Illustrator GPU Performance Disables Automatically After 15-20 Minutes

[Deep Agheda]

Hi Adobe Community,

I’m facing a recurring issue with Adobe Illustrator. Whenever I open any file and start working, everything functions normally for the first 15–20 minutes. But after that, the screen blinks once, and then Illustrator automatically disables the GPU Performance mode.

This happens consistently with every file. Once the GPU mode turns off, the performance drops significantly. If I close the file and reopen it, everything works fine again—for another 15–20 minutes—before the issue returns.

I’ve been facing this problem for a long time now, and it’s really affecting my workflow. I would appreciate it if someone could help me identify the cause or suggest a permanent solution.

Thank you!

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Deep Agheda,

Thanks for bringing this up. I can see how frustrating it must be to have GPU performance drop mid-project.

Could you confirm your Illustrator version, OS, GPU model, and driver version? If you're on Windows, try updating the GPU driver directly from the manufacturer's site rather than using Windows Update. 

If the issue continues, try a clean reinstallation of your GPU drivers (Intel / NVIDIA / AMD) and set the Graphics Preference to High Performance for Illustrator: https://adobe.ly/3EjIhRc

In Illustrator, go to Preferences > Performance and check if 'GPU Performance' is enabled. If it's off, try toggling it. Also, try disabling any third-party plugins or extensions and test the issue in safe mode to rule out conflicts.

If you're able, a short screen recording of when the GPU mode disables would be helpful for further investigation.

Keep me posted on how it goes.
Abhishek

[Deep Agheda]

Hi, @Abhishek Rao 
Here are the screenshots as requested. Just to clarify, we haven't used any third-party plugins.

I’ve found that the issue goes away when GPU Performance is disabled, but that introduces another problem—zooming no longer works as expected. As you may already know, without GPU Performance, zooming is limited to the rectangular marquee style instead of the smooth, animated zoom we're used to.

I've attached some screenshots of the operating system, GPU, and so on.

Looking forward to your insights on this.

Thanks!

Deep A.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Deep Agheda,

Thanks for the update. Since GPU Performance off avoids the issue but limits zoom functionality, this may point to a driver or system conflict. If you haven’t yet, try a clean reinstall of your GPU driver and set Illustrator to use the high-performance GPU in system settings.

If that doesn’t help, we’ll need a bit more info to investigate:

For Windows computers:

1. AiSniffer file:
- Close all Adobe applications.
- Navigate to the Illustrator Preferences folder and copy the AiSniffer file to the desktop from this location:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 28 Settings\en_US\x64\

2. For the System Report, kindly follow these steps:
- Please press Windows Key + the letter "R" on your keyboard to bring up the Run command window
- Type "msinfo32" in the Open field and left-click OK
- While viewing the Microsoft System Information summary, go to File, then choose Save (Please do not use Export)
- Save your MSINFO32 report as "msinfo32.nfo" on your desktop to easily locate it after. It can take up to a minute to generate a report.

Kindly upload the files to Google Drive/Dropbox/etc. and share a public link here or via DM so that we can investigate this further.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Abhishek

[Deep Agheda]

Dear Sir.
Herewith, I have supplied the files you asked. Please see below and, if feasible, act immediately. Please notice the OneDrive link provided below.

OndDrive Link: msinfo32.nfo

[Bobby Henderson]

I'd recommend installing the latest update for your graphics card driver. The current NVidia Studio driver is version 576.80. The NVidia app also had an update released during the past week.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @defaultyrfgv5zctte6,

Thanks for sharing the MSInfo and AiSniffer files. While I check this with the team, would you mind performing a clean reinstallation of the GPU(s) drivers (Intel / NVIDIA / AMD) and setting the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator (https://adobe.ly/4kXJDkX), as Bobby suggested, and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

[Deep Agheda]

Hello @Bobby Henderson, @Anubhav M 

I tried thoroughly uninstalling and reinstalling the graphics driver as per your advice, but the problem is still displayed today; please see the screenshot and system information.

System Graphic

NVIDIA system information report created on: 06/25/2025 11:21:33
NVIDIA App version: 11.0.4.159
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, Version 10.0.26100
DirectX runtime version: DirectX 12
Driver: Studio Driver - 576.80 - Tue Jun 17, 2025
CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900K
RAM: 64.0 GB
Storage: SSD - 931.5 GB

Graphics card
GPU processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Direct3D feature level: 12_1
CUDA cores: 10496
Graphics clock: 1695 MHz
Resizable bar: No
Memory data rate: 19.50 Gbps
Memory interface: 384-bit
Memory bandwidth: 936.096 GB/s
Total available graphics memory: 57230 MB
Dedicated video memory: 24576 MB GDDR6X
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 32654 MB
Video BIOS version: 94.02.59.00.42
IRQ: Not used
Bus: PCI Express x16 Gen4
Device ID: 10DE 2204 145410DE
Part number: G132 0010

Display (1): LG Electronics LG HDR 4K
Resolution: 4k x 2k, 3840 x 2160 (native)
Refresh rate: 60 Hz
Desktop color depth: Highest (32-bit)
HDCP: Supported

[Anubhav M]

Hello @defaultyrfgv5zctte6,

Thanks for confirming. Could you try temporarily disabling the NVIDIA GPU and using the Intel iGPU (Intel® UHD Graphics 770) for Illustrator and check if the problem persists?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

[Deep Agheda]

Hello @Anubhav M Sir, I've tried last 3-4 days everything. I've tried disabling my GPU after using Intel® UHD Graphics. the problem is the same.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @defaultyrfgv5zctte6,

Thanks for the confirmation. While I check this with the team, could you try running Illustrator under a different administrator account (Windows) and checking if it works better there?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Mohammad.Harb]

After updating GPU driver to the most recent update, Reset Illustrator preferences :

Form preferences Settings -> General , Click on Reset Preferences, then restart illustrator.