GPU preview greyed out.

[BOT10]

Hi,

I am having a problem with my gpu preview. It's greyed out and I can't enabled it. On the performance tab, it says gpu is compatible and available. I can check the box in gpu performance and animated zoom, but somehow I can't enabled it. This is not the 1st time that it happened. It happens every now and then and it happened again today. I decided to ask it here in the forum cause I'm really pissed that I can't use it again. My gpu drivers and illustrator are both updated.

I am using a dual screen. 1 is a monitor-tablet Huion gt-191 and the other 1 is just a normal 23" Samsung monitor.

Here's the specs of my pc:

CPU: Intel I5-6600

RAM: 8GB

GPU: Nvidia Gtx 1060 6gb

I hope you guys can help me. I really need to use my illustrator as I have work to do. I can't work without the GPU preview

Thanks!

PS. sorry for the bad english. Not my 1st language

[sevenK]

Well I usually don’t embed images I link them. Only in rare cases when I send files to China for production I actually embed pictures. And I almost always work in CMYK color range in both my images and my AI documents, because most of my work is going out for offset printing. 

There is no issue with placed RGB pictures, no matter what profile assigned and embedded. The GPU-preview only gets disabled when using CMYK images with non matching profiles embedded. There is also no problem if the image you’re placing has no profile embedded. 

Usually the color settings are synched within the Adobe applications so that all apps are using the same color profiles Meaning that if you’re saving an image in Photoshop for instance it will use the same CMYK profile you’re using in Illustrator, or Indesign. 

In some cases you need to change the profile though for certain documents profile settings according to the requirements of the printer that will be processing the job. Or you get images from someone else like a different agency that works with a different color workflow. In those cases you need to make sure that all the profiles will match otherwise you’ll run into the problem.

[MegaTorque-01]

I'm not sure if that's truly the best solution, but in this specific case where the GPU keeps cutting out because of th mismatched profiles it appears as a temporary workaround. It shouldn't be necessary as for the last decade or so it really hasn't effected the performance of the software up until version 26.2 and up

[sevenK]

It actually started with version 25 already. And of course it’s a workaround of the bug, like I said there is no problem with RGB profiles so it has to be a bug within the CMYK color management. 

[MegaTorque-01]

@sevenKAmazing. At long last, the root cause of the bug appears to be plainly visible, Adobe should be able to reproduce this error on their side. @Anshul_Saini Please see what we have written here, you should be able to see the bug in action if you have CMYK profiles that are mismatched or used in an RGB document. I've also seen the error occure if you are using a Black/White or Greyscale image in a CMYK document.

[sevenK]

I gave @Anshul_Saini a document where he said he’s able to recreate the problem. But sadly haven’t heard anything from him anymore since then.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @sevenK @MegaTorque-01,

I am glad to inform you that we have tried addressing the issue in a pre-release build, v27.4-669, which is now available on Creative Cloud Desktop under the Prerelease Section.

I also wanted to let you know that I have tried the files shared by jschmed and Sevenk, and I could not replicate the same behavior on this build on both Windows & Mac machines.

Would you all mind giving it a try and letting us know if the issue has been resolved for you as well? Your feedback will help us ensure that the final release is as stable and reliable as possible.

Steps to enroll in the Prerelease program and install the prerelease build on your machine are as follows:
Please click this link (www.adobeprerelease.com/) and go to the “Available Program” section to join the Illustrator prerelease.
Then accept the Prerelease agreement and do the following steps to install the Prerelease v27.4-669:
- Close Illustrator
- Go to the Creative Cloud Desktop app > Prerelease section under apps.
- Click on install. (This will not replace the existing installation of the Release build of Illustrator).

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, and we appreciate your patience & cooperation in helping us resolve this issue.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[sevenK]

I joined and accepted but I the PreRelease section doesn’t show up in my CreativeCloud-App. I only get the Beta Option.

[Nick Wilcox-Brown]

Download the beta instead, the two programs are effectively interchangeable.

I raised this problem rather strongly on the beta group a couple of weeks ago and delighted that @Anshul_Saini is on the case. This has been going on for too long.

[sevenK]

Oh thnx.

