean?

In the simplest terms, you can understand GPU acceleration as the GPU helping out the CPU with some processing-intensive tasks.

Why does this happen? Well, your CPU usually contains 2-4 cores, which can be more or less, but mostly in the same ballpark. These cores are ideal for multitasking processes. This means that a single one of these cores is powerful enough to perform operations on a task. So, all of them can work on different processes while multitasking. However, all of these cores combined cannot work on the same large volume of data in parallel.

On the other hand, your GPU has relatively way more cores. These cores, while greater in number, are significantly smaller in size when compared to the CPU. So, a single GPU core is not enough to process a lot. However, when combined, all of these many cores can work in parallel to perform operations on huge data volumes.

In video editing, to review the footage, you would have to render the effects and transitions, right? Well, with GPU acceleration, the computer processing unit (CPU) gets an extra hand from the graphics processing unit (GPU) to facilitate real-time video playback with all the effects and transitions in high quality without having to render anything.

What Causes “This Effect Requires GPU Acceleration” Error?

There are many reasons why you could be getting the “This effect requires GPU acceleration error on Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects:

• Most commonly, you’ll get this error if you’re using certain effects like the Warp Stabilizer VFX, ray-traced 3D renderer, or 3D Camera Tracker that require GPU acceleration.
• The third-party plug-ins you’re using are bugged and they are causing this error.
• Your GPU does not support GPU acceleration. You can go through the list of recommended GPUs for GPU acceleration to check if your GPU can work well with certain effects.
• If certain effects, especially third-party ones, are stacked in an incorrect order, then you might get this error.
• Adobe Premiere Pro cannot detect the graphics card, or if its files are corrupted, then you might get many errors, including this one.
• Your graphics card drivers are outdated.

Well, whatever the reason may be, the error will certainly be fixed by one of the following solutions.

How To Fix “This Effect Requires GPU Acceleration” Error 

Restart Your Computer

Before you start configuring your system settings, it’s best to try your luck with a simple restart. Many times, certain bugs and glitches can mess with the system resources, which in turn, can bring you different kinds of errors. 

So, a system restart would refresh everything and reload all the system resources. Here’s how:

1. First, press the Windows key to bring up the Start menu.
2. After that, click the Power button.
3. From the list of options, simply select Restart.

Wait for your computer to restart fully and then use Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects to check if the issue persists.

Enable GPU Acceleration

Since many effects require GPU acceleration to provide real-time high-quality playback without rendering, it is necessary to enable GPU acceleration for these certain effects to work. The steps to enable it are the same on both Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, just follow along: 

1. On the top-left corner of the screen, click Files.
2. From the drop-down menu that appears, click Project Settings -> General.
3. A new Project Settings window will open; click the Rendered pop-up menu under the Video Renderer and Playback section.
4. From the list of options, select Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration.
5. Finally, click OK to save changes.

For Nvidia GPUs, the option is Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA); for AMD GPUs, the option is Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL).

Once you have enabled GPU acceleration, try to apply the same effects and transitions again to check if the error is resolved. Also, you might be interested in checking out the 12 best CPU overclocking software. 

Change Effects Order

You will often get this error when certain effects are stacked in an incorrect order. So, if you’re using multiple effects, and one of them requires GPU acceleration, then drag and drop the effects in the Effects Control panel to rearrange their order.

It is reported that most of the time, putting the effect that requires GPU acceleration on the top can fix the error. However, if that doesn’t work for you, then try to change the order of the effects in general.

Additionally, you can also apply the effect that’s causing the error directly to the clip and remove it from the Effects Control panel. This trick may seem unlikely to work, but it has actually solved the issue for many users.

Update Graphics Driver

If none of the methods we have fixed the “this effect requires GPU acceleration” error, then maybe you’re getting the error because your graphics card driver is outdated. If that’s the case, then you can update it either from Windows Updates or the Device Manager. Alternatively, you can also update the graphics driver from its manufacturer’s website.

