An i7-2600 CPU first came out 10 years ago, and with a Passmark score of only 5.3k it isn't quite powerful enough to work with modern video specs, like HEVC and 4K. However, you should still be able to use PD without crashing or unexplained delays, especially if you're working with AVC and HD clips.

Most people haven't reported issues like this, and it would be very helpful if you followed the steps in the Read Me Before Posting
guide and attached the DxDiag file so we can see the most important details of your computer, including which graphics hardware and drivers you have installed.

It would also help to see the exact version of PD you're running. Include a screenshot of the About screen or post the full level and version number.

Quote An i7-2600 CPU first came out 10 years ago, and with a Passmark score of only 5.3k it isn't quite powerful enough to work with modern video specs, like HEVC and 4K. However, you should still be able to use PD without crashing or unexplained delays, especially if you're working with AVC and HD clips.

Most people haven't reported issues like this, and it would be very helpful if you followed the steps in the Read Me Before Posting
guide and attached the DxDiag file so we can see the most important details of your computer, including which graphics hardware and drivers you have installed.

It would also help to see the exact version of PD you're running. Include a screenshot of the About screen or post the full level and version number.

Hi. Thanks for the help. I never work with HEVC or 4K videos so my pc definetely should be able to handle the work load.
Attached is a dxdiag file. It's in Dutch. And I am not able to make a snapshot atm. Here is the requested info:

Powerdirector version: 18.0.2228.0
Version type: Ultimate
SR Number VDE190927-02


I tried to upgrade but it said there was nothing to download.

Quote An i7-2600 CPU first came out 10 years ago, and with a Passmark score of only 5.3k it isn't quite powerful enough to work with modern video specs, like HEVC and 4K. However, you should still be able to use PD without crashing or unexplained delays, especially if you're working with AVC and HD clips.

Most people haven't reported issues like this, and it would be very helpful if you followed the steps in the Read Me Before Posting
guide and attached the DxDiag file so we can see the most important details of your computer, including which graphics hardware and drivers you have installed.

It would also help to see the exact version of PD you're running. Include a screenshot of the About screen or post the full level and version number.

Can you see the dxdiag file? I'll attach it again.

To attach the DxDiag text file, you need to use this button below the forum's text box:

Also, there is an update to build 2725 whcih you should be able to download from here.

Quote To attach the DxDiag text file, you need to use this button below the forum's text box:



Also, there is an update to build 2725 whcih you should be able to download from here.

Yes. I used that button the first time but it didn't work. I posted a second time with the attached file. Did you overlook it or something?

I tried updating to 2725 but it said that I don't have the proper version. A zip folder was placed on my desktop and I was told to share it with help?

It looks like you posted the first one while I was typing so I didn't see it until now. By any chance did you get PD18 through Steam? If so, you should check there for an update or send a support request to CL from this page.

Also, you have a fairly recent driver for your radeon RX 580 (May 2020), but the most recent one is only 20 days old. You can download and install it from here.

This is about performance of the PC. Notwithstanding opto's comment about the age of the cpu, PC performance is mostly determined by:

• the clock rate of the cpu: the faster the better. Multi-cores/hyper-threading are only useful if the software can use them, and there's been discussion/opinions about whether PD can or can't do that.


• RAM, lots of. 8gb is good but 12/16/32 Gb is lots better.


• Custom installing the editor to a non-C drive helps, in a desktop machine. In a laptop with only one internal drive, possibly no signiificant improvement.


• your used space on a storage drive should not exceed 75% or you will get congestion issues as the OS shuffles around trying to find space. That will give you both fragmented files, and performance delays. On a C drive, it also adds delays for page swapping.


• Having an SSD for the C drive helps a lot. It reduces the disk access wait time from a few milliseconds to zero. Not much you think, but when you do it literally millions of times in a program action (scan a drive, or render a large project file), it makes a big difference overall. Example; I changed my desktop C drive from an HDD to an SSD, and without changing any of the content that halved the regular AV scan time from 1 hour to 30 minutes.

You really haven't mentioned the size of your C drive but a only bit more than 1 Gb free says it's really full. If you have options to move (un-install, re-install) programs and data to another drive, you should do so.

