I am still not very capable C4D user but trying to learn constantly and that was my software of choice. I use Adobe Products but I am not imagining and I see decrease in performance in After Effects. AE 2018 if compared in speeds with AE2014 is three times slower in very simple things. Something went down and many users pushed the topic about this. To me it looks suicidal your 4 years old software to be performing better than your current software. Many people try to defend this on the "system" strength but I assure you it is something in their new ways of doing things. Back in 2014 I was able to do things with hardware from that time. Now I have superior workstation and it is annoying to wait AE 2018 to render simple animations. Learning Fusion now, let's see what will happen with Cinema 4D