You're making my point for me. 10 years ago 16gb would have been fine for "simple paths" and much more. Now the software has got so slow and bloated that it's now incapable.   And the tifs are actually, to be specific (I had to go back and check) 215mb compressed from around 250mb and as I mentioned above, held in the same place as the ai file (local, quick drives). There's three of them - are you trying to convince me that to 'shove' 750mb of photography around requires more than 128gb of RAM? It didn't 10years ago. At this rate, by 2034 I'll need a data centre to open up a Christmas card design... ... View more

The ones I had in mind are food packaging sleeves. x3 artboards, 6 colours, each with a unique product shot at around 150mb (cmyk, 8bit with transparency) plus 4 reoccurring images replicated across all x3 sleeves totalling around 250mb (again cymk, 8bit). All images are linked, not embedded, sat in the same job folder as the source .ai file. x3 fonts. Overprint preview is off. All of the memory is available, less the OS (win11) and a few background tasks. The processor is a Threadripper 5975, graphics are an RTX4090, the scratch disk as a Samsung 990Pro with about 500gb to play around in.   Nothing about the files is overly strenuous. This progressive slowdown of illustrator has been an ongoing issue. The gradual ramp up in hardware seemingly cant keep pace with the required demands of what should be a straightforward piece of software. My machine has been built to run 3D CAD software way more demanding and yet it is illustrator that chuggs along like an old tractor at a monster truck festival.   And yes, all my drivers are up-to-date + I've invested some time optimising the nvidia drivers specifically for illustrator, which has probably added an extra 5-10% in performance. Still ridiculously slow though. Also, I know this isnt a hardware issue, as the rest of my colleagues in the studio have had similar problems across a variety of specced (windows and apple) machines.   Just to wrap up with why I've even got involved in this discussion - I got irked by the suggested solution of "go buy more RAM". It's a nonsense and one that I can vouch won't help. I accept that the original poster should really be using InDesign for that kind of work, but my point still stands. The real solution is for Adobe to start pulling their finger out and work on developing quicker, more efficient software. Rather than passing-off lazy answers to their consumers in a segment that they dominate and clearly don't feel the need to do better in. ... View more

I have a computer with 128gb of RAM and a further 24gb of VRAM. It handles 3dsMax and Arnold GPU rendering with absolutely no problem whatsoever. Opening up some packaging files in Illustrator however, and everything grinds to a halt.    This isnt a hardware problem - this is an Adobe Illustrator problem. ... View more

Yep, this worked. Thanks for the solution.   However, I want to stress that this was a clean install on a brand new/virgin machine. Downloaded and installed through the CC interface. Something there is broken and needs looking in to. You cant expect people to go jumping through all of those hoops because someone dropped the ball at your end. ... View more

Same problem.  And it's not some weird quirk of previous settings. I'm having this problem on a brand new/clean install on a brand new PC running windows 11. The latest version of acrobat installed through CC.   The sign button doesnt respond or do anything. At first I thought it was the terrible new interface, but even reverting to the old style it still doesnt work. This update is appalling. All I wanted to do is sign some forms for work and I've lost an hour of my life to something that used to take 2 minutes.   Please Adobe - get this fixed. I pay handsomely every month for this. ... View more