Are my laptop specs too low for Shotcut to run smoothly?

[gtinjapan]

Hi there, I’ve searched around the FAQ’s and forum but was wondering if someone could take a look at my PC specs and see if my laptop specs are too slow to run shotcut smoothly? I upgraded my RAM from 16bg to 32gb but noticed no difference in the playback around transitions, text, etc. It even stutters on a short 10 second clip and I’m completely baffled by it as I thought my laptop was kind of decent. I have a:

Dell XPS 7590
9th Gen Intel i7 9750H 6 Core
32GB DDR4 2666MHz (just upgraded from 16GB)
NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5
512GB M.2 PCle NVMe SSD (maybe this is an issue?)

The shotcut version I’m using is: 20.02.17

I have the preview scaling set to 360p. Is there anything anyone can recommend I do or set to help the preview playback run more smoothly or should I accept how things are and save up for a better laptop?

[Andy_M]

Hi, what OS are you running?

Also, is there a reason why you’re not using the latest version 22.06.23?

[MusicalBox]

It would also help if you told the specs of the videos you typically import into Shotcut.
What resolution? What frame rate ?

[gtinjapan]

Ah forgot to mention that, I’m running Windows 11 Home.

No particular reason why I’m not using the latest version. I actually upgraded not too long ago and didn’t know there was a newer one out.

[Andy_M]

Shotcut should tell you each time you open it if you’re running the latest version.

[gtinjapan]

My videos were all taken on my iphone 12 pro max at 4K either 30 or 60 fps (depending if I remember to switch to 60fps).

The playback stuttering actually occurs even when I used a still image and added transitions and text to it.

[gtinjapan]

Thanks, just noticed that. Apologies for being such a noob.

[Andy_M]

No apology needed.

[Andy_M]

I presume you’ve checked the your spec against the min spec requirements including OpenGL?

[gtinjapan]

Yes I think my specs are above the min requirements. OpenGL is 4.6.

[Austin]

Everything looks pretty useable, except the CPU base frequency is a little low to crunch 4K 60p source videos. Are you open to using a proxy workflow?

[gtinjapan]

I see, so it’s my CPU issue. I just googled a bit on proxies. Seems like it’s a good way to go. Are there any downsides apart from a grainy preview window? I’m using 360p now anyway so I imagine it can’t get much worse than that.

[Elusien]

@Austin gave a good description of how proxy and preview can work together to produce a good workflow here:

Difference Between Preview Scaling and Proxy?

Preview Scaling deserves more praise. An example project will make the differences between Proxy and Preview Scaling much easier to see. Assume that each project described below has one video clip on the timeline with one text filter attached to it. Scenario 1: Nothing fancy Source video is 1080p (no proxy) Timeline video mode is 4K Preview Scaling is off In this scenario, the video file is decoded at 1080p resolution, which is a fair amount of CPU effort. Then the video is scaled up to …

[alanclarkeau]

Before using SHOTCUT, I always do a RESTART. And I go into TASK MANAGER and kill any processes particularly BROWSERS which you’re not using.

I’m using an i5, and yes, it sits and thinks “NOT RESPONDING” occasionally - up to 60 seconds, particularly if I’ve ZOOMED the timeline - but I’m doing 60-75 minute long Church Services with 2 or 3 video sources fine. Just occasionally need patience.

And regularly saving.

If it seems to be having an issue - I save, close and RESTART the computer - but that’s rare.

[gtinjapan]

Thanks for that. A lot for a beginner like me to follow but I think I got the gist of it!

[gtinjapan]

Ah nice tips there! Yes I should try to restart my laptop and close my millions of chrome tabs before using Shotcut!

[Namna]

Sur Mac OSX, pas besoin de faire des projets d’une heure pour voir les performances se détériorer.
Sur un projet d’une minute, placez sur un clip un filtre SPR (par exemple), mettez plusieurs images clés, modifiez les images clés, supprimez-en, remettez-en, la lecture devient vite saccadée.
Lorsque je constate ceci, j’enregistre le projet, je quitte Shotcut et j’ouvre à nouveau le projet. Pas besoin de redémarrer l’ordinateur.

On Mac OSX, you don’t need to do hour-long projects to see performance deteriorate.
On a one minute project, put an SPR filter (for example) on a clip, put in several keyframes, edit the keyframes, delete some, put some back in, playback quickly becomes jerky.
When I notice this, I save the project, quit Shotcut and open the project again. No need to restart the computer.