Disappointed with Illustrator performance using the M1 Ultra chip

[Offset]

I have found the performance of Illustrator on my new Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra chip disappointing!

In fact my much older MacBook Pro with a 2.5 GHz i7 performs better.

One example of this is scaling a selection of grouped images in a document. The images are placed tiff files, that have small file sizes. On my old MacBook Pro scaling the images occurs instantly. But trying to do the same thing in the same document on the Mac Studio results in the spinning beach ball and and lag.

I did a completely clean install of all of my Adobe apps and the preferences are set to optimise performance.

And given all the hype and claims that Illustrator runs much faster with Apple silicon now, I was expecting improved performance. But my own experience so far is that this is not the case at all!

[Anubhav M · Accepted solution]

Hello @Offset,

Sorry to hear about the freezing. This is not the experience we want you to have. I would request you to kindly check if Illustrator is behaving this way with specific files? If so, will it be possible for you to share the file here or via DM so that we can check it on our end?

Also, please update Illustrator to version 26.3.1 and the macOS on your system to version 12.4 and share your observations.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav

Note: Marking correct for visibility.

[crispe123]

I only have the M1 Max, but it is indeed worse in Illustrator than my 2017 Intel iMac was. The metal port for Illustrator just seems bad. Super disappointing, especially considering how good the After Effects metal port is. I can only assume that this 20 year old Illustrator relic ain't fit for metal and each version gets more bloated and slower. It needs a modern refresh!

Illustrator has always struggled with embedded or linked images. Same with effects like roughen. I'm working on a client project with both of those right now and it is borderline unusable. Panning the view around is like 1 fps. Abysmal.

If you're doing Illustrator work with just vectors then that seems ok, but no better on metal than it was on intel.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @crispe123,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I would request you try resetting Illustrator's preferences by following the steps shared in this article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/troubleshoot-preference-issues.html) and sharing your observations.
Disclaimer: Please note that resetting preferences will remove all custom settings, and Illustrator will launch with the defaults. You may take a backup of these settings from the location mentioned in the article.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Anubhav

[Yasir777]

I have a lagging issue while using Adobe apps, Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop and sometimes while accessing the tools in Adobe Dimension. This is 2023 with a Mac Studio with 32 unified memory. I don't have an issue running Blender with its latest version. I didn't have those issues on my older iMac 2015?
i think Adobe has not figured out how to  100% optimize their apps on an M1 chip. 

[Monika Gause]

Please desceribe the issue.

Please describe the files

Please describe your workflow setting (are the files on a server, are there links placed  in them, lots of fonts installed, etc)

And if you want the team to take a look at it, please provide a demo file.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Yasir777,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. We are here to help and would like to suggest trying the suggestions shared in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/optimize-illustrator-performance.html) and checking if it helps. If the issue persists, kindly share some more information, including the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, whether you're having trouble with particular files/tools/features and a screen recording of the problem (https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/screen-record-an-issue-on-windows-amp-macos-f...) so we can investigate this further. We appreciate your time and effort in helping us resolve this issue.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav