Illustrator GPU Performance (bad) (CC 2017)

[thirdworldgraphics]

I have a Gforce GTX 970, this is a pretty powerful graphics card. And I noticed that when I have GPU performance on when i'm doing vector patterns that are very complicated there are HUGE HUGE hangs in between moving objects, zooming in and out (click zoom not animated zoom) even just un-grouping objects that aren't even related to complex patterns.

The only thing I have selected GPU Performance is the animated zoom.

At first I thought this was just the complex shapes making illustrator that slow, but after turning off GPU performance the "hangs" stopped completely.

I'm trying to figure out why and how illustrator uses the GPU.

the 970 cards were known to have "4 gigs" of ram but they were really 3.5 gigs, and this causes a lot of games to drop frames and lag once they hit past that 3.5 gigs, there was this huge lawsuite against Nvidia for advertising 4 gigs when the card was really 3.5. So I was wondering does this have anything to do with the performance stuttering i'm having? Does illustrator even use the GFX ram?

Nvidia explains GeForce GTX 970's memory performance issues, admits error in specs | PCWorld

[thirdworldgraphics]

Under normal conditions (and the vast majority of gaming scenarios), the card relies on the 3.5GB segment alone, turning to the supplementary segment only when necessary. But when a game needs more than 3.5GB of memory, tapping into the secondary segment drags down performance. Some are reporting stutters and frame rate drops as the card uses between 3.5GB and 4GB of memory.

That's a quote from the performance issues with the 970 series...i'm not saying this is the case but could be a possibility?

[benjamin_weiler]

I use the same cards, and the slow-downs are really, really bad. They affect other software like Photoshop, too. Illustrator CRITICAL Nvidia card bug suggests it might be something to do with the menus.

The official Adobe take on it is the usual, delete preferences, OOBE files, uninstall, clean, reinstall, disable plugins, etc. I wonder if anybody is actually looking into this. I am not asking for a time-table, I would just like to know, whether Adobe is aware of the problem and doing something about it, or if I should better switch to Affinity Designer. Which runs like a video game with my hardware, I might add. I have never used any vector app that smooth. And that is still in beta. Compared to 250$ for a new AMD setup, 50$ for a perpetual license seem to be the better solution.

[Zino Kua]

I'm having the same issue with lag in illustrator CC 2017 however with GTX1080 hybrid. Forced to switch off GPU preview when working in illustrator for some time already. Is there an official solution for this issue?

[konradf72868322]

I'm having the same issue. Illustrator has been really slow for me for a while now, but I think CC 2017 actually made things even worse.

The app is generally slow to work with, even loading interface elements after creating a new file is visibly slow, but it slows down gradually during use. After a couple of hours of work, opening a menu or sometimes even switching to a tool/activating an element takes up to 1 second. Closing Illustrator takes up to 20 seconds.

My system could easily run new games, so I think it should also be able to handle a vector design app and a few sub 1MB files thrown at it. Affinity Designer runs like butter compared to Illustrator. Also, we run Illustrator on a bunch of different PCs and they all exhibit the same issue. I'm surprised there aren't any more threads on here concering this problem.

I spoke to an Adobe representative about this issue. He could not provide any solution and told me to contact Adobe through the Feature Request/Bug Report Form...

[PRDNZ]

wow, im with you guys, i cant believe this hasnt been addressed by Adobe.

Im running a Dell 32 inch widescreen on an Nvidia 750 card and it is terrible on illustrator, fine on Adobe,

however, if i switch over to my old 26inch dell screen it runs fine, and if i run it from my laptop onto my dell 32inch widescreen it runs fine. im completely confused. does anyone have any insite to this. im not very techno so im not sure whats happening. My pc is extremely well speced so i dont suspect its that.

[zachc1]

I'm running Illustrator 2017 on Windows 10 with an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and a GeForce GTX 970M 3GB (this exceeds Adobe's posted system requirements). I'm having some serious functionality issues with this latest Illustrator release. I keep updating my video card drivers hoping it'll help. No good. I can't use GPU Performance in Illustrator, and I've also had issues opening files and simply running the program. This is really bad when Adobe charges customers every month for a program that doesn't work as advertised (and with some nice alternative programs showing up on the market).