[MegaTorque-01 · Accepted solution]

Anshul, I noticed that Illustrator 27.4 was available to me download this morning and GREAT NEWS!! The GPU problem appears to be resolved! I opened up 2 files that I know definitely did not work, and today I have both files open on my PC at the same time and they appear to be very solid - GPU acceleration all the way. The scrolling speed of the screen appears to be improved as well, very smooth! I'm not sure what you guys did in the background but this looks absolutely great now!!

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @MegaTorque-01,

I'm glad to hear that you were able to download Illustrator 27.4 prerelease and that the GPU problem seems to be resolved.

Also, I wanted to let you know that we just released version v27.4 in a phased manner, which is available in certain countries and soon be available worldwide.

Additionally, I'm pleased to share that we've been working diligently to ensure that the latest version of Illustrator is stable and reliable, and your other user's feedback has been invaluable in achieving that. Thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us resolve this issue.

Best,

Anshul

[sevenK]

Hi @Anshul_Saini,

I just downloaded and installed v23.4 as well, and I finally understand why you probably weren’t able to recreate my issue. 

The problem still occurred in my test file, so I played around with the general Color Management Settings and set them to "European, PrePress“ which I’m assuming is the standard setting for Europe. In those settings the CMYK handling is set to „keep values, delete embedded profiles“ and to my surprise the problem with that document was solved. However if I set the CMYK Color Management to „Keep embedded profiles“ instead the problem still persists. 

So I could solve the problem by having the embedded profiles deleted, but that would actually only be a workaround again, don’t you think?

[Anshul_Saini]

Thank you for testing in v27.4 and redescribing the issue @sevenK.

I appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback. After reading your message, I was able to replicate the issue you mentioned. However, to ensure that we provide you with accurate information, I'll need to check with our product team to confirm if this is the intended workflow or if it's a bug. Rest assured, I'll do everything in my power to get this resolved for all.

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Best,

Anshul Saini

[Nick Wilcox-Brown]

@Anshul_Saini anything that involves a legitimate colour management choice disabling GPU should be considered a bug. That includes embedded profiles, which are essential in a colour managed workflow.

I have long been mystified why colour managment in illustrator is so far behind Photoshop and other apps in the sense that colour profiles should always be embedded in graphics; it should not be a choice, because conversion or ignoring them can be done on a one by one basis on opening.

Related: Education is a must for the design community to match that of the photo community 10 to 15 years ago. Embedding colour profiles enables true managment of colour. Working in the photo, design and movie fields, I constantly see issues with design assets that lack profiles that define their colour.

[MegaTorque-01]

This did not solve the problem at all

[Jennifer5EEE]

This problem is STILL happening in 2024! With strictly Illustrator-created vector files, no embedded or linked images, no color profile weirdness. Just randomly happens while working with a file. I notice the outlines for the selected object get rough looking and certain display features stop working, and wonder what the heck happened. Sure enough, GPU is grayed out suddenly. GPU Performance is turned on in the Preferences. I've had it happen multiple times for no apparent reason, even with pretty basic files on a very capable computer. Closing Illustrator and opening it again seems to solve the issue, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place.

[Anubhav Majumder]

Hello @Jennifer5EEE,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind checking if Illustrator behaves this way with all files? If yes, kindly try manually resetting Illustrator's preferences and checking if it helps:

For macOS

• Close all Adobe applications.

• Go to the following locations

• ~/Library/Caches

• ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe

• ~/Library/Preferences

• Rename Adobe Illustrator, com.adobe.illustrator and Adobe Illustrator 28 Settings folders to Adobe Illustrator.old, com.adobe.illustrator.old and Adobe Illustrator 28 Settings.old

• Launch Illustrator from the Creative Cloud.

Note: Location starting with this "~" sign indicates the User Library, which is hidden. So, you need to copy & paste the exact path in spotlight search or from Finder Menu > Go > Go to Folder > Paste the location in the dialog box like this:

For Windows

- Close all Adobe applications.

- Go to Location C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe

- Rename Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Illustrator 28 Settings folders to Adobe Illustrator.old and Adobe Illustrator - 28 Settings.old

- Relaunch Illustrator from Creative Cloud

Disclaimer: Please note that renaming preferences folders will remove all the custom settings, and Illustrator will launch with default settings. You can also save a backup of the folders in case you want to. The location is mentioned above.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav