Brand New Mac Studio M2 Ultra (maxed out stats)... Illustrator 27.7 is laggy and slow.

[Seth Sirbaugh]

Help? (though... I'm not sure what you can do).

I just received my brand new Mac Studio M2 Ultra (maxed out memory and highest processor) running Ventura 13.5. I have installed all my Adobe programs and when using Illustrator 27.7 it's roughly the same speed, beach ball appearance, pausing that I had when i used my old Mac (late 2013 iMac maxed).

This has been tough for me to stomach for many reasons. I expected 'some' kind of speed boost here (especially coming from an old 2013 iMac) or even just a more fluid program use. Now (with a brand new machine) im constantly having to shut everything down and restart to then open up my Illustrator for a smoother workflow until it becomes laggy again .... rinse repeat. 

Now, for perspective, I am working on a file with multiple artboards and a few placed images... but nothing that should tax a brand new juiced Mac Studio. 

I'm frustrated to say the least. Any help would be appreciated... I literally have nothing else running but Illustrator and Mail.

Thanks 

[defaultpmiki1msampk]

oh dear, I was about to spend £2600 on a M2 Studio, thinking I'd be getting an amazing performance boost over my 2019 iMac using Adobe CC, but now I'm completely unsure what to do!

[rogerc50858633]

Hi, I found this thread after looking for help wondering why illustrator performance on my new m2 studio is so poor. I thought I must have the optimisation settings wrong, really disappointed to discover that it's not me, it appears that illustrator does not run well on this machine. I have to keep toggling between view with CPU / view with GPU - GPU is smoother but very buggy with the screen flashing and drawings disappearing when I click the menus, objects disappearing when I move them, delays when I select / deselect. CPU view is more reliable but then there is no preview when I drag. I have come from a first generation iMac pro which is about 6 years old and wearing out, performance on that was much, much better. I was expecting a step up, not back. I have a M2 macbook air and performance seems better on that TBH - I've certainly not had any problems, however obvs the screen on that is smaller.

So if you happen to find this thread after buying a new Mac Studio - I'd recommend sending it back if you use a lot of illustrator. Too late for me.

[Joan245963815j15]

Hi Rogerch, I'm on Mac Studio M2 max and I my Illustrator performance totally changed after:
Go to yourMac's System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Check "Displays have separate spaces"
Secondarily disable all the fonts you are not using, just in case. Tell me if that worked to you.

[rogerc50858633]

Hi Joan,

Many thanks for this - yes this does help, performance is much better with 'Displays have separate spaces' enabled. This is a MacOS feature I don't want as I have three screens, I don't want three menu bars, but I have found if I also choose 'Auto Show/ Hide' menu bar, I only get one, although it does hide it and it would be better for me if it didn't. But the hidden menu bar is less of a pain than the issues I had with illustrator. I will live with this a little bit and see how I get on.

Thanks again for your help.