Adobe After Effects

Adobe’s recommended system requirements for After Effects

Like most software makers, Adobe also has a list of system requirements for Adobe After Effects, a hardware list that you are advised to meet in order to use the program. This list of recommendations is not a guarantee for an optimally functioning Adobe After Effects workstation, but provides the minimum requirement. The official information provided by software producers is not always up-to-date, and often lags behind hardware development which is progressing at breakneck speed.

Therefore, Ikbenstil Computers equips these Adobe After Effects Workstations with the most current and useful and balanced hardware for the program’s operation.

The hardware:

Processor (CPU): Our standard After Effects Workstation is based on an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, which has a single core speed advantage over the AMD Ryzen 9950, although the Intel CPU is slightly more expensive. In recent years it has alternated between Intel and AMD. In single thread workloads, a Threadripper PRO or Xeon W processor is slower than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, but the AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor excels in the new After Effects Multi-Frame rendering mode. An additional advantage of the Ryzen Threadripper architecture is that much more RAM can be used than on the normal Core i9 mainboards. A good high-end CPU is the 24 core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X.

The graphics card (GPU) Adobe After Effects is making increasing use of the GPU; it is important to work with a GPU that is recommended by Adobe, but the usefulness of the GPU is determined by the GPU acceleration tools you use in the program. If Multi-Frame rendering is used, then the amount of VRAM on the card is very important, which makes the RTX 5080 16GB a suitable candidate. The more expensive RTX 5090 with 32GB is the fastest choice but given the price and minimal performance gain, not our standard choice. We use a standard Nvidia graphics card by default, which offers more computing power and VRAM at lower cost compared to Nvidia’s Professional series.

10-bit display support The only way to get 10-bit display support is by using a video monitoring card. We recommend the Blackmagic Decklink Mini Monitor 4K and the Studio 4K 6G-SDI PCIe card for this. These cards are specially designed to deliver unchanged video signals to your monitor, resulting in the best possible video and colour quality. You will then need a very accurate screen that can handle the FPS and resolution.

Memory (RAM) Adobe recommends a minimum of 32GB of RAM; we recommend at least 128GB in the After Effects Workstation if you work with 4K or larger files, and 256GB in the After Effects Workstation. It is also important to include the other programs you use alongside After Effects in your total calculation.

Storage Storage is an aspect that is often overlooked in video editing and motion graphics. The CPU or graphics card may do all the processing, but if your storage can’t keep up, it doesn’t matter how fast those components are. What makes storage complicated is the fact that you’re not only dealing with the different types of disks available today, but you also want to configure them to deliver maximum performance in After Effects. We recommend a configuration with at least three NVMe SSDs: for the operating system and programs, a fast primary NVMe SSD. And for ongoing projects a secondary NVMe SSD, and After Effects also works with a media cache and scratch disk, this then becomes the tertiary NVMe SSD, giving your processing in After Effects a boost. Of course, storage for content is also needed, this can be on a regular SATA SSD or optionally large volume HDDs, file server or NAS.

Audio Modern mainboards have good audio functionalities, but because the audio chip is on the mainboard, it can be disrupted by other processes, resulting in audible unwanted effects. Our advice is to use an external DAC; this gives an enormous improvement, for example the M-Audio Super DAC.

Custom build Ikbenstil Computers has made workstations that align with standard workflows and the associated software. If your choice is not included here, you can contact one of our specialists, who can offer you a custom solution.

Hardware requirements Adobe After Effects according to Adobe:

Adobe After Effects system requirements