Poor performance: Saving takes forever while CPU load is low

[GregorTa]

I run the Adobe suite on my Intel iMac Retina 5K 27-inch from 2020 (3,8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB, 128 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, Mac OS X 14.7.4, with 400 GB of free disk space). Especially Illustrator (v.29.3.1, but also most of the other Adobe apps) run super slow when it comes to larger files (InDesign and Acrobat don't even need files to be extra large for their very slow UI).

E.g. saving a 2.5 GB large AI file takes five minutes or longer while the CPU load hardly exceeds 12% (according to a system monitoring tool). I just wonder: Is it due to a weaker Intel architecture (compared to Apple's M), inefficient software or did I simply fail to configure Illustrator better for higher performance?

Does anyone of you experience similar issues or has any advice on improving Illustrator's performance?

Thanks! 🙂

[Anubhav M]

Hello @GregorTa,

Would you mind checking if Illustrator behaves this way with all large projects or when saving projects in a specific folder/drive location, so I can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[GregorTa]

Hi @Anubhav M !

Thanks for replying so quickly!
I'll keep an eye on the mentioned criteria; so far I haven't noticed much difference depending on projects or folders (always saving directly on the internal disk).

Interestingly, exporting the same large file to a 150 dpi PNG is processed "ten times faster" than saving it to the original ai file format (and CPU load satisfyingly raises to up to 100% during the export process, unlike when just saving the file).

Best,
Gregor

[GregorTa]

This snapshot illustrates the problem quite well: Saving the AI file was not proceeding past 31% for like minutes. The file itself is 2,5 GB large, its linked image files (two psb's) are about 6 GB in total (all files are stored on the internal disk in my jobs directory within Users/Shared). To me it seems the CPU load is way below it's maximum computing power.

Could it really be the files' and directorie's path?

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @GregorTa,

Thanks for sharing those details! The large file size is definitely a factor here. When saving an Illustrator file, Illustrator also generates a PDF-compatible version by default, which can significantly slow down the process, especially with very large files like yours.

Could you try unchecking “Create PDF Compatible File” in the Save As dialog and see if that speeds up the saving process? This should help reduce the file size and improve performance.

Let me know if that makes a difference!

Best,

Anshul

[GregorTa]

Hi @Anshul_Saini !
Thanks for that hint! I'll try that the next time I struggle with large files. 🙂

Best,
Gregor