Software rendering update

Last updated on Apr 2, 2026

Learn more about the removal of software rendering options.

In Premiere (version 25.2 and later), the option to choose software rendering (“Mercury Playback Engine Software Only”) from Project Settings > General has been removed.

Software rendering can cause poor performance and rendering in 8-bit, which can result in image quality issues. 

This change affects: 

  • Premiere – Windows
  • Premiere - Macintosh Intel
  • Adobe Media Encoder - All platforms

This change has no effect on Premiere on Apple silicon computers, as software rendering has never been an option on this platform. 

This change only affects rendering. Customers can still choose to use software encoding when exporting. For best performance, the use of hardware encoding is strongly recommended. 

On a computer with a single type of GPU, that GPU will be selected in Project Settings > General > Renderer, and the menu will be greyed out, as there is no second GPU type to select. The playback engine shown is active and being used for rendering.

On a computer with two GPU types, you may select which GPU type, either OpenCL or CUDA, is being used for rendering. 

Note

If you have a project that rendered correctly using software rendering in version 25.1 or earlier that no longer renders correctly in later versions, please submit a bug report so we can fix the issue.