Follow these steps to update the graphics driver from Windows Updates:

1. First, press the Windows + I keys to open Settings.
2. Next, click Update & Security.
3. On the sidebar, click Windows Updates
4. After that, click the View optional updates link
5. From there, expand the list of Driver updates to see the available updates.
6. If there’s a graphics driver update, then mark the checkbox next to it and click Download and install.

Wait for Windows to download and install the driver. If there is no View optional updates link in the Windows Updates section, then you can also search for graphics driver from the Device Manager. Here’s how:

1. On the desktop, press the Windows key to bring up the search bar.
2. Next, type “Device Manager” and press Enter.
3. In the Device Manager window, click the Display adapters section.
4. After that, right-click on your graphics card and select Update driver from the drop-down menu.

   

5. In the pop-up window, you can either search automatically for drivers or you can browse the driver on your computer.

Alternatively, you can download and install NVIDIA drivers from their website, and if you have a GeForce GPU, then you can also use GeForce Experience. For AMD graphics cards, you can Auto-Detect and Install for Windows 10 from their website.

Once you have updated the graphics drivers, restart your computer and apply the same effects again to check if the issue is fixed or not.

Also Read: Can Motherboard Bottleneck Your PC? [CPU & GPU]

Reinstall Graphic Drivers

If your drivers do not have a pending update and you still feel like there is something fishy with your graphic drivers, you might have corrupted or damaged drivers to blame. To fix this, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Device Manage
2. Expand the Display adapters.
3. You will see your graphics driver in this expanded list. Right-click the drivers and select Uninstall device from the pop-up menu.
4. Follow the commands on your screen to finish the uninstallation process.
5. After successfully uninstalling your graphics drivers, go to your manufacturer’s official website and find your way to the latest drivers. Download and install them.

Uninstall Third-Party Plugins

One of the best things about Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects is that you can install third-party plugins to increase their capabilities. With these third-party plugins, you have more room to tweak the videos while getting assistance in editing.

There’s no doubt that the support for third-party plugins is loved by all; however, sometimes, these plugins can also create all sorts of issues. So, it is likely that you’re getting the effect that requires GPU acceleration error because of an outdated plugin.

To fix this, you can try to uninstall these third-party plugins:

1. If you’ve installed the plugin from its installer, then use that to uninstall it as well.
2. Head over to Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro’s installation folder, and navigate to the Plug-Ins folder. From there, you can find all the third-party plugins and uninstall them according to your preference.
3. Last but not least, you can also use the Adobe Extension Manager to uninstall the third-party plugins for you. Be sure to check whether the Extension Manager you’re installing supports your Adobe product or not.

Restart your computer and open Premiere Pro or After Effects again to check if the issue has been resolved.

Save As New Project

This solution may make no sense at all. However, it has been reported to work for many users. All you have to do is:

1. Delete the media cache.
2. Save your project as a new project.

If you don’t know how to do all of this, then follow along as we walk you through their steps:

1. First, click Edit on the top of the window.
2. A drop-down menu will appear; click Preferences.
3. In the Preferences window, click Media Cache on the left sidebar.
4. From there, click the big blue Delete button to delete the media cache.
5. After that, click OK.

Once you’ve deleted the media cache, you need to save the project as a new project. Here’s how:

1. On the top-left corner of the screen, click Files.
2. Next, click Save As.
3. In the pop-up window, give the project a new name and specify its location and click Save.

Once the project is saved as a new project, restart your computer and open the new project to check if it has the error or not.

Update Third-Party Effects

It is easy to forget to update all your third-party effects and plugins while updating your Adobe software, causing incompatible versions of first and third-party which can lead to the error at hand.

To fix this, you need to go to the website you downloaded the third-party effects from and install the latest version available. If the effect is incompatible with your newer Premiere or After Effects version, you can do nothing but wait for the effect to be updated to run on the latest software before you can use it again. Also, why not learn about how to underclock your GPU before going further? 

