Mousewheel usage create lag

[pietrob51238225]

Basically, title.

Using alt +  mousewheel to zoom in and out is very laggy and slow (5-10 seconds to update). No issues on previous version or using zoom tool. Issue persists with animated zoom disabled and enabling "zoom with mousewheel".

Navigating the document with mousewheel causes the same issue.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @pietrob51238225,

Thanks for reporting this. Could you please confirm the version of Illustrator and your OS details? It would also help to know if the lag occurs with all files or only specific ones, and whether you notice any improvement when testing in a new blank document. Please also try running your system in Safe Mode to rule out any third-party interference.

Windows: Start your PC in Safe Mode
macOS: Start up your Mac in Safe Mode

If possible, share a short screen recording showing the lag so I can review it further.

Looking forward to your update.
Abhishek

[pietrob51238225]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

Illustrator 2026, v30.0, OS Win 11 v 24h2, build SO 26100.6899

The issue persists on blank new documents created in the illustrator version mentioned above, as well as in documents created in previous versions, in safe mode and with illustrator preferences reset to default.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @pietrob51238225,

Thanks for confirming those details. Could you please try disabling GPU Performance from Preferences > Performance and see if that improves the mouse wheel response? If there’s no change, please share a short screen recording of the lag, so I can check it further with the team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

[79778542]

Hi, I can confirm the issue.
I’m experiencing the same problem with Illustrator 2026 on Windows 11 Pro 24H2, build 26100.6899. My system is a new build with 64 GB RAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, and an RTX 5070 Ti, so I'd expect performance to be good.

Following your suggestion, disabling GPU performance does resolve the lag, but at the cost of noticeably degraded zoom performance overall, which doesn’t seem like a reasonable workaround. Besides, Illustrator 2025 performs perfectly on the same machine, so this really looks like an issue introduced in Illustrator 2026.

I’ve attached a screen recording showing the lag on an empty file. As you can see, the zoom level changes erratically because the entire Illustrator UI freezes, causing zoom-ins and zoom-outs as it struggles to catch up with my scroll wheel actions.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @79778542,

Thanks for confirming. 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/4qF41u9) and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[79778542]

Hi Anubhav,

Thanks for the reply and the suggestions.

My computer is a new build, so the NVIDIA drivers (as well as Windows) were 'clean installed'  10 days ago. There has been no update in the meantime (Nvidia studio drivers Version: 581.57 - Released: Tue Oct 14, 2025). Still, I reinstalled the drivers anyway. This made no impact on the lag.

I also tested setting the Graphics Preference to High-Performance for Illustrator as recommended (see screenshot). I tried with/without the 'Optimizations for windowed games' switch (of course Illustrator was restarted in between). Again, no impact, the lag is still here.

Please also find a screenshot of Illustrator's System Info, which shows that it correctly sees the main GPU.

[Primatech5CF2]

Hi , I have the same issue. Also a beefy build, so there is no pinning on hardware for this. Yes, GPU is enabled and read correctly, yes I tried both ways, enabled and disabled. This was NOT an issue before the update to 2026, i'm considering a revert to an earlier version. I've also noticed that the most frequent freezes happen on zoom out, so it's probably something to do with loading more object on screen. Could it be a scratch disk issue? Again, no issues so far.

[Primatech5CF2]

No issues before this update, i mean. Now illustrator is unusable. Also, it's worth mentioning that the fil in itself is not a heavy file, just a couple of objects. 

[Bobby Henderson]

Is GPU Acceleration turned on in Illustrator? It might be worth checking mouse settings in Windows' OS settings (under the Bluetooth & devices category).

Generally I find mouse wheel performance for zooming or scrolling to be a bit choppy, not just in Illustrator, but also in other graphics applications. In Illustrator I prefer using the Ctrl+Spacebar keyboard shortcut to bring up the Zoom tool and then click-drag the left mouse button to smoothly zoom the view in or out. That shortcut and the spacebar key for the hand tool allows me to fine tune the view of my work. GPU acceleration has to be enabled for animated zoom to work.

[iLLMonkey]

Got the same Issue, scrolling and alt+scrolling freezes everything for 2-6 seconds. There's no spikes on CPU, GPU, RAM nor Disks in taskmanager while this is happening. Win 10 / Illustrator 30.0