How To Enable GPU Cuda in Adobe CS6 for Mac

A lot of folks were complaining about how most GPU accelerated graphics cards are not supported in Adobe’s new Premiere Pro and After Effects CS6 applications.

Thankfully there is a simple and quick fix that allows you to enable your GPU videocard to be supported that makes the editing experience so much better.

I take just six minutes to show you how to complete this on a Mac.

Now, let me also say, not every video card (Nvidia Geforce) will work. There are still some requirements.

Your videocard must be Nvidia (Supports CUDA). At this time, ATI does not work.
Your videocard needs to have at least 896MB of onboard memory.
Your memory needs to be DDR3 or DDR5. DDR2 is too slow and you will see performance issues in Premiere Pro.

You can download the following ZIP file that includes all of the required steps for the modification.

Download Instructions 4 kb

So what is GPU? This stands for Graphics Processing Unit. Adobe uses CUDA that was designed by Nvidia and this gives 3d artists and now video editors and motion graphic designers the ability to use their videocard’s processing power to preview effects in realtime at smooth playback frame rates. Most video editing applications only use the CPU (central processing unit) for rendering and previewing which this method has many performance limitations.

With technology always improving, our workflow becomes better and faster every day! Gotta love it!

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148 Responses to “How To Enable GPU Cuda in Adobe CS6 for Mac”

Riley May 17, 2013 at 1:10 pm #

Hi!

I follow the instructions and it works for premier but when I add “GeForce GTX 675MX” in the After Effects terminal and save. I try to reopen to check it but it doesn’t work show up! Ugh. What am I doing wrong?

Reply
Fabio May 15, 2013 at 1:29 am #

Hello and congratulations the first step once pasted the GTX 570 video card what are the keys from keyboard to save. Thanks

Reply
Stefan April 3, 2013 at 5:26 pm #

THANK YOU!!! A client is requesting 3D text a complex set
of animations and you just reduced a lot of major pain and
suffering.

Reply
- david cain April 19, 2013 at 2:36 pm #
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  Thanks for the clear instructions. They worked the first time, but I ended up doing a clean re-install of Adobe software and can’t seem to past the first step. When I paste in
  
  /Applications/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6/Adobe\ Premiere\ Pro\ CS6.app/Contents/GPUSniffer.app/Contents/MacOS/ GPUSniffer
  
  and hit enter, I don’t a list of GPUs like I used to. Terminal is telling me it’s a directory… that because I don’t have Pr installed in its default location? That would be weird, cause it is… I think.
  
  Thanks
  
  dc
  
  Reply
  - david cain April 19, 2013 at 2:40 pm #
    
    I forgot to add that the GPU is working in Ae, just not Pr. Thanks
    
    Reply
Koen March 28, 2013 at 7:05 pm #

@Ulf I was intending to buy the ‘Nvidia GTX 480 for Apple
Mac Pro Internal Power Version’ from Macvidcards on eBay to have
CUDA support with Premiere Pro and AE CS6 (Creative Cloud) +
DaVinci Resolve. But if I read your comment, this will be a waste
of money because it’s not working anymore after the latest update
of CS6?

Reply
- Ulf March 31, 2013 at 5:58 pm #
  
  Correct.
  
  Reply
- Bob April 2, 2013 at 2:59 pm #
  
  Just finished following your instructions for a new iMac i7 with GeForce GTX 680 MX option. It worked like a charm for both Premiere Pro and After Effects. Thanks.
  
  Reply
Anthony March 22, 2013 at 7:10 pm #

Hi there. I just followed your on screen instructions, but
as I was re loading after effects I got this message… After
Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed. (5070
:: 0) Any idea what this is? Many thanks. Anthony

Reply
- Ulf March 25, 2013 at 3:58 pm #
  
  After updating to the latest AE build, this seems no longer to be an option on getting Cuda working on non Adobe certified cards.
  
  Reply
Trond March 2, 2013 at 8:17 am #

Hei After following your instructions to turn on the GPU
Cuda, then suddenly PPro worked amazing. However, when I open AE I
get this message: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed? Is
there any fix for this iMac: Prosessor 3,2 GHz Intel Core i5.
Memory 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB Best
regards Trond (How To Enable GPU Cuda in Adobe CS6 for
Mac)

Reply
asama February 19, 2013 at 7:22 pm #

ithanks alot for this help but i cant see the cuda Device in the GPUSnifer, it shows me only openCl Device. any idea?
mac osx 10,7,5
gtx 570 2,5gb
mac pro 2,1
latest dirver of Nvidia and Cuda are installes

Reply
Mark February 19, 2013 at 1:35 am #

Great information but I have a new IMac with NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M.
It seems it doesn’t work. Should I use the “NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M” full name when I add the card name to the list?

Reply
- mishavideo@gmail.com February 20, 2013 at 1:54 am #
  
  I also have a new mac book pro with different names loading up. What worked for me with After Effects was using only: “GeForce GT 650M”. In AE, now thanks mainly to the video above (you rock it!) I now have CPU & GPU enabled.
  
  Reply
John Dickinson February 18, 2013 at 11:17 pm #

Thanks for the clear and precise tutorial.
Best wishes,
John.

Reply

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