AI 2024 very slow

[mpkadobe]

Using a macbookpro, OS 12.5, M1 chip, 16GB memory

I am now working on an illustrated book. About 45 pages (artboards) in all. Each page has an illustration that fills the artboard. Each original artwork (in psd format) is about 30Mb but they are linked into the AI file, not embedded. Everything worked smoothly and quickly under AI 2023 but after AI automatically upgraded to 2024, I often get the spinning color wheel when I try to navigate among the artboards. To open the file takes 60 seconds, and to save the file take several minutes.

Can anyone suggest how I can speed things up?

Is there a way to revert to using AI 2023? I don’t find version 2023 in my Applications folder anymore. Just 2024

[Monika Gause]

16 GB is just not a lot of memory. For linking AI files into another file, you might want to look at InDesign. It's better at handling this.

To install previous versions, please check out: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html 

[mpkadobe]

I have used InDesign previously to layout books that are text based and many pages long (over 200 pages). However, since this book is art based and only a few pages I am trying AI.

At first, I embedded the artwork and then switched to linking the artwork (PSD files) because it was supposed to make the AI file lighter and faster. Is that true? Should an AI file with linked artwork instead of embedded artwork be lighter and faster?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Illustrator still needs to compute and display the linked artwork.

16 GB of RAM is not sufficient for that. If you want to do that kind of stuff, you need to get a more powerful computer.

[thomasp58620145]

Been using illustrator for 20 plus years this is a Adobe problem 

[abuse removed by moderator]

[richardd74523188]

I have a computer with 128gb of RAM and a further 24gb of VRAM. It handles 3dsMax and Arnold GPU rendering with absolutely no problem whatsoever. Opening up some packaging files in Illustrator however, and everything grinds to a halt. 

This isnt a hardware problem - this is an Adobe Illustrator problem.

[Monika Gause]

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@richardd74523188  schrieb:

Opening up some packaging files in Illustrator however,

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What's in the files?

How many objects?

Transparency, effects, spot colors, patterns?

Placed images?

Where have the files and the linked images been saved?

Overprint preview turned on?

How much of that RAM is available? 

[richardd74523188]

The ones I had in mind are food packaging sleeves. x3 artboards, 6 colours, each with a unique product shot at around 150mb (cmyk, 8bit with transparency) plus 4 reoccurring images replicated across all x3 sleeves totalling around 250mb (again cymk, 8bit). All images are linked, not embedded, sat in the same job folder as the source .ai file. x3 fonts. Overprint preview is off. All of the memory is available, less the OS (win11) and a few background tasks. The processor is a Threadripper 5975, graphics are an RTX4090, the scratch disk as a Samsung 990Pro with about 500gb to play around in.

Nothing about the files is overly strenuous. This progressive slowdown of illustrator has been an ongoing issue. The gradual ramp up in hardware seemingly cant keep pace with the required demands of what should be a straightforward piece of software. My machine has been built to run 3D CAD software way more demanding and yet it is illustrator that chuggs along like an old tractor at a monster truck festival.

And yes, all my drivers are up-to-date + I've invested some time optimising the nvidia drivers specifically for illustrator, which has probably added an extra 5-10% in performance. Still ridiculously slow though. Also, I know this isnt a hardware issue, as the rest of my colleagues in the studio have had similar problems across a variety of specced (windows and apple) machines.

Just to wrap up with why I've even got involved in this discussion - I got irked by the suggested solution of "go buy more RAM". It's a nonsense and one that I can vouch won't help. I accept that the original poster should really be using InDesign for that kind of work, but my point still stands. The real solution is for Adobe to start pulling their finger out and work on developing quicker, more efficient software. Rather than passing-off lazy answers to their consumers in a segment that they dominate and clearly don't feel the need to do better in.

[Monika Gause]

Your images are slowing it down - that 250 MB is the size of the TIF? Because then it's also the compressed size. Illustrator shoves the uncompressed data around. Are those images on your harddisk? And the files? If not, that will only make it worse.

The original poster has 16 GB of memory, which is not sufficient for anything but simple paths.

[richardd74523188]

You're making my point for me. 10 years ago 16gb would have been fine for "simple paths" and much more. Now the software has got so slow and bloated that it's now incapable.

And the tifs are actually, to be specific (I had to go back and check) 215mb compressed from around 250mb and as I mentioned above, held in the same place as the ai file (local, quick drives). There's three of them - are you trying to convince me that to 'shove' 750mb of photography around requires more than 128gb of RAM? It didn't 10years ago. At this rate, by 2034 I'll need a data centre to open up a Christmas card design...

