Illustrator CS6 - Lagging - extremely slow!!

[Studio_Nineteen]

Has any one experinced CS6 Illustrator lagging and responding extremely slow. For example if I try to move a vector graphic it takes a few seconds before it re-freshes and updates. That goes for about everything re-sizing, moving, editing.....

I know it's not my computer. CS5 worked great. My computer is a Mac Pro running with 16GB of ram and solid state drives.

Any one have any suggestions??

[NickChow]

Same here!

OS : windows 10

RAM : 32G

CPU : i7-5820K

[cjosephs]

Looks like I am running the same rig specs you are Nick - I even have a 2gb graphics card.

I am starting to wonder if all this lag doesn't have something to do with the constant auto updating. adobe and windows combined auto updates are driving me crazy. Between windows doing it's own background monitoring, updating, and all my software checking to see if I'm legal then to have adobe acrobat checking the servers every 10 minutes ... Ok, I could be exaggerating about acrobat but it doesn't feel like it.

In the end I really think end users need the ability to control when our machines process updates and system monitoring.

Just my 2 cents, anyone able to correct me or add?

[Archetects]

Hi
I will try disable those services and let you know if work better,i also suspect they have some influence on performance.

[Archetects]

Have try disabling update services and others but not helped.

It is more related with memory page file,scratch disk the more documents open/close to edit the more slow it becomes also this slowness extends on windows opening and closing folders or programs this until AI is closed completely.

[cjosephs]

I have to agree iTesla,

After a while on a new task I was running into all the same lag.  I tried the default printer suggested by chaconaut too but I think your right. I am currently working on an icon set and I am opening several small svgs and closing them after I grab and paste what I need into my working file. I'm noticing after 6 hours or so I just reboot my machine and I'm fine for awhile longer.

Process of elimination?

Complete machine scenario: i7, 32gb ram, 250gb OS drive partitioned for a 45gb scratch disk, 2gb graphics, and all work files on a 1tb secondary drive connected to fiber internet.

Conditions: Adobe Illustrator 2015.3.1, Chrome window 1 open with 12 tabs (static content), Chrome window 2 has 1 tab open (also static), Firefox is streaming pandora, outlook open, hipchat desk client open, calc open, 2 folders open and FontForge.

Before someone gives me grief about all that running, I can run all of that plus photoshop and add a few preview windows and MS Word- Photoshop doesn't even blink or bog down or lag. Of course all my PS files are much larger to boot.

[chaconaut]

What seems to have fixed it for me was changing the default printer on Windows 10 to the Microsoft PDF Printer. I'm running windows 10 with 64GB of RAM. I tried all of the other solutions in this thread to no avail, but changing the default printer fixed it right up for me.

[davidicus]

Windows 10, 32GB RAM, 12 processors @ 3.3GHz and SSD.
shocked that Illustrator continues to slow down, enough that I have trouble selecting tools sometimes. all i'm building are wireframes, so it's pretty ridiculous. i'm going to try disabling GPU performance, since no other options make sense either. so sick of restarting numerous times a day just to keep performance acceptable.

[qupix]

Does anyone know if it makes a difference with an AMD card? I'm really considering one as I read in several forums that this can solve the problem. I've a GTX 1080 but AI is still so sluggish after a while...I'm getting real pissed about it.

Thanks.

[qupix]

I think I've found the cause why the system is becoming slow....well, in my setup. I think It's because o the Wacom tablet(intuos pro). When I unplug the tablet I don't have unworkable slowdown. It slows down a bit, but I still can work on a decent speed.

[davidicus]

interesting. wish that was my problem. no extra peripherals at all. Illustrator crashes lately too--i think it gets confused which tool is selected. auto backup hasn't worked. very frustrating. Illustrator feels more amateur than i remember it ever feeling.

[qupix]

MMM...I'm not sure...did some severe testing, but I guess it's not a Wacom issue after all. However the 'fullscreen' option does increase performande and reduces the lagginess. I'm getting insane!

[Tintart]

It is shame, that adobe "support" is limited to "make new user account" and "please upgrade to latest version".

In my case Illustrator causes serious performance impact on everything. Every other program gets sluggish. Temporary helped installing older version of product, but after a day or two - problem gets back again. So I've found different solution, which also have it's flaws - installing alternative software Affinity Designer. So far no impact on performance.

I wil try the trick with colour space and printer though...

[Archetects]

Try this solution it works good i found recently and i see someone suggested before but i did not pay attention.
So after you start AI before open any document turn off in settings GPU Performance and begin your work.

This problem is related with GPU of the video card i hope they will find a solution to improve it in future releases.

[Tintart]

Thanks. It seems to work for only few minutes. Have no idea what causes it. I was even chcnaging the graphics cards between nvidia 960 and 770 - same results.

However setting the default printer to pdf creator boosts the performance. So far best method.

[J_J_CLS_NA_Training]

Several Changes Made The Difference!
Read: Improve Illustrator performance on Windows

The article is thorough and covers EVERYTHING!

1. Changed Virtual memory Settings:
2. Optimized Windows
3. Increased Available memory
4. Hide Layers and remove Thumbnails!
5. Hide Navigator Panel
6. Hide Links Panel ( That really fixed mine )
7. Restart the computer - ID'd excess startup apps - and disabled

Good luck and happy illustrating!

[b3achouse]

I had the same problem when I moved to a MAC PRO. The AMD cards don't give any GPU help. Turn off hardware acceleration. The good thing is the xeon CPU is fast enough to move reasonably heavy files around.

[ferdi_]

I use Illustrator since 2001, so I can tell you all, never before was so shame to use this program and still is very slow to respond all request as designers we need in 2017.

[casper11]

I believe it has to do with how large the Illustrator file you're working on is, which is affected predominantly by the images you import into it. When I begin a new Ai file, the program works quite seamlessly. When you're working in strictly a vector file, it too runs pretty smoothly. However, when completing bigger projects and importing image files (whether Adobe PDF, JPG, PNG, etc), Illustrator starts to run extremely slow. I am having this problem while working on my portfolio, which includes various file types, including large image files.

I don't have a solution at the moment, but I wonder if there's a way to shrink image file sizes that you import into your Illustrator file? Almost like using a 'zipped' version in your document as you work? If anyone knows if this is possible or has additional help, do tell!

I too find it very nerve wracking to work when EVERY task/move in the program includes a 5-10+ second spinning pinwheel.

Question -- Has anyone actually had these issues while working in a new/small/vector-only file? I haven't. The lag only comes when I'm working on extensive files.

Also, specs:

MacBook Pro w/ Retina (13 inch) - bought NEW Jan 2015

OS X El Capitan - Version 10.11.5

Processor: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Startup Disk: Macintosh HD

Graphics: Intel Iris 1536 MB

Hope my input helps anyone pinpoint the problem!

[ferdi_]

No need to shrink the images. Best way is saving all of them as EPS format and place it without embedding the image. You will see pictures pixelated, but earn a lot of speed in you work. (My english is basic, hope you understand what I meaning). Good lukc!

[casper11]

Some tips that have helped my lagging Illustrator issue (I previously posted a couple days ago):

- I was using many Adobe PDFs in my Illustrator file, which are much larger in size -- Instead: using JPG, PNG or