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EXECdesign
Known Participant
January 4, 2024
Answered

GPU Options / Performance InDesign

  • January 4, 2024
  • 7 replies
  • 11558 views

Hi everyone,

I'm from Germany and thus have the German CC version.
Have massive performance problems on all our PC/Win devices with InDesign.

Of course I've already searched for a solution by myself and have already done the standard tasks - without any positive effect. That's why I write here, fervently hoping for a good and sensible answer instead of just standard copy & paste answers...

1st I started with the preferences - and found nothing. The official Adobe post says:
https://helpx.adobe.com/de/indesign/using/gpu_performance.html
^^But although it's title is general it's written Mac specific. I actually have NO "GPU Performance" entry in the preferences list in InDesign (while in Illustrator and Photoshop I have that for years).

I also have NO animated zoom as described in the article and it's all dead slow, so I'm sure I'm in CPU mode. Why does GPU work in the complete graphics and video apps but NOT in InDesign?

Have a NVIDIA RTX Studio certified notebook with a RTX 3050 Mobile and a Win10 workstation with an RTX460 Ti 16 GB (which is quite fast in all my used apps from CC and others). Already deinstalled and reinstalled InD completely on both system and also tested a 3rd system, a RTX Studio notebook with an RTX 3060 Mobile 6 GB. Same here.

As the above article is from May 2023 it should work since some months now already.
I' automatic update notifications on and according to my CC Desktop app my InDesign is latest version. But it's still 19.01 instead of 19.1 which already should be out for a month now:
https://helpx.adobe.com/de/indesign/system-requirements.html
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-19-1-improved-core-features-and-workflow/m-p/14296046

So plese don't share https://helpx.adobe.com/de/indesign/kb/slow-performance-indesign.html with me but please help me out here! Thank you very much in advance!

    Correct answer Noremac

    Thank you, the Manage 3D Nvidia settings work great! it's like a new computer now

    7 replies

    MidSITe
    MidSITe
    Participant
    May 21, 2026

    May 20/2026

    Specs are as follows,

    Adobe InDesign 21.3 x64 (Stuttering like crazy no thing works but to reset preferences and delete Cache folder, still not GPU support)

    Windows 11 Pro

    Nvidia studio drivers latest as of april 2026

    GPU Nvidia 5050 8GB

    32GB DDR5-4800

    Intel i7 1270P

    LG 4K display

    LG 1080 Display

    samsung NVMe 512GB (PM9A1)

    I have forced the InDesign app to run on the Nvidia GPU via the Nvidia Control Panel too.

    I feel like all the programs are designed with AI and not a human brain. Almost every piece of hardware out there is lacking support and human to step up to be responsible for anything.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 21, 2026

    Hi ​@MidSITe,

     

    Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear you’re experiencing this. Since you mentioned the issue is happening on InDesign 21.3, could you please confirm if the stuttering started only after updating to 21.3 or if it has been happening for a longer time?

    Could you also try the following and check if it helps:

    1. Open Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Customize settings for applications. Search for InDesign in the list, expand it, and set the GPU preference to “High Performance” using the NVIDIA GPU.
    1. If InDesign does not appear there, please manually add it from this location:
      C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign 2026\InDesign.exe
    1. Then test the issue again.

    Also, please confirm whether the stuttering is persistent or intermittent, and whether a specific workflow consistently triggers it for you. If possible, please share a short screen recording demonstrating the behavior in action so I can check this further.

    Additionally, please let me know whether disabling GPU Performance in InDesign Preferences changes or improves the behavior in any way.

     

    Thanks,
    Abhishek

    MidSITe
    MidSITe
    Participant
    May 21, 2026

    I have uninstalled InDesign and reinstalled 3 times. Honestly, I don’t care so much about the GPU but it needs to be usable for my summer University class. It’s litterly what my grade hangs on. I run it one time and come back to it the next day and open it up and it stutters the mouse and I can try screen capture to show it stuttering but not sure what that will reveal. I only use this computer for this class I can reinstall windows if needed to get through summer classes. All of my other computers are Debian or Chrome OS. 90% of my day is cloud based, Not sure why there isn’t a cloud version of this app yet?

