4GB VRAM (NVIDIA RTX 3050 / AMD Radeon 6600) The Pro: 8GB+ VRAM (NVIDIA RTX 4070+)
More RAM. If you can only buy one thing, buy RAM. Then set your disk cache to a fast SSD.
Here is the real-world guide to what you actually need, from Starter to Superhero . Adobe officially says 8GB of RAM is the minimum. That is technically true—in the same way that a spoon is technically a shovel.
Laptop CPUs "throttle" (slow down) when they get hot. After Effects makes them hot in about 90 seconds. A laptop with "i9" specs will perform worse than a desktop with "i5" specs after 10 minutes of rendering because the laptop runs out of thermal headroom.
You’ve just had a brilliant idea for a video. It involves a 3D spinning logo, some kinetic typography that punches the screen, and a particle effect that rains glitter on a dystopian cityscape.
In 2024/2025, After Effects uses the GPU for dozens of effects (Lumetri Color, Gaussian Blur, Sharpening, and the new AI tools). Without a decent GPU, those effects render via CPU—which is 10x slower.
32GB of RAM + a desktop i7 + a used RTX 3060. That rig will outperform a $3,000 thin laptop.
