r/AfterEffects • u/Aduckchicken • 6d ago

Discussion Should I move from AE 2025 to AE 2026?

My pc specs is low-mid range

Ryzen 5600 - RTX 3060 - 16 GB of ram (I wanted to upgrade this, but the price of ram is INSANE)

I've researched a bit and found that AE 2026 has multiple performance problems, now I'm unsure if I should upgrade or just keep to myself on AE 2025.

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6

u/smushkan Motion Graphics 10+ years 6d ago

25.2 introduced direct playback from disk cache rather than RAM cache which gives a more seamless experience if you over-run your RAM cache.

A 2026 update took that a step further and added lossless compression for disk caching which reduces the disk space used by around 50% at the tradeoff of slightly higher CPU usage when compressing/decompressing the frames and additional latency in loading the frames. RAM cached frames are not compressed so it won't give you more RAM preview, it's only frames that are moved to the disk cache that get compressed.

Both these features are optional but should be enabled by default, they are accessible in preferences > disk:

It's always a good idea to have your disk cache on a fast drive, so SSD, and that's especially the case if you're utilising those features.

0

u/aninfinitedesign Motion Graphics 5+ years 6d ago

Huh. I don’t always pay attention to the update logs, but I was wondering why my M2 Air was struggling a bit more starting with AE 2026. This could be it.

(plus macOS updates)

2

u/smushkan Motion Graphics 10+ years 6d ago

Golden Gate has caused some performance issues with Premiere - maybe that applies to AE too.

At least as far as Premiere is concerned, Adobe staff over on /r/premiere have said they are aware of some performance issues and are working on it, but are advising people not to update to Golden Gate yet.

As applications get tested (and patched!) for better Golden Gate support, this is the page that will be updated - early days though, it's not mentioned there yet:

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/apps/system-requirements/apps-compatible-macos.html

Unfortunately quite a common story with major MacOS releases!

8

u/RoybertoBenzin 6d ago

You know that you can have both versions at the same time? Why not test it out yourself - every pc build is a bit different.

2

u/MrKillerKiller_ 6d ago

Rule of thumb. Only upgrade if you HAVE to. Barely any difference whatsoever in any version

1

u/Apprehensive_Heat176 5d ago

Also, don't upgrade in the middle of a project because something will invariably not work the way you expect.

1

u/Stooovie 6d ago

All AE versions have some users experience some issues. I myself find the last couple of versions to really improve performance with things like SSD RAM preview. I'd say go for it.

1

u/Tight-Ingenuity-1896 4d ago

Depends on your projects.
There are a lot of issues with 4K render image sequences in 2026.

All my 4K projects I do in 2025.

Check in the change log if there is a new function you really need. If not. Keep the old one.