    R
    Rustar
    Known Participant
    March 5, 2025

    Hello, I had same issues on a PC version of Indesign 2025. If you are running a Nvidia GPU, try these optimization setting. The app zeros in on specific program/App to optimize(incredibly useful when having App related GPU problems). Make sure you installed the lastest Driver using STUDIO setting when installed(it will prompt you). Then open up the Nvidia control panel for all the setting. Instead of listing a very long list of setting, here is a video. This did help me. Im not sure if AMD GPU's or Intel GPU's will do this.
    https://youtu.be/XzRpLZ0_Ats?si=KMUF_ah77J9Pu5gj 


    E
    EXECdesignAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 1, 2025

    Is there any alike solution für up to date systems with NVIDIA App instead of stoneage NVIDIA Control Panel?
    It doesn't include ID/AI by itself and I haven't the same options there when adding them manually...

    J
    jeann22778446
    Participant
    December 18, 2024

    I have exactly the same problem! It's incredible to see in the task manager: GPU 0%, CPU 1.7 - 2.5%, memory 429 MB.
    I have a Asus Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz 32GB Ram NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060... and everything stacks.

    In my older machine it was working perfectly, super quick I never had any problem.
    I made every changes you can imagine, reinstalled, configured Nvidia, resetted preferences, tried to bild other files, and read everything what Google offers, in English, Spanish and German.
    All Adobe products work perfectly, but Indesign stacks...

    E
    Community Expert
    Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 19, 2024

    It sounds incredibly frustrating to deal with this, especially given the specs of your machine! Here are some steps that might help isolate or resolve the issue:

     

    Safe Mode Test
    Start Windows in Safe Mode (try both options: with and without internet).
    Run InDesign as the only application (besides the necessary system processes).


    Observe: If InDesign runs fine in Safe Mode, the issue is likely caused by a conflicting background process, driver, or software.
    If it works fine:

    Reboot into normal mode and start disabling unnecessary startup apps or services one by one to pinpoint the conflict.

    ------------
    Troubleshooting Steps - Maybe potential causes

    GPU and Performance Settings
    NVIDIA Control Panel:
    Ensure InDesign is set to use the high-performance GPU (GeForce RTX 2060).
    Go to Manage 3D settings > Program Settings > Add InDesign.

    Set Preferred graphics processor to High-performance NVIDIA processor.

     

    Update your NVIDIA drivers to the latest version (preferably from the NVIDIA website, not Windows Update).

    --------------

    Preferences and Cache
    Reset InDesign preferences:

    Hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) immediately after starting InDesign.
    When prompted, confirm resetting preferences.
    Delete the cache:

    Navigate to %AppData%\Adobe\InDesign\Version XX.X\ (replace XX.X with your version).
    Delete the Cache and SavedData folders.


    System and Software
    Windows Updates: Make sure your system is fully updated.

     

    Antivrus/VPN

    Check if there’s a conflict with antivirus or firewall software (temporarily disable them to test).


    Run as Admin
    Run InDesign as an administrator: Right-click the shortcut > Run as administrator.

     

    Document-Specific Issues
    Try opening InDesign without loading any file. Does it still lag?
    If it’s related to a specific document, try exporting it as an IDML file and reopening it.


    Hardware Diagnostics
    Given your specs, the hardware shouldn’t be a bottleneck, but it’s worth ruling out issues:

    Use Task Manager or Resource Monitor to check if any processes are unexpectedly spiking CPU, GPU, or memory usage while InDesign is open.



    -----------------

    Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
    Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

     

      Noremac
      NoremacCorrect answer
      Participating Frequently
      June 23, 2025

      Thank you, the Manage 3D Nvidia settings work great! it's like a new computer now

      J
      JoeMurti
      Participating Frequently
      February 29, 2024

      Same issue here. Running a Windows 11 PC with an AMD 5900X CPU, an RTX 3080 GPU and 64GB of RAM, yet I have to run InDesign on my old Mac from 2011 to get it to run smoothly. There are no performance features at all in the Windows version of InDesign. No animated zoom, nothing.

        shaun-lee
        shaun-lee
        Known Participant
        April 6, 2024

        I just switched from a 2019 Mac to a new PC with the RTX 4090 (because I also do 3D and video work)  I'm so disapointed with Indesign's performance when exporting PDFS.

          E
          Community Expert
          Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          April 7, 2024

          I don't have that experience - my laptop is Windows 10 (can't upgrade to Win11) 
          RAM is a bit lower than I would like - I could upgrade it easily - but just haven't bothered - it's so cheap I don't why know I'm holding out - but I am .

          I run InDesign 2024 on this machine and it's fine, it's slow to load up - but once loaded it runs smoothly with no issues.

          I think having a top end grpahics card is essential for 3D and Video Work.
          But it will never improve performance of InDesign. 

           

          InDesign needs processor power, it needs RAM.

           

          But any decent amount of RAM or decent processor will run it fine. 

           

          I think someone mentioned that Indesign doesn't support multithreading.
          I think it does on Windows and not on Mac.