Also, review your restore point allocations. The default is 100% of spare space, which means that you will progressively (most program installs create one, and every monthly MS update does so) fill up unused space on the hard drive with restore points. But you can limit that space to say 5% of the C drive capacity, and when it fills the oldest restore points are deleted to make room for newer ones. Somewhere around 10Gb is more than enough for about 5 or 6 restore points, and that should be more than enough. A drive recovery from a backup file and some MS updates auto change this setting so you should check it regularly.

An external drive - like those small usb interface 500Gb or 1Tb pocket drives from toshiba or seagate - will help any PC, but beware of the interface: there are 2 parts to it, one on the drive and one on the computer (eg usb3 on PC and usb2 on drive). And the speed of the combination is the slowest of the two. Delays across this interface can cause temporary image jamming or jerkiness in the video as the cache empties and a wait state occurs in the program whilst it fills with data again. If you are looking to maintain performance whilst doing this, and you have a bus-connected SD card slot available (normally, laptops only) then a large SD card will be faster than the same size in a pocket drive.

Your specs sound good enought to make PD 18 work fine even using FHD or 4K with proxy/shadow files enabled. I think you just have too much junk on the drives and the PC is struggling with that. Do you clean up the system regularly by getting rid of temporary files, old browser cache entries and the like?? Example: I had a student once always complaining that her toshiba laptop was so sloowwww while editing. Eventually I suggested running the Cclean (free from piriform) program on it: it took 15 mins to run, turned up 32Gb of junk files, and when the clean was done/registry adjusted//re-booted the laptop was running "like a new one". If you don't do this, this is the first action you should do, and it should be a regular habit to do do it every few days.

Quote This is about performance of the PC. Notwithstanding opto's comment about the age of the cpu, PC performance is mostly determined by:

• the clock rate of the cpu: the faster the better. Multi-cores/hyper-threading are only useful if the software can use them, and there's been discussion/opinions about whether PD can or can't do that.


• RAM, lots of. 8gb is good but 12/16/32 Gb is lots better.


• Custom installing the editor to a non-C drive helps, in a desktop machine. In a laptop with only one internal drive, possibly no signiificant improvement.


• your used space on a storage drive should not exceed 75% or you will get congestion issues as the OS shuffles around trying to find space. That will give you both fragmented files, and performance delays. On a C drive, it also adds delays for page swapping.


• Having an SSD for the C drive helps a lot. It reduces the disk access wait time from a few milliseconds to zero. Not much you think, but when you do it literally millions of times in a program action (scan a drive, or render a large project file), it makes a big difference overall. Example; I changed my desktop C drive from an HDD to an SSD, and without changing any of the content that halved the regular AV scan time from 1 hour to 30 minutes.

You really haven't mentioned the size of your C drive but a only bit more than 1 Gb free says it's really full. If you have options to move (un-install, re-install) programs and data to another drive, you should do so.

Also, review your restore point allocations. The default is 100% of spare space, which means that you will progressively (most program installs create one, and every monthly MS update does so) fill up unused space on the hard drive with restore points. But you can limit that space to say 5% of the C drive capacity, and when it fills the oldest restore points are deleted to make room for newer ones. Somewhere around 10Gb is more than enough for about 5 or 6 restore points, and that should be more than enough. A drive recovery from a backup file and some MS updates auto change this setting so you should check it regularly.

An external drive - like those small usb interface 500Gb or 1Tb pocket drives from toshiba or seagate - will help any PC, but beware of the interface: there are 2 parts to it, one on the drive and one on the computer (eg usb3 on PC and usb2 on drive). And the speed of the combination is the slowest of the two. Delays across this interface can cause temporary image jamming or jerkiness in the video as the cache empties and a wait state occurs in the program whilst it fills with data again. If you are looking to maintain performance whilst doing this, and you have a bus-connected SD card slot available (normally, laptops only) then a large SD card will be faster than the same size in a pocket drive.

Your specs sound good enought to make PD 18 work fine even using FHD or 4K with proxy/shadow files enabled. I think you just have too much junk on the drives and the PC is struggling with that. Do you clean up the system regularly by getting rid of temporary files, old browser cache entries and the like?? Example: I had a student once always complaining that her toshiba laptop was so sloowwww while editing. Eventually I suggested running the Cclean (free from piriform) program on it: it took 15 mins to run, turned up 32Gb of junk files, and when the clean was done/registry adjusted//re-booted the laptop was running "like a new one". If you don't do this, this is the first action you should do, and it should be a regular habit to do do it every few days.

Good tips, thanks.