I've uninstalled and reinstalled. I've updated all my drivers. I've tried disabling my on-board graphics chip per Adobe's advice (which caused more harm than good). I've adjusted scaling in my display settings (because I think this issue started the same time Adobe added a pop-up about screen optimization every time I open Illustrator, even though I don't have a high-ppi screen). Nothing works. The GPU Performance might function the first time I run the progam, or at least for the first file I open, but then it is automatically disabled (even thought the boxes are checked to enable it and Illustrator says I have a compatible GPU). And, I can't open files in Illustrator by double-clicking them in Windows Explorer; I just get a spinning wheel and sometimes Illustrator actually locks up entirely. If I want to edit a file in Illustrator, I have to drag and drop the item into the Illustrator window.

[thirdworldgraphics]

Keep in mind the GTX 970 had a "false ram" advertised. Meaning the 4 gigs in it was actually 3.5 and the last .5 gigs acted strange, effecting game performance. I wouldn't be surprised if it effected illustrator performance as well.

I bought a GTX 1070, haven't had that problem since. Illustrator performance is still trash in terms of illustrator just being illustrator, but haven't had any problems with GPU performance.

If you can't change out your graphics card, I would suggest reinstalling windows and doing a clean install of everything. That could help. Its extreme but it usually solves most problems.

[zachc1]

I'm not sure this helps the original poster, but I'm able to use GPU Performance by disabling it, closing my file, then re-enabling GPU Performance and opening my file again (by dragging the file to the Illustrator window since the program just hangs if I double-click a file).

[Zino Kua]

Just an update.
Swapped out my 980TI to my 3rd slot and now it's running 1080 on the first PCIE lanes and AI is running smooth on GPU mode

[sabass29172786]

Hi! Do you solve the problem? Now Im using a Quadro K1100m / i7-4712hq. It feel quite lag when a lots illustration. I plan update a desktop with GTX1080, I don't hope it still lag when updated 

[Tinman1028]

Hey, I know this is an old thread but I wanted to add my 2 cents to this issue since it is a very serious issue.

I am running into the same issue with a 4.3 GHc intel, 32 GB of ram, Solid state 1tb 960 EVO and...... .. ... a 1080 TI card. I know it's not a Quadro but c'mon we are talking about Illustrator. With these specs this program, should fly!! It doesn't. Any complex halftone vector patterns and it stalls to a halt, lags, or drops dead. Designs using vector patterns or complex vectors stall and cannot be copied. It takes too long or the program hangs up and never ends copying the design but just moves it.

Long story short, I have my own 2018 thread where I was told the problem is irregular and I needed Adobe pro help. I had one screen share session with the Adobe team. Unfortunately it was tremendously unhelpful (Wipe preferences, wipe temp folder... the usual). After reporting back to Adobe that my session to solve the issue was unsuccessful they elvated my problem status and I had a second screen share session with Adobe staff. We spent 2 hours diagnosing to no avail. The dude was a rockstar BUT I still have the issue.

My problem once again has been elevated and they have taken down all my PC diagnosis, specs, Illustrator reports, and files in question. I am do another screen sharing session after they have some answers on their end. The good news is they are taking it very seriously and want to figure out why this is happening.

I also want to figure out why my absolute beast of a computer is having trouble with vector patterns.

I will report back and hopefully this fix will help you all. Thanks to the Adobe staff for actually caring.

**** One additional piece of information that is relevant - this problem seems to be isolated to Windows 10/PC as my 2013 MAcbook is still our performing this 2017 monster PC in Illustrator.

-Ivan

[a.kdhfglkadnglkjdahflkgha]

Performance is bad with, or without GPU acceleration on. 

i7 7700HQ

16GB DDR 4
Nvidia1060

[Crystal1070]

Interestingly enough on my i7 with 32GB 3200DDR4, and GTX1070 Illustrator is a hog with GPU preview. Works okay without GPU preview.

