Illustrator CC 2014 extremely choppy. Please help.

[bozogubu]

I just bought an iMac 5k Retina Base model with Yosemite installed. All other CC applications work like a breeze except illustrator. Illustrator is extremely choppy and almost unworkable. Can someone help me out?

[kimmogimble]

Can anyone else confirm this also?

Could I finally go and buy iMac 5K retina 27"!!?

[Schnurrbernd]

I can confirm this. With GPU performance enabled Illustrator finally runs smoothly like it used to be.

With El Capitan coming this fall and Adobe cooperating with Apple we can expect even better performance by then.

But the bottom line is it took Adobe more then 6 months to make Illustrator useable again. For a company whose customers are most likely professionals this is really really bad.

[jackson-LYD]

Definitely disappointing, but I think understandable.

High-DPI screens are still early-adopter technologies in the desktop market, and a very small portion of their user base.

I think Apple surprised most of the industry by suddenly pushing 5120x2880 resolution.

[Schnurrbernd]

Understandable? No way! You can't be serious.

Apple introduced a retina display with the iPhone 4 in 2010. They introduced the iPad with retina in 2012. In the same year they introduced the MacBook pro with retina. Again: iPhone with retina in 2010, iPad and MacBook with retina in 2012. I'm no analyst but even I could've told you that a iMac with retina comes sooner or later. Surprise, surprise. It came out 2 years after MacBook with retina.

The reason why so many professionals are using MacBooks is that Adobe is releasing their whole portfolio of software on the Mac at the same time as on the PC. Of course Apple and Adobe cooperating when it comes to new software and/or technology. Therefore it is not understandable at all that one of Adobe's most important programs (Illustrator) just wasn't useable at all for semi-complex works.

And even if they really didn't know about a 5k mac. At the time of the announcement there were a few 4k displays on the market. If I were CEO of Adobe, I would've stopped all development on new features and shit. It should be Adobe's priority to make their software useable on every Mac and PC. Especially on new machines...

[Neeraj Nandkeolyar]

Thank you!

Making vector art to render on the GPU required a huge effort, to the extent of rewriting every object type. And not just the object alone, but its interaction with other objects when present in a clipping or transparency group, etc. While developing this we were able to invite some people from this thread and included them as to our Pre-release program who helped us with their feedback.

We hope GPU rendering gives Ai, a performance boost on high density and large displays. And incase you run into issues, please feel free to write to the Ai team at: ShareWithAi@adobe.com

- Neeraj

[SeanJM]

I have fast performance in other files, this file is slow for some reason:

Dropbox - monitor-riser.ai

[jackson-LYD]

SeanJM, I downloaded your file and I may have a fix.

See if you can replicate this:

View > Preview on CPU

then,

View > Preview on GPU

Toggling between these settings made the file nice and zippy afterwards.

The keyboard command on mac is "Cmd+E", so you can double tap that command on any other files if they have similar issues.

Hope this helps!

[Schnurrbernd]

Nobody said it wasn't a huge effort.

Still, Adobe is the industry standard for many many creatives. I don't know how many people work on Ai on the regular basis but I guess there a few. A few at least full time as well. I know a bit about Apple politics when it comes to unreleased products. I can certainly say Adobe knew about a 5k Mac before everybody else who's developing software.

The iMac retina was announced and released 9 months ago. 9 months in which your creative cloud members who invested in a iMac retina barely could work with Ai.

Don't get me wrong, with the newest version you guys did a great job. It just took way too long.

I have my own theory: you waited with the "Ai performance boost update" for the release of the Creative Cloud 2015. If you would've released this update 4 or 5 months ago you now couldn't say things like "with the 2015 release of Ai you get a performance boost with more zooming levels" etc.

On the other hand, the benfit if the creative cloud is to update programs when it is necessary. Few years ago when there was the Creative Suite and internet connections were slower it was alright to release a major update every year. Maybe I'm wrong but from the marketing sight it would make sense.

[seankanedesign]

Updated to CC 2015 and it has fixed all the issues I was having. Have had to rebuild a couple of files as they had been corrupted (Placed .PSD files in clipping masks seemed to be causing the problem)

But other than that am very happy with the update. Thanks Adobe!

[c_lauritzen]

I've just installed the 2015 update on my iMac 5k and it does seem to have fixed the problem. Smooth zooming, scrolling, and panning on some very complex Illustrator documents.

[bozogubu]

Oh Sweet Adobe. Thank you for fixing Illustrator. Now this is what I call 5K sweetness 🙂

[roberth36813920]

Hi everyone,  I am still having massive performance issues with illustrator and my iMac (27" 5k i5, 16GB ram 4GB graphics) panning, zooming and general control is horrible on all illustrator files even with the new update for illustrator CC 2015. When i turn the resolution down it improves the performance a bit and also if I turn off GPU preview, but that defeats the point of having a large 5k screen to work on graphics with. I've tried optimising graphics performance, resetting my preferences, turning them off, re-installing everything and working with simpler files but it doesn't help. I have also contacted Adobe today and they are gonna look into this for me but I was hoping someone could offer any advice on this in the meantime?

Thanks.

[jackson-LYD]

Robert,

GPU Preview is what improves performance in the new 2015 version.

Make sure Preferences > GPU Performance > GPU performance is checked on.

It should also say "Compatible GPU detected". (Mine is an AMD Radeon R9 M295X OpenGL Engine)

Your file should say something like: filename.ai @ 100% (CMYK/GPU Preview)

Make sure it says "GPU Preview".

If you're opening an old file try:

View > Preview on CPU

then,

View > Preview on GPU

Toggling between these settings can make the file nice and zippy afterwards.

