Fix: This Effect Requires GPU Acceleration Error on Adobe Premiere Pro

Are you seeing a ‘this effect requires GPU acceleration’ error on Adobe Premiere Pro?

Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the best video editing software in the market. It has been around for ages and is the go-to program for most creative professionals. While Premiere Pro is the best tool for video editing, it requires some computing power to function properly. 

If you’re using an entry-level system for Adobe Premiere Pro, you could run into issues when you use filters and effects that require a lot of computing power to render. 

If you apply a graphics-intensive effect, you may see a ‘this effect requires GPU acceleration’ error message on Premiere Pro.

This error message occurs when GPU acceleration is disabled on Premiere Pro. However, it can also show up due to third-party plugins,  low-end hardware, corrupted installation files, or outdated software. 

Today, we’ll show you how to fix the ‘this effect requires GPU acceleration’ error on Adobe Premiere Pro. 

Let’s get started!

1. Restart Your Computer. 

One of the first things you can do when you encounter an error message on Premiere Pro is to restart your system. This will reload your system resources and eliminate temporary bugs and glitches in the process. 

For Windows users, check out the steps below to restart your PC: 

1. On your computer, click on the Windows icon on the Taskbar to open the Start Menu.
2. Next, open the Power Options tab. 
3. Finally, click on Restart to reboot your system. 

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If you’re using a Mac, here’s what you need to do: 

1. First, open the Apple Menu on the top left corner of your screen.
2. After that, choose Restart. 
3. Lastly, click on Restart again to confirm your action. 

Once done, go back to Adobe Premiere Pro to check if the problem is solved. 

2. Enable GPU Acceleration.

As stated in the error message, you’re probably trying to apply an effect that requires GPU power to render. However, GPU acceleration is likely disabled on your preferences, triggering the error. 

To fix this, see the guide below to turn on GPU acceleration: 

1. On Adobe Photoshop, click on File and choose Project Settings. 
2. Under Video Rendering and Playback, click on the Renderer tab. 
3. Finally, select Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration. 

Save the changes and try applying the effects again. 

3. Update Your Graphics Driver. 

Broken graphics drivers could also be the reason you can’t apply some effects on Adobe Premiere Pro. To rule this out, update your graphics drivers to patch potential bugs and glitches. 

See the steps below to update your drivers:

1. First, press the Windows + X keys on your keyboard. 
2. After that, click on Device Manager. 
3. Expand the Display Adapters tab and right-click on your video card.
4. Lastly, choose the Update Driver option. 

After updating your drivers, restart your system to apply the changes. Relaunch Premiere Pro and check if the problem is solved. 

4. Re-Arrange Your Effects.

Re-arranging your effects might be able to fix this issue if you’re using multiple effects on your video. 

If you’re applying several effects to your clip and the error message shows up, then it may indicate that the effect you’re trying to apply is broken. We suggest re-arranging the order of your effects and see if it makes any difference. 

5. Reinstall Adobe Premiere Pro. 

At this point, the only thing we can suggest is reinstalling Adobe Premiere Pro on your system. This way, we can ensure that there are no corrupted files on your storage and you have the latest version of Premiere Pro. 

For Windows, here’s how you can uninstall Premiere Pro: 

1. Access the Control Panel on your computer. 
2. Next, click on Uninstall a Program.
3. Finally, right-click on Premiere Pro and choose Uninstall. 

If you’re using a Mac computer, open the Finder, go to the Applications tab and drag Adobe Premiere Pro to the Trash. 

Reinstall Adobe Premiere Pro afterward and check if the problem is solved.

That ends our guide for fixing the ‘this effect requires GPU acceleration’ error on Adobe Premiere Pro. If you have questions, please leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to help. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