I have 4GB ram 2GB graphics card but my laptop preview is lagging

[sidzhere]

when i use preview scaling to 360p also its seems to be lagging please help me
now i cant buy anything for my laptop because iam in tight of money any changes to be done ??
please help me
thank U

[Hudson555x]

Depending upon the video you are editing, you may be lucky to have Shotcut work at all.
You’re at the very bottom of the specifications for Shotcut to work.
Shotcut - Frequently Asked Questions

How to Reduce Memory Usage

Here are ways to reduce the memory usage in general: Save and restart Shotcut Close other browser tabs. Close other applications. Reboot (does all of the above). Here are ways to reduce the memory usage of your project: Reduce the resolution of the Video Mode. Reduce the number of tracks. The number of tracks will increase the amount of caching to prevent files from being closed and reopened repeatedly from one frame to the next. Here are some ways to reduce the memory usage while editing: …

[Ar_D]

Well 4gb is still too low, You can’t expect massive performance from a low end PC even having all settings set to the lowest on a video editing software.

You need to be in partnership with lags while doing video editing on a lower end PC, No one can get smooth performance on lower end PC.

The only way to get no lag while video editing even on the worst PCs is to install windows movie maker on your PC which is now unsupported and work with it having no tracks, effects and dockable windows. And you are still lucky that shotcut is even working on your PC.

[MusicalBox]

Hi @sidzhere
My second PC had more or less the same specs as yours. 4 gigs of ram and a very basic graphic card.
I used it many times to work on 1920 x 1080 projects. Reducing memory usage, like @Hudson555x suggested, plus using Preview Scaling AND Proxies helped a lot. It was not super smooth, but manageable. And for parts of the projects where there was too much lag to preview in Shotcut, I used the Copy to Timeline option in the Timeline menu. That allows you to quickly export a small part of the timeline (part with heavy filters for example) and to preview it in an external media player without lag.

You can learn how to use the Copy to Timeline tool in this tutorial:

Shotcut tutorial: How to export one part of a Project (OBSOLETE METHOD, see description)

[sidzhere]

Thanks your great explanation
Big shout out u bro

[Ar_D]

Thanks, I too suffered from lower ram on my PC at one time, There is no need to just spend 1000s of dollars to buy a new PC or Ram It just depends on how creative you are, And to tell you my first ever video was made on a 32 bit windows 7 with 2gb Ram in movie maker but actually that was the best edit I have done ever in my life, I was in high schools at that time when my dad gifted me my first desktop at 2010 and actually it’s better to see shotcut developing from 2011 slide show maker to a 2021 video editor.