[Monika Gause]

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@richardd74523188  schrieb:

You're making my point for me. 10 years ago 16gb would have been fine for "simple paths" and much more. Now the software has got so slow and bloated that it's now incapable.

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About 10 years ago Illustrator couldn't even address more than 3 GB of installed RAM. Using the GPU - don't even think of it. 

Just check out the threads from way back then. A file like yours would not have been manageable back then. Illustrator would have switched to outline view or crashed or whatever. Either you never really experienced that era or you just forgot.

[Kurt Gold]

Often this is a pretty difficult and ambiguous topic. Without taking a look at the actual files it may just be some speculation about the true reasons why Illustrator's performance is slow or speedy.

In my experience, even in the most recent Illustrator versions there are countless situations that may unexpectedly cause it to run at a very slow crawl, almost no matter how much RAM you are using. For instance, it is quite easy to set up an Illustrator file that contains a rather huge number of rather simple symbol instances. The physical size of the file may be just about 300 kb or 500 kb, but actually working with that file (moving, scaling, rotating etc. the symbol instances) is often unacceptably slow.

I'm not entitled to explain why it is so. But it occurs, and one may have to be careful to think it's just a matter of how much RAM is available.

[Monika Gause]

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@Kurt Gold  schrieb:

some speculation about the true reasons why Illustrator's performance is slow or speedy.

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You carefully manoevered around the two huge images in bespoke file. 

[Kurt Gold]

I'm manoeuvring around, you think.

Thanks for clarifying.

[RodMacey]

You are not reading the post correctly. It is not a hardware problem. mpkadobe, states that everything worked fine in 2023, but in 2024 everything grinds to a standstill. Same for me.
I just applied an update, it seems better for the moment.

[dijonaise]

Designer with 30+ years of experience here. I agree that you should use InDesign for anything over 2 pages. It's just so much easier to manage all those pages. Also InDesign is engineered to work with the prepress systems at the printing plant. InDesign automatically creates low-weight previews of all the placed art and streamlines working on multiple pages. In addition, InDesign's Master pages, page numbering, indexing features can't be replicated in Illustrator.

[Kurt Gold]

In my experience it is rather nonsense to overall claim that 16 GB RAM is not sufficient in that case. It should be sufficient.

More important may be what kind of graphic board you are using.

Of course, I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

[justphotograms]

I reverted back to the previous version. Never had a problem with that and still not having any!
AI 2024 is ridiculously slow and laggy. 
Personally it is one of the worst versions of Illustrators I have ever worked with. 
Also agree that it's Adobe's problem. It's not the first time that a new release comes out with tons of problems.
New realeases are like this. That's why I usualy wait 3-4 Months before downloading the new ones.

[frazzlesnap]

I believe you are correct, at least in my experience. I have noticed severe performance loss in AI 2024 across systems, from a 16GB M1 iMac, to a 32GB i7 970Pro 6GB 1060, to my my 128GB TR 3955WX 24GB 3090ti 8x 2TB FireCuda 530 RAID10. They all have about the same performance for complex files. It isn't a hardware issue at your point, or at mine. It is a lack of optimization of Illustrator. It still runs on a single CPU cores for most things, for crying out loud, which is especially crappy for my TR 3955wx, because it isn't the fastest for single core tasks.

[Sherwyn35096958xm97]

I have 32gb ram, M2 Pro chip and it still lags heaps. So frustrating!

[Monika Gause]

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@Sherwyn35096958xm97  schrieb:

I have 32gb ram, M2 Pro chip and it still lags heaps. So frustrating!

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Do you have the Magnet app installed? Or Rectangle? ProofPoint?

[Sheares25945595fcx8]

SLOW AS HELL!!

My Specs:
Windows 11 Pro
i7-13700K 3.40 GHz
64.0 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 running at 6000MHz
Geforce RTX 4070 12GB

4 -2TB  NVME dives one for OS, three for backups and work files.

2 27-inch monitors

People stop making excuses because It's been worsening over the last few years. 

[Ap385651931z04]

Couldn't agree more! It's terrible! Don't blame the hardware on user-side. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Ap385651931z04,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://adobe.ly/4cCH1oa) and letting us know if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[default9s18vla6ldf4]

I first used illustrator on a B&W mac 2SE in 1992 so its not my first upgarde Rodeo

after I found the 23 version still in my CC apps I reverted to this and its running sweet on my 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 ram
AI 2024 is slow and Hangie. slow to startup and havent seen the spinning beach ball of death so much for years
 it's Adobe's problem. Comm. experts should hold hardware criticism,  till the software has an upgrade for this upgrade. It's not the first time a new release has damaged small business and honesty would be a useful marketing tool. think about using it. small business suffers loss when subscribed services stop working but the sub. payments keep going out.