I don't have this issue at all on my iMac, GPU preview speeds it up considerably over just the i7.

It's an issue on Widnows it seems, not OS X.

[Legalease]

We have just ordered a few new workstations for our graphics team. They are 16gb machines with i7 7700s and AMD WX4100 graphics cards. With a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 install, containing nothing but Office 2013 and the latest Adobe Illustrator CC, enabling GPU acceleration noticeably decreases performance.

The user reporting this uses a Wacom drawing tablet, and I've visually confirmed that when she performs 'fast' strokes with certain drawing tools, the program seems to struggle and be forced to 'summarise' the stroke by rendering parts of it as straight lines between points rather than a natural representation of the curve drawn. If that makes sense.

It was fine on her old Win7 Pro x64 i5 4670 without dedicated graphics. I intend to now test her old specification with Win10 Pro x64, and her new one with Windows 7 Pro x64, in order to try to discern whether it's the OS. I will post what I find.

Thank you Tinman1028 for the update - I look forward to further info from you

[Tinman1028]

Hey Legalease-

Thanks for your post, it is tremendously helpful to see people who are seeing what I am!

I have a couple things to add to this post.

One, the issue you are describing was not my top priority when I started my other thread and added to this one HOWEVER, after I have replaced my cheap drawing tablet with the new wacom Cintiq 4K the issue you described happens to me with Illustrator and InDesign. When I try to copy an object using the "Alt" shortcut for some reason everything comes to a crawl and the computer needs significant amount of time to process and this simple action, regardless of the complexity of the object. And I can confirm your findings that the GPU acceleration plays a huger role. Without it on, everything is groovy. Except for the fact that I paid a ton of money to get a really nice GPU  for work in my primary money-making program (Illustrator) and I can't use it. Sarcasm aside this is a real issue that Adobe and Nvidia are seeming to fail on figuring out. I sincerely hope this changes.

Two, my original problem was treated very seriously and professionally from Adobe to begin with. My case was elevated three times, I had many screen-share sessions, I shared files, those files were evaluated (more on this below). Then I had my last screen-share conclusive experience and it was.... drum roll.... incredibly disappointing.

During my second screen-share I spent around 2 hours with an Adobe staff member who extremely knowledgeable. He truly worked off the previous staff person's attempts and did not try to tell me to reset setting and delete preference folders. We went deep into Windows settings and Illustrator setting to try to figure out what was causing these slowdowns. At the end of our meeting we had confidently pinpointed that this problem was somehow linked to the 4K screen and potentially the NVIDIA GPU. At that point he could no longer suggest solutions and elevated my case. He gathered the problem files so they can be evaluated and we parted ways. AAA+ call. This is how you get stuff done.

I expected the same level of professionalism and expertise from the next call which was an ever more "elevated" screen-share call.

And unfortunately it was a huge let down. The person clearly was not up to date with what was going on with my case. She did not read or maybe have access to any of the notes of the things tried in my previous call. She did no complex troubleshooting or asking me any questions. She went back to reset my preferences!!!!  When I asked her what was the conclusion on the the files I submitted she had no idea what I was talking about and asked me to resubmit all my files. The someone in the background told her that they were just too complex. And that was it. That was the conclusion. It was just too complex. At this point I knew I Was not going to get more from her, I thanked her for her time but told her how disappointed I was that this was the official conclusion! I was blown away.

The file were discussing contained one logo with a vector halftone pattern. Yes, the pattern used was complex BUT I have made so many more illustrations and elements that have been much more complex than this single-logo file! So to hear that this problem is because complexity is nothing else just seems like the easy way out to get rid of a pesky customer (Me!!) And what about all the vector artists that create insanely complex drawings day in and day out? I just can't believe that this was the answer.

Long story short.... this was the official answer from Adobe and my case is closed. Huge bummer, very disappointed.

I hope that you can get some answers and if so I would love to hear your experience. Good luck!