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Astrick
Participating Frequently
May 28, 2026
Question

GPU Performance issues in Illustrator 29 on macOS

  • May 28, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 35 views

Recently I'm witnessing more and more bugs/glitches that are resolved by switching from GPU preview to CPU preview. I wasn't able to track the exact situations that generates them but all of a sudden I see big pink areas that change when moving objects (not in the actual graphics, just in the "preview"), much greater "alignment" issues (this always happened but only when zooming a lot, and only on certain projects),  “approximation” of curves (not sure how to call them). and gradient pixelations.
All these stuff had a 500% increase since I’m using Ai 2025, especially the latest releases. 
I can’t update further, anyway (nor downgrade at this point), since I’m using a 2015 Macbook Pro Intel Core i7 quad-core with a AMD Radeon R9 M370X GPU and 16GB RAM.
I know it’s a pretty outdated machine but it always run perfect so far and never had such issues before!
I am now on Ai 29.0.

    1 reply

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    May 28, 2026

    Hi @Astrick,

     

    That sounds frustrating - let's see if we can narrow it down. Could you try two things for me?

    1. Update Illustrator to the latest version via the Creative Cloud desktop app.
    2. Launch Illustrator from a different administrator account on your Mac (https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/add-a-user-or-group-mchl3e281fc9/mac) and see whether the issue still occurs.

     

    Let me know how it goes.

    Anubhav