Enable Mercury Playback Engine (GPU accelerated) renderer

Last updated on Jun 23, 2025

Learn how to activate the Mercury Playback Engine (GPU accelerated) renderer to enhance performance and speed up rendering in Premiere Pro and Media Encoder.

Note:

If you can’t find the Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration option after updating or reinstalling Premiere Pro, try doing a clean install of your GPU drivers, NVIDIA and AMD®.

Improve Premiere Pro and Media Encoder performance with an accelerated renderer

Adobe Premiere Pro and Media Encoder use your system's GPU to share the processing load with the CPU, boosting performance. While the CPU handles most tasks, the GPU steps in for specific effects and features. The Mercury Playback Engine (GPU Accelerated) in Premiere Pro and the Mercury Playback Engine (GPU accelerated) Media Encoder help render these effects and manage image processing, resizing, color conversions, and more.

With Mercury Transmit, you get smoother timeline playback, easier scrubbing, and better full-screen playback. The CPU and GPU work together to make editing and exporting faster and more efficient.

Mercury Playback Engine (GPU accelerated) renderer for Premiere Pro

  1. Open Premiere Pro.

  2. Go to File > Project Settings > General > Video Rendering and Playback section.

  3. Select Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) from the Renderer dropdown.

    The Project Settings dialog is open and in the Video Rendering and Playback section, Renderer drop-down, the option Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) is selected.
    Set the Renderer to Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) for improved timeline playback and preview rendering.

  4. Select OK.


Mercury Playback Engine (GPU accelerated) renderer in Media Encoder

  1. Open Media Encoder.

  2. Go to Edit > Preferences > General > Video Rendering and Playback section.

    Alternatively, you can also go to Window > Queue.

  3. Select Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) from the Renderer dropdown.

    The Preferences dialog is open. In General panel, Video Rendering section, 
the Renderer drop-down with the option Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) is highlighted.
    Improve rendering speed with GPU Acceleration settings.

    Queue panel is open and Renderer drop-down is highlighted and the option Mercury Playback Engine-GPU Acceleration (Open CL) is selected.
    Select Renderer for Optimized Video Rendering.

  4. Select OK.