What makes the best system for After Effects?

There is no one ideal system configuration for After Effects, as users will have different video resolutions to edit and make different use of the software. After Effects makes use of both CPU cores, higher clock speeds and GPUs for specific effects, ultimately depending on whether you are working with HD, 4K, 6K or 8K video content, and the complexity of functions your using. Functions such as dissolves, warp stabilisation, colour replacement and exporting will place more demand on CPU and GPU resources.

What GPU(s) do I need for After Effects?

While After Effects does most of its calculations on the CPU, a fast GPU is crucial for a responsive experience with specific 3D effects and plugins, with more powerful models providing a more noticeable benefit when working with complex and high resolution video. We recommend the NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs as a good starting point in the NVIDIA range, adding in more GPUs if budget allows and your workloads scale well. If not, choose a single GeForce RTX GPU, but with larger memory.

If you are considering a dedicated workstation for After Effects then we recommend consumer-grade NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards thanks to their outstanding value for money. However, if you're also planning other intensive workloads on the same workstation then it's worth considering a professional-grade NVIDIA RTX GPU thanks to their larger memory buffer and certified drivers.

What storage does After Effects need?

We always recommend using an SSD for the boot drive that will host your OS, After Effects itself, and any active projects you are working on. The high speed of SSDs allows your system to boot, launch applications, and load files many times faster than any traditional hard drive. We would also recommend a second SSD or even an NVMe SSD - depending on your budget - for active After Effects projects files. If files are large or numerous several secondary SSDs can be added in RAID configurations to protect data integrity. An alternative solution for high capacity SSD active storage or cheaper HDD archiving could be to employ an external NAS device allowing both sharing and RAID protection.

When it comes to deciding on drive capacity, this will very much depend on your number of files and the project sizes. You should also consider the space required by other applications and their associated files too.