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Illustrator CC 2014 extremely choppy. Please help.

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
November 4, 2014
82 replies
68760 views

I just bought an iMac 5k Retina Base model with Yosemite installed. All other CC applications work like a breeze except illustrator. Illustrator is extremely choppy and almost unworkable. Can someone help me out?

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Correct answer jackson-LYD

SeanJM,

I just updated to CC 2015 and Illustrator is back to being snappy, responsive, and smooth on a 5k Retina iMac!

After installation, a pop-up of "Compatible GPU detected" auto-enabled the new Mac GPU settings.

If this didn't automatically happen for you, go to:

Illustrator CC > Preferences > GPU Performance - and check the box labeled "GPU Performance".

Thank you to the Adobe team for getting the engine updated!

I can safely recommend Creative Cloud to 5K Retina iMac users now.

Edit: This was using the AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB graphics card.

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bozogubuAuthor

Participating Frequently

IVe been using the retina Mac for about two months now and I tell you, it's a dream. Thankfully in the last two months, I've been editing more than designing. A few design jobs that I got, I've managed to give it to other Designers I know. From all the discussin above, I must say that there is hope. My retina Mac I'll remain awesome and as time goes by people will optimise apps and stuff to look and work spectacular on my Mac. But on the other hand there's Adobe. knowing that this problem has been around for more than a year now scares me a bit. What if they don't fix it in the next 3-4 years?

ive said this before. I paid money for a product. And the product does not perform well. Shouldn't I get a refund or a discount?

J

jayquercia

Participant

I'm with you, while it's easy for Adobe to write this issue off as entitled designers whining about trivial problems, our workflow really does take a hit, especially when we have to intentionally slow down in order to plot points / handles correctly. Sure it costs me more time and frustration, but more importantly it degrades my trust in the product. To be blunt, illustrator in this configuration is unusable. I'm surprised the retina MBPers haven't complained about this when they got their retina displays a year ago (or maybe that have been and Adobe just hasn't listened?)

J

jayquercia

Participant

Just got my 5k iMac up and running and noticed this same issue. Low res mode works, but it's no fun to look at.

UPDATE: CS6 seems to have better performance, low res graphics though. This really is a shame. Looks like I should try out an alternative...

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petersch73

Participant

Until now no fix. (Exept non retina mode vor a smaller window). Affinity designer looks good, but until now no artboards possible. If possible and there no fix for Illustrator i will switch maybe. Indesign is also not as smooth. Quark is too extensive at the Moment.

Another (but extensive) idea: how does Illustrator run in a second monitor with 2560x1440px (native resolution). For example eizo cx 271, dell 2715h, NEC 271... And so on? So the retina mac would be the second monitor.... Sad but maybe working.

sltplz

Participating Frequently

AD is an excellent alternative but it needs to grow up (see the road map on their forum concerning the future functionalities updates).

Your second monitor should work but what a shame.

Another alternative: download switchResX to change your resolution to higher but non retina. Exemple with a 15" MBPR, native resolution is 2880x1800px HiDPI, with switchResX you can disable Retina and go up to 3840x2400px and illustrator is fluid again. Pixel density will be higher than a simple non retina mode (2880x1800px non-HiDPI) but the global interface will be small.

Thanks again Adobe.

D

dpines1003

Participating Frequently

I back tracked to CS5 illustrator, it looks bad, but it functions normally and a lot faster than CC right now. I've been down grading files I get from clients that are CC formatted and reworking them in CS5. It's defiantly not ideal though.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

there was no retina update to CS5, so i'd guess no performance hit.

Crowe About It

Participating Frequently

Has anyone tried an earlier edition of Illustrator, say CS6 to see how it runs?

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

i have CS6 and a retina macbook pro. it displays similar symptoms to those described.

AshutoshChaturvedi

Community Manager

Hi,

We are investigating the case. Unfortunately we do not have a fix at this moment. Illustrator vector graphics rendering pipeline is a little slow drawing on this extremely high resolution. As people have noticed lowering the resolution speeds up things. The fix will take some time as it requires re-architecture of our rendering engine.

Thank you for your patience.

The Ai team is experimenting with faster rendering using the GPU. If you would like to try this prototype (under NDA) and give your feedback to the team, do fill up this form.

We'll reach out to you through our Pre-release program.

-- Ashutosh

Adobe

sltplz

Participating Frequently

Great, in big company language it means we'll never see an update before Retina display become dinosaurs.

Come on Adobe you have the ressources of getting us a fix quickly!

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pacifique1234

Participating Frequently

They responded on twitter already.

Adobe Customer Care ‏@AdobeCare 7minutes ago

We've notified the product team for further investigation. Meanwhile, can you also file a bug report? http://adobe.ly/VaXxNA ^A

Everyone should file a bug on this.

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pacifique1234

Participating Frequently

I sent a tweet to Adobe Customer Care (@AdobeCare) | Twitter

I share everyones frustration. Here is Adobe's Customer Service phone number:

1 (800) 833-6687

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dpines1003

Participating Frequently

Frustration that it's an issue as well with all retina displays. Ya I agree, our companies expect us to be on the front of design and the technology and I feel we're being punished for staying ahead of the game, haha.

You're right, its probably just a freak bug issue that is just random. They'll take care of it, just hopefully sooner rather than later.

I saw the last post, I'll report a bug as well to adobe forum. Thanks again.

R

rezengine

Inspiring

Submit a bug at Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

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dpines1003

Participating Frequently

Sadly it will be addressed the same way a city or town hall decides when and where to put a stop sign to slow traffic. Until they get a high enough volume of traffic with the same issue they can't take care of it. I'm worried we're still too small a number for them to give it any attention yet.

It is though a direct issue with the Retina iMac display, I connected an old 20" apple display as a side monitor and illustrator CC runs fine on that... ugly but fine. It's a little annoying I have to work that way, but it's helping me work faster.

Is this only isolated to the Retina iMac? Does anyone know if the retina mac book pros have the same issue? Hopefully they don't over look this small percentage, I feel everyone's frustration.

sltplz

Participating Frequently

Yes I have both MBPR and iMacR, and the situation is the same... sadly.

But we all have to push to have a correct software. Adobe should concentrate on new technologies as much as old ones, after all, creative cc is for professional use, isn't it?

I'm sure the problem is just a freaking bug and no one noticed it.

Crowe About It

Participating Frequently

It's quite funny actually, as the other day I read on their website advertisement which was along the lines of 'support for cutting-edge technologies'. Irony. I've filed a report. They tweeted back to me asking for a screencast/video. So if any is able to provide that it would be great to show them!

Here:

http://i58.tinypic.com/2iub1xh.png

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