Global Performanc Cache

Global Performanc Cache

After Effects also benefits from having more RAM installed. Available memory is used to store
the RAM Preview cache for real-time playback, including the new Global RAM Cache feature
that remembers previously-previewed frames and compositions even from other projects.
More RAM increases the amount of time and frame size that can be cached for playback or later
recall. Enabling multiprocessing also uses additional RAM. At least 2 GB (preferably 3 GB) should
be assigned to each background process. In the scenario mentioned earlier, if you want to use
10 cores for multiprocessor previews and rendering, you will need 30 GB of RAM installed in
addition to RAM reserved for the normal foreground copy of After Effects, the operating system,
and any other software currently running.
Since After Effects uses RAM instead of drives for real-time playback, it is not as sensitive to storage
speed as Adobe Premiere Pro or SpeedGrade. Nonetheless, storage speed still affects how fast
sources can be read into memory to be composited, as well as how fast rendered frames can
be rendered back to disk. Drive speed becomes more of an issue when considering the Global
Performance Cache: The speed of your cache drive directly affects how fast frames can be swapped
between the RAM and disk caches, plus a faster cache drive means more frames are retained as
opposed to re-rendered if needed.

At a minimum, place your media and cache on a separate drive than used by the system, so that
normal system memory swapping does not compete with After Effects for disk access. Ideally,
you would also dedicate a separate very fast drive such as an SSD or Fusion ioFX for the Persistent
Disk Cache in After Effects CS6, as it uses this to save already-previewed frames to reuse later.
If you do not plan on enabling multiprocessing, you can use the same drive for both source media
and your render destination, as After Effects does not read and write at the same time; if you do
plan on enabling multiprocessing, then it is best if the sources were on their own drive separate
from your render destination as the different background rendering processes may be trying to
read and write at the same time.
As noted in the introduction, don’t overlook software settings and work habits as another
source of increased performance and productivity. The After Effects online Help file (tinyurl.com/
AdobePWP-08) contains an extensive list of suggestions and links to related resources.