This guide covers everything about the "This effect requires GPU acceleration" error on Adobe applications, including its fixes.

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.

Well, if the same error is also bugging you, then worry no more as this guide will cover everything there is to know about this error; including several fixes.

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, can be more, can be 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.

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

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

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:

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

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: 

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

In many cases, you will 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.

If none of the methods we have discussed so far have worked for you, 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:

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:

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.

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 around with 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 requires GPU acceleration error because of an outdated plugin.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

If you’re still getting the same GPU acceleration error and nothing has managed to fix it, then you should reinstall the Adobe application you’re using. 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.

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.

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:

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.

Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects users are familiar with the effect requires GPU acceleration 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.

Yes, GPU acceleration performs specific tasks on GPU hardware instead of software in CPU, this way you get better performance in your applications.

No, in general, if you’ve enabled GPU acceleration, then you will not run into any issues. However, if you do face an error that is caused by GPU acceleration, then you can turn it off.

You can turn off GPU acceleration in Adobe Premiere Pro by heading over to Files -> Project Settings -> General. After that, select Mercury Playback Engine Software Only in the Rendered option under the Video Renderer and Playback section.

Yes, your GPU usage can climb up to 100% when GPU acceleration is enabled. That’s because along with the CPU, your GPU will also be working on processing-intensive tasks.

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