After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Systems and used in the post-production process of film making and television production.

Hardware Recommendations

Processor

For After Effects 22.0 and later, an 8 or 12-core CPU is a good starting point. Since Windows operating system uses some cores, we recommend a 16 to 24 core processor. For demanding workflows, 32-cores take full advantage of Multi-Frame Rendering. The amount of memory also impacts how After Effects can use the available CPU cores.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000WX series delivers outstanding performance and support 64GB of RAM and higher.
For very high-end performance AMD Threadripper (24 or 32 core) or Intel Xeon (24 or 32 core), which support 256GB of RAM and higher

For After Effects users also running Premiere Pro, consider Intel Core i7 or Core i9 with Quick Sync hardware acceleration for H.264 and HEVC formats. Use with at least 32GB of memory.

Memory

Adobe recommends starting with 64GB of RAM.

For Multi-Frame Rendering, calculate 4GB of RAM for each CPU core, add 20GB, and round up to the nearest standard RAM configuration. We recommend 128GB of RAM for a 16 to 24 core processor, and 256GB of RAM for a 32 core processor.

Graphics

Premiere Pro and After Effects take advantage of the GPU. We recommend a GPU with at least 8GB of memory. Multiple GPUs will speed up export and rendering.

6K/8K production recommendations

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super
NVIDIA Quadro RTX A6000 / A5500 / A5000
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 Ada / 5000 Ada

4K production recommendations

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super / 4070 Super
NVIDIA Quadro RTX A5000 / A4500
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4500 Ada / 4000 Ada

A common question we get is whether to go with a GeForce or Quadro graphics card and what the main differences are. In short, the actual graphics processor powering both series of cards is exactly the same. In fact, the processors come off of the same assembly line.

So why does the Quadro cost multiples more than the GeForce? The main reason is because the target customers for Quadro cards, namely large content production studios and engineering firms can afford these cards which allows NVIDIA to charge a premium for the couple extra features they enable.

However the GeForce and Quadro cards are not quite the same. For example, NVIDIA controls the specifications and quality assurance on all Quadro cards, while with GeForce cards the specifications and quality assurance are managed by the third party board partners. Furthermore, Quadro cards are a little more reliable because NVIDIA chooses the higher quality graphics chips for them. This results in better reliability, lower power consumption and lower heat output. In addition, Quadro cards have a larger video memory frame buffer that features error correction technology.

In terms of drivers, Quadro cards also get special drivers that are validated for professional grade applications such as for 3D modeling, animation, etc.

Storage

We recommend a NVMe SSD for the operating system, applications and project files. 1TB is the most common capacity for After Effects workstations. 1TB is fine if your projects are moderately sized. 2TB is recommended if your projects are large and you will you will use the workstation for a variety of professional applications.

If your projects are complex, are running multiple applications as the same time, and you want to maximize performance, we recommend two SSDs:

Primary NVMe SSD: operating system and applications
Secondary NVMe SSD: dedicated to active projects

For storage or backup, we recommend a SATA SSD or Hard Drive.

M.2 NVMe Gen4 SSD performs at ~5,000MB/s
2.5-inch SATA SSD performs at ~500MB/s
3.5-inch SATA Hard Drive performs at ~250MB/s

The Z Turbo Drive Dual Pro yields maximum performance - remarkable drive speeds combined with massive SSD capacity. Supporting two M.2 NVMe SSDs on one PCIe Gen4 slot, each achieving 5000MB/s, the Z Turbo Drive Dual Pro is the ultimate footage drive. With the Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel VROC), the NVMe SSDs can be partitioned in RAID array.

RAID0 for performance - two NVMe Gen4 SSDs in RAID0 will result in combined drive speeds and capacity. For example, two 4TB SSDs will result in a 8TB RAID0 partition performing at 10,000MB/s or 10Gb/s speeds ideal for your active editing/footage partition.
RAID1 for redundancy - two NVMe Gen4 SSDs in RAID1 will result in fast performance with redundancy. For example, two 4TB SSDs will result in a 4TB RAID1 partition performing at 5,000MB/s or 5Gb/s speeds while maintaining the 2nd drive is a mirror. If one drive fails, your data will be safe.