Most software loves many cores. Premiere Pro will happily use 16 cores to export video. After Effects? It’s a diva.
You will not get real-time playback. You will get a slideshow. after effects minimum requirements
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS | +-------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | | | v v v [ PROCESSOR / CPU ] [ SYSTEM MEMORY / RAM ] [ GRAPHICS CARD / GPU ] Calculates geometry, Caches active preview Accelerates 3D layers, expressions, and frames for seamless Lumetri color effects, Multi-Frame Rendering real-time playback and final video encodes The CPU: The Core Calculation Engine Most software loves many cores
After Effects loads every single frame of your composition into your RAM before it plays back. 8GB is eaten up by your operating system, Spotify, and Chrome. By the time you open AE, you have roughly 2GB left for a 4K comp. It’s a diva