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

[MegaTorque-01]

Yes, I see the exact same problem in Illustrator 27 as well. Previous documents that were in CMYK mode all of a sudden now are CPU preview only, even I try and make the document from scratch again at some point when the GPU load goes up from scrolling around on the screen it just gives up and loses GPU functionality. I found that converting your document to RGB fixes the problem but leaves you in the wrong color space.

[sevenK]

Have you tried keeping all of the pictures you use within the artwork in the same color profile? I noticed that if I place a picture that has a different color profile embedded that the one used in the document color settings, the GPU preview right away stops working. Converting the color profile of the picture to the same one as the document profile and just reopen the AI file fixes the issue. 

[jschmed]

Thanks! I haven't tried that, but I appreciate the workaround. I did open the file in another program, export as PDF, and then open again in AI, which seems to do the trick. Just a bummer because it disrupts the work flow, and I prefer GPU preview as it looks much cleaner.

[jschmed]

Yeah, it's really frustrating. Sorry to hear you're also running into this issue. Hopefully it's patched out soon.

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @MegaTorque-01 @sevenK @jschmed,

We are sorry for the trouble. Would it be possible for you to share a package zip file including all the links to the different colour profile images & Ai document? I tried on my end but couldn't replicate the issue. It would be really helpful for us to fix the issue if we are able to replicate the same behaviour you all are facing.

Also, would you mind confirming your system specs, GPU & monitor make & model as well?

I will be looking forward to your response.

Thanks & regards,
Anshul Saini 

[sevenK]

Good morning Anshul,

thnx for your reply. I did provide my system information before already. The problem occurs on a MacBook Air, 1,2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB, 16 GB RAM. 

I uploaded a sample file which you can find in the link below. I did also include the color profiles I used, but noticed that the problem also occurs if I chose and include any other profile in the image and replace the one that is placed in the AI document. All you need to do is open the AI file, chose the image and replace it with the one named ISO at the end, it’ll right away switch off GPU preview and leaves you with the CPU preview. At least that’s what is happening on my Mac.

Thnx again for your help. 

Linked Files

[MegaTorque-01]

I actually downloaded your file and opened it up and followed your instructions -- but my GPU was still enabled. It worked great on my PC

[sevenK]

You mean PC as for Windows PC? Maybe it‘s just a Mac issue? 

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @sevenK,

Thanks for sharing the file. I tied but couldn't replicate the issue on M1 Max Macbook. Would it be possible for you to screen-record & demonstrate the issue? I will forward it to the team, and they will try replicating it on their Macs'. It would be really helpful for us.

Looking forward to it.

Reagrds,

Anshul Saini

[sevenK]

Good morning Anshul,

sure, no problem. Thnx again for your patience 🙏

[sevenK]

Maybe it‘s more like an Intel problem if you can‘t reproduce the issue on your M1-MBP? 

[Nick Wilcox-Brown]

This is specifically an Intel Mac issue, the GPU has always worked perfectly on M1 devices.

Nick Wilcox-Brown

[jschmed]

Hi Anshul,

I'm using a HP Windows PC, Windows 10 Pro 64bit, Intel Xeon CPU E3-1240 v5 @ 3.50GHz, 16 GB RAM,

GPU is NVIDIA Quadro K2200, Display HP ProDisplay P232 Monitor.

I've provided a link to a file that creates the issue for me below.

Linked File 

Thanks, I appreciate the help!

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @sevenK @MegaTorque-01,

Thanks for sharing the files & screen recording. I was able to replicate the issue on a Windows machine with the file shared by @jschmed. However, on Intel Mac, I am unable to replicate the same with the file & by following the instruction in the screen recording shared by @sevenK. Please allow us some more time to investigate this further. I will get back to you.

Regards,

Anshul Saini

[IMRAN24036168v0gu]

It does feels weird that the bug occurred on some version while i tested out on v25.2.1 it works normally then switch to v27 it starts to bug again and force my zooming to go CPU preview

[sevenK]

I must say I haven’t had any issues regarding the GPU-preview lately. I only had the issue when I didn’t have the same ICC profile embedded in pictures I placed that didn’t match the current document settings. At the moment I’m on the latest version 27.3.1 and it just works fine.

[Frank287249277jy1]

I know this is an old question but if you have a high performance graphics card this is what you do. FYI this is for windows and I don't know MacOS but you can use this as a reference.

go to settings, graphics settings, type 'adobe illustrator' in the search box, options, change your graphics preference to your high performance GPU. 

[IMRAN24036168v0gu]

wow thanks man your suggestions does work for me😆

[Nick Wilcox-Brown]

This is not a correct answer - it suggests that many dozens of people in this thread have no idea what they are doing; clearly an incorrect assumption.

There is a known and very long standing issue with GPU not being utilised correctly by Illustrator, going back many years on both Mac and PC. In many cases the GPUs in question are listed as supported, but still fail to operate. In some cases new Illustrator versions fix the issue and then a later version again cause a break. 

[sevenK]

I also thought telling us that this would be the correct answer was kinda insulting our knowledge in AI, but didn’t want to say anything. 

For me the solution still lays in the color profile of the placed image. If an image has a profile embedded that does not correlate with the document settings, or also if you ignore the color settings and the profile is not the same as the profile in the application color settings, the GPU-preview is disabled immediately. It works fine if you have no profile embedded in the image, or use the same profile in the picture as you use within Illustrator for either the document or application. 

[MegaTorque-01]

SevenK that's probably the best explanation I have seen of the problem -- I've managed to get around the issue by converting images into the same color profile as the document -- however, we should still keep hounding Adobe on this because this problem of the GPU cutting out only started after v26 and clearly the earlier versions had no problem handling documents with mixed profiles.

[IMRAN24036168v0gu]

 I see so its better to convert any image embed into the document to follow the color mode of the document itself by using Edit > Edit color > Convert to CMYK/RGB. Am I correct on this way or is there another workaround to directly adjust the placed image to follow the color profile of the document?

[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.