          I'm pretty sure that I've tried exporting multiple PDFs from InDesign in the background process 
          And on a Mac it goes 1 by 1 through the PDF generation.
          On a PC it can generate multiple PDFs simultaneously in the background process, you see the PDFs generating in the Background Process window in InDesign.

           

          Anyway - if InDesign is running slow or slower than you want and you have a half decent setup it's likely something else slowing it down.

          I'd start by getting updates to the OS, and hitting the Drivers download pages and running system analysis from the brands own Drivers update page. 

          I use Dell and have for years, and they have a great service for Driver downloads, I'm sure others would too. 

           

          With Windows you have to do a bit more maintenance with your Hardware/Firmware and keep the drivers and other things updated, or roll them back - which is great I believe to have control on these things. 

           

          With Macs the updates come and you have very little control over what to keep or roll back. 

          For instance an OS update on the Mac M3 completey broke Acrobat filtering comments, I had to wait for a OS dot update and now Acrobat filter comments works. 

          Bizzare for such an amazing OS and expensive piece of crap from Apple that their OS can break software. It's crazy.

          It's never happened for me on Windows - but then I can be selective on what to update and when to update hardware/firmware - update the BIOS, update drivers, and have a lot more  control. 

           

          I don't feel in control on a Mac - that expensive piece of crap M3 processor causes me more issues than my 6 or 7 year old Dell that I have.

           

           

            E
            EXECdesignAuthor
            Known Participant
            January 4, 2024

            I am absolutely stunned!
            In fact, in 2024 there will be no GPU acceleration - and not even multithreading (single processor only)! So just use a Mac for InDesign? Come on Adobe, don't be serious...

            https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/31872184-gpu-acceleration-on-windows

            https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/32235082-support-for-multicores-performance

            https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/39239977-gpu-acceleration-in-windows-pc

            https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/39747559-gpu-support-indesign-windows-10-is-urgently-needed

            https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/36462010-no-multi-processor-support-for-indesign

            E
            EXECdesignAuthor
            Known Participant
            January 4, 2024

            And here a technical explanation right from NVIDIA:
            https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/adobe-indesign-cc-gpu-support-on-windows-x64-machine-by-nvidia-control-panel/275896

            Quote:

            "InDesign has built-in GPU acceleration based on MacOS Metal and OpenGL. That acceleration does specific tasks directly on the GPU. This implementation is not part of the Windows version of InDesign.

            The NVIDIA control panel settings only control an app’s rendered output. That means IFF the app uses things like MSAA (which InDesign does not), you could control how that is used. But InDesign is rendering simply through the Windows Display Manager and any app specific changes in the Control Panel will not affect the actual InDesign render behavior."

            That's why there's no trick or hack to get a solution here - even when some Indian guys posted YT videos how to configure that 😉

              E
              EXECdesignAuthor
              Known Participant
              January 4, 2024

              Just found: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/gpu-performance-animated-zoom-for-pc/td-p/9222097
              Is that still the case for the PC version??

              Robert at ID-Tasker
              Robert at ID-Tasker
              Legend
              January 4, 2024

              What do you mean by "performance problems"?

               

              First of all - how big  / old are your INDD files?

               

              How often are you doing Save As - with a new name - or only Save?

               

              There sometimes could be a problem with metadata imported with linked files.

              @rob day's solution:

              https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/is-there-a-script-to-clear-indesign-metadata-redundancy-or-the-clipboard-just-like-photoshop/m-p/12634313#M460012

              @Loic.Aigon's solution:

              https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/edit-idml-remove-metadata-save-again-open-in-indesign-can-t-open/m-p/9368047#M67273

               

              E
              EXECdesignAuthor
              Known Participant
              January 4, 2024

              Thank you for your answer but that's not part of the solution.

              I'm aware of the Save/Save As behaviour and 'save my files small' regulary.

              And as I work with InDesign 19.01 I also have new 19.01 files. They're often not really big and I clearly described my problem: "NO GPU suppoprt in InDesign - it's running in software mode" - that's my problem. And that's why I posted "So plese don't share https://helpx.adobe.com/de/indesign/kb/slow-performance-indesign.html with me" 😉

              My core question again: "I actually have NO "GPU Performance" entry in the preferences list in InDesign (while in Illustrator and Photoshop I have that for years).

              I also have NO animated zoom as described in the article and it's all dead slow, so I'm sure I'm in CPU mode. Why does GPU work in the complete graphics and video apps but NOT in InDesign?"

              So: How do I achieve GPU mode in InDesign 19.x PC Win10/11?

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