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3
34232679fu4c
Participant
December 13, 2023
Question

Pixel preview is unusably slow

  • December 13, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 273 views

In all versions of Illustrator CC over the last few years and on any system I've used (most recent Intel MacBook Pros, M1 MacBook Pros with 10C GPU, macOS, Windows 10... ) pixel preview is dead slow - undo/redo, selection can take > 1 second; panning and zooming are insanely janky. Annoyingly, it also doesn't support scrubby zoom.

 

Considering the monthly cost of CC Adobe charges, this performance failure is confusing and unacceptable. This important feature is essentially not usable in any meaningful sense of the word - especially in a professional context where I'm expected to produce pixel-perfect vector assets in a reasonable amount of time.

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1 reply

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2023

Switching to Pixel Preview turns off GPU performance, which will have performance impacts especially on 4K/Retina screens. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much traction on this, though there are similar issues on uservoice:

 

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/34318231-performance-issues-in-pixel-preview-on-5k-retina-s

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/36834064-performance-of-overprint-preview-mode-and-gpu-prev

3
34232679fu4cAuthor
Participant
December 13, 2023

Thank you for the reply, Doug.

 

To me, the explanation about GPU acceleration switching off is not relevant. As a pro user, I shouldn't need to consider whether Adobe engineers can build good software to work with GPU.

Other better-priced tools on the market offer buttery-smooth pixel previews under the exact same constraints. Unfortunately it seems Adobe is ubiquitous enough for now to operate as if they're a monopoly.

Doug A Roberts
Community Expert
Doug A RobertsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2023

I am not attempting to offer an explanation, just state a fact: this is the current situation. You can add your votes to the uservoice links I posted.

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