Run GPUSniffer.exe

If none of the solutions we have discussed so far have worked for you, then you will likely have to reinstall the Adobe application you’re facing the issue in. However, before you do that, you should give this fix a shot as well because it has been reported to work for some users.

GPU Sniffer is a file located in Adobe Premiere Pro’s folder. If, for some reason, Premiere Pro cannot detect your GPU, then you can run this file to force detect it. This way, any GPU issues you’re facing might be solved.

1. First of all, completely close the Adobe Premiere Pro application.
2. After that, right-click on the Premiere Pro shortcut and select Open file location from the drop-down menu.
3. In the new window, double-click GPUSniffer.exe to execute it. 
4. A new command prompt window will open. Wait for it to detect your GPU and close automatically.
5. Finally, open Adobe Premiere Pro again to check if the issue has been resolved.

Disable Antivirus

Your antivirus tries to save you from all sorts of malicious software, but it might sometimes be led astray by trusted software (like Premiere or After Effects) running a third-party effect or plugin. This may cause your antivirus to restrict GPU access to the software, causing no GPU to be detected.

Try running the effect with your antivirus switched off, provided you do trust the effect provider enough to do so. If the error resolves itself, you might want to switch your antivirus so that you can use your programs without any interruptions.

Upgrade Your Graphics Card

After Effects and Premiere have a list of recommended GPUs that they play nice with. If your graphics card is not on that list, you might want to change/upgrade your graphics card to one that is compatible. The generally recommended specs of your graphics are listed below:

• At least 4 Gigabytes of VRAM for 1080p.
• At least 6 Gigabytes of VRAM for 4k.
• At least 8 Gigabytes of VRAM for 6k.

Remember that VR workflows require heavier processing power to edit; keep a little headroom over the recommended spec to ensure a usable experience.

Reinstall Adobe Application

If you’re still getting the same GPU acceleration error and nothing has managed to fix it, you should reinstall your Adobe application. This way, if you’ve any corrupt files, then they will be reinstalled. Other than that, a fresh reinstall will also reset all the preferences and settings that might be causing this issue.

Also Read: HDMI On Motherboard Not Working

Additionally, it also means that you’ll be running the latest and updated version of your Adobe application, which always comes with newer bugs and error fixes. Here’s how you can reinstall the Adobe application using Adobe Creative Cloud.

1. First, launch Adobe Creative Cloud.
2. On the All apps page, wait for the Adobe applications to load.
3. From the list of installed applications, look for Premiere Pro or After Effects.
4. After that, click the three dots to the right of their name.
5. A drop-down menu will appear, select Uninstall.
6. In the confirmation window, click Remove.

Also Check: GPU Idle Temperature: Precautions & Guide

Wait for Adobe Creative Cloud to uninstall the selected application. Once done, restart your computer and open Adobe Creative Cloud again. This time, select the same application and click Install. After that, follow the on-screen instructions to reinstall the application.

Alternatively, you can also use to Control Panel to uninstall Adobe applications. Here’s how:

1. Press the Windows key to bring up the Start Menu.
2. From there, type “Premiere Pro” or “After Effects” and right-click it.
3. From the drop-down menu, select Uninstall.
4. In the Programs and Features window, right-click the Adobe application.
5. Finally, click Uninstall and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the uninstallation process.

After that, restart your computer and install Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects from their respective websites. Once done, try using the same effects again, and hopefully, the error will be fixed.

Final Words

This was everything you needed to know about “this effect requires GPU acceleration” error. Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects users are familiar with this error. It appears when they try to apply certain effects and transitions to their videos that require GPU acceleration — a feature that combines the GPU’s power with the CPU to boost performance.

Luckily, there are several ways to fix this issue. You can start by simply restarting your computer. After that, you can move on to enabling GPU acceleration, changing effects order, updating the graphics driver, reinstalling third-party plugins, and much more. Before leaving, make sure to read our guide on how to watercool GPU.