Significant Illustrator Lag on New MacBook Pro M5 Pro – macOS Tahoe 26.5.2

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I’m experiencing unexpected performance issues with Adobe Illustrator 30.8.2 on a brand-new MacBook Pro M5 Pro (24 GB RAM), running macOS Tahoe 26.5.2.

Basic operations such as moving objects, zooming and panning feel sluggish and noticeably less responsive than expected.

I’ve tested different settings and found that performance improves considerably when disabling:

GPU Performance
Real-Time Drawing and Editing
Application Frame

However, I shouldn’t have to disable core Illustrator features to achieve smooth performance on this hardware.

I’m using the built-in display, with no external monitors. Memory pressure is green, and the issue is noticeable even when working with relatively simple documents.

My questions:

Is this a known compatibility issue between Illustrator 30.8.2 and macOS Tahoe 26.5.2?
Are there any recommended fixes beyond disabling GPU acceleration and drawing features?
Is the engineering team investigating remaining WindowServer/GPU rendering issues on Apple Silicon?

I’d appreciate input from Adobe engineers or anyone experiencing similar problems.

A new M5 Pro should be more than capable of running Illustrator smoothly with its standard performance features enabled.

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Hey,

I think you've identified something important by mentioning that disabling Application Frame significantly improves performance.

There's an existing bug report that appears closely related

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50552691-high-gpu-load-on-macos-26-tahoe

Apparently traced excessive GPU usage on macOS Tahoe to a platform-level compositing issue, which they had raised with Apple.

Illustrator Beta 30.8.0.72 subsequently marked the issue resolved in Illustrator 30.8.1 in Sept.

However, you're using 30.8.2 and apparently still experiencing similar behaviour.

One thing I'd suggest checking is Activity Monitor. With GPU Performance enabled, compare WindowServer's GPU usage with Application Frame enabled and disabled. Try this with Illustrator open but no document loaded, and again with a simple document.

You could also try temporarily setting your MacBook's display refresh rate to 60 Hz instead of ProMotion, to see whether that affects responsiveness.

If disabling Application Frame consistently reduces GPU usage and restores performance, I'd add your findings to the existing UserVoice report, as Adobe has already marked it resolved.

I agree that an M5 Pro should have no difficulty with basic Illustrator operations. The fact that changing window and GPU rendering settings improves performance suggests further investigation rather than insufficient hardware.

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Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@eutrujillo There is a newer Tahoe version available, maybe that helps. Disabling GPU should not make it faster.

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eutrujilloAuthor

Participant

Thank you! I don’t see availability for a newer Tahoe version. I’m in Europe, maybe we don’t have the update here yet? I have updated to the last available version. Thanks though.

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