Sapphire Plug-Ins error in Premiere on M1 Ultra

Sapphire VFX Plug-ins
1

I have been getting Sapphire errors on render/playback/export frequently, and I can’t seem to find anything that addresses this issue. Failed to create metal object, or GPU render failed/falling back to CPU. I’m on a Mac Studio Ultra 128GB, Ventura 13.2, Premiere 23.1, latest sapphire. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Screenshot 2023-02-09 at 1.45.01 PM
Screenshot 2022-10-28 at 1.02.06 PM

2

Hi Raul-

This mac only premiere issue is something we are currently looking into and hope to have a fix in soon. The good news is Sapphire has a full CPU fallback, so if you want to avoid seeing the errors you can disable the GPU in Sapphire. Instructions below.

Thanks,
Brian

  • Try disabling your GPU and running Sapphire in CPU only mode, which can quickly solve many common Sapphire rendering issues. This is done by editing the Sapphire configuration file, also known as s_config.text. To disable the GPU, you must open s_config.text with any text editor and find the line that says “use_gpu=yes” and change that to “use_gpu=no”. After editing, make sure to save and replace the s_config.text file and restart your host application. Sapphire will now render only on the CPU, but your GPU will still be active for your host application.
    • For AfterEffects and Premiere on Windows
      • s_config.text is located at: /ProgramFiles/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Adobe
    • For AfterEffects and Premiere on macOS
      • s_config.text is located at: /Applications/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Adobe/config/
    • For Photoshop on Windows
      • s_config.text is located at: /ProgramFiles/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Photoshop
    • For Photoshop on macOS
      • s_config.text is located at: /Applications/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Photoshop/config/
    • For Avid on Windows
      • s_config.text is located at: /ProgramFiles/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Avid
    • For Avid on macOS
      • s_config.text is located at: /Applications/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) Avid/config/
    • For OFX hosts on Windows
      • s_config.text is located at: /ProgramFiles/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) OFX
    • For OFX hosts on macOS
      • s_config.text is located at: /Applications/BorisFX/Sapphire (version#) OFX/config/
    • For OFX hosts on Linux
      • s_config.text is located at: /opt/BorisFX/SapphireOFX
3

Quick questions from the dev team which will help:

  1. Which MacOS version?
  2. What type of CPU (Intel, M1 Pro, M1 Max, etc)?
  3. Are you on a system with one or two GPUs?
  4. How long are you editing before you see the error?
  5. Are they seeing any additional errors before the one you posted? Or just that one
4

Hi Brian, thanks for the quick reply. I’ll give the cpu only mode a try.

To answer your dev team questions:

  • Mac OS Ventura 13.2
  • M1 Ultra
  • integrated apple silicon GPU
  • time editing varies, but it can happen fairly soon after relaunch of a project. Restarting premiere may only delay the issue slightly.
  • the two main errors seem to be “GPU render fail” and “failed to create metal object”

thanks

5

Thank you Raul. That info helps us a lot. I will reach out when we have a permanent fix in.

Thanks,
Brian

6

Any solutions here on this? My system is exhibiting the same behavior as the OP.

Screenshot 2023-02-20 at 1.50.01 PM
Screenshot 2023-02-20 at 1.50.01 PM1782×1438 108 KB

Screenshot 2023-02-20 at 1.50.06 PM
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Screenshot 2023-02-20 at 1.50.10 PM
Screenshot 2023-02-20 at 1.50.10 PM1410×1268 76.2 KB

7

I have exactly the same errors with my Macbook pro M1 pro, MacOS Ventura 13.2.1, premiere pro 23.2

8

Having this too on our systems. macOS Studio Ultra and Max, macOS 12.6.2. Adobe Premiere 23.1.

9

Ugh - same problem. How disappointing. Just bought this product last week and am now stuck with this rendering error. Mac Studio M1 Max, Ventura 13.1, 64 gig of ram. No error for first day or two - now a series (4 or 5 pop up messages at a time) of errors pop up every few minutes when I’m in a project in which I use Sapphire. I’m not going to change my config file (sorry). I’ve started going back and deleting all of the Sapphire effects I used and replacing them with options from other tools…

10

Just cancelled my subscription. Very disappointing but this is a complete show stopper for me (not to mention I don’t want to be paying $175/month for something I can’t use)…

11

Good news is we have tracked down this issue and are testing a solution and looking to release a free update soon. If anybody would be willing to help us test out a beta version with fix in to help us verify we got the bug squashed, let me know and I can email you a link.

Thanks,
Brian

12

Hi Brian, I’m confused. You released 16.02 this week, your support rep said it’s the fix for this issue, and we installed it and it appears to have fixed the issue…

13

Sorry for the confusion. I just looked at your support ticket and that’s incorrect information. 16.02 does not include the fix for GPU support in Premiere on m1.

14

Hello all-

You can now download Sapphire 16.03 which includes the fix for Premiere GPU issues on Mac. This is free update for all eligible customers. We apologize for the recent issues- this was a particularly nasty Metal bug which proved very difficult to squash.

Thanks,
Brian