The keyboard command on mac is "Cmd+E", so you can double tap that command.

You may have tried all this, but maybe it at least provides some troubleshooting help.

If all else fails, make sure your Apple OS X software is up to date, and that you've restarted your computer recently.

[roberth36813920]

Hi Jackson,

Thanks for your reply and advice.

I can confirm that within preferences I have checked on and off the GPU performance and whilst on, it causes a rapid decline in the processing ability/use of illustrator on my mac.

My Apple OS X software has been updated recently and is currently up to date.

I will keep trying to get a solution from Adobe, but if you have any further ideas please don’t hesitate to let me know, all suggestions are appreciated.

Cheers

[Blaine_Hayes]

Chiming in here - the Illustrator CC 2015 GPU preview is a helpful fix for some users... but the ability to zoom in and work in overprint preview mode without choppiness is a necessity for those of us in the high end packaging prepress realm. ADOBE - please fix this issue for all view options on the 5K iMac.

[jacks52355332]

I am having some issues with Illustrator CC that I am hoping you could help me solve.

The problem

When scrolling around illustrator there is a delay or lag when the screen has to 'catch up' with what I have requested. This happens on a variety of documents. I believe the memory usage is also higher than typical

Spec

OS X El Capitan (problem also occurred on Yosemite) Version 10.11.1

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)

Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB

Adobe Illustrator CC, regularly updated.

Apple Magic Mouse

Attempted solutions

Many discussions with Adobe as I believed it was linked to memory usage, but appears not the case, they believe it is Illustrator

Clean re-installed software - no difference

Tried in safe mode - no difference

tried different users - no difference

Apple Diagnostics - no faults

Turned GPU Performance Off & On - perhaps slightly better when off

Reinstalled all CC apps

Generally cleaned up Mac - turned off unused fonts etc

No links in files.

Hopefully you can assist, this seemed to be a common issue on forums before .ai was updated.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Did you try another mouse?

[Brendon - Burning Flame]

Jack,

I would suggest that you re install either Mavericks or Yosemite as you OSX... I too have had issues as you have described and are currently running Yosemite and the Adobe CC apps are working. There's no way I would contemplate installing El Capitan due to Adobe being way behind Apples development curve....

I really don't understand how a massive global software company with the resources they have, have such a lax attitude towards keeping there apps current with the ever changing hardware? Its not like they don't derive the income from all the CC subscriptions they receive monthly... its not like the old days of pirated versions of there software - where there ROI was way smaller.

I believe that theres changes that need to be implemented with-in Adobe and that they need to purge the persons that are not doing there jobs and replace them with proactive team members that can solve these problems... We all know that Adobe have access to beta versions of OSX way before they are released to the general public, so what are they doing?

Shame on you Adobe, focus on your core product set and stop wasting time on useless new apps!

[rutgerb43740403]

Just got a Imac retina 5k, the maxed out version with 4.0 Ghz i7, the 4096mb amd and 32gb memory. Having the same problem withe illustrator (latest cc version). What seem to work is turning of the gpu performance option, runs much smoother now...

[canon reed]

really the problem is this : mac & adobe have a long running history of not wanting to talk about things before they make changes, even tho they are best suited for one another, i hope one day SOON, we can see mac drop their ideas of editing software, and adobe stop shoving us all into new computer purchases with every 5th update. also, updates for majority users would be awesome like i don't need adobe to advance their 3d printing tech, i need better menus. the tool menu why even have different options as to how you view it??? all of the options are WORDS, even tho we are usually visual people, i have to keep my brush window open the entire time. or how about 1 step size adjustable layer styles? a pantone partnership would be cool too. sorry i just had the gpu error msg while using my brand new iMac via illustrator - which i have a list of things id love to see update in illustrator! ) and its ridiculous bc this is why i just got this iMac for 3 letters... GPU

[timoa91271836]

My illustrator was extremely choppy, my solution was to go to:

System Preferences > Displays > Resolution and make sure this is set to 'Default for display', not 'Scaled'.

Runs super smoothly now. Hope Adobe can fix this soon so I don't have to run my mac in Noddy size.

[Bird_1]

! Yep. Terribly slow on the 2011-2013 27" iMac's 2.7Ghz. AMD Radeon HD 6770M.

The Radeon card has 512mb which is a little low so Turn off the GPU and it should speed back up to acceptable Illustrator gait!

Preferences - GPU Performance - Gpu Performance button

[canon reed]

i actually did chat with josh from mac, the problem is with el captain and adobe not working together and his answer was to go back to Yosemite

[brandfusion]

HI Guys,

I have noticed a lot of you are complaining about iMacs.

I am having the same crappy performance of Illustrator on a Windows machine.

Dell T5500, Dual Intel Xeon Hexa Core X5670 (12M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI), 48GB DDR3 ECC Triple Channel, nVidia Quadro 4000 2GB GDDR5 / 256 Bit and DELL 4K monitor (can't remember the model), Windows 10 Pro.

By any standard, this is a good machine. Everything on it works fine, except Illustrator (Latest CC version).

Trying to zoom or pan, is a nightmare. However, if I set the monitor to a lower resolution or if I resize the illustrator window, it started to behave closer to normal.

I have tried playing with the GPU switch on and off, changed the video card with another one but I've got the same result.

Anybody has any ideea why?

Thanks,

Adrian

[ashkanz63289789]

Just wanted to support brandfusion's point that this problem occurs on medium-high end pc builds running windows 10/8/8.1. It really isn't isolated to the Mac ecosystem. I've tried all sorts of configurations and different supported nVidia cards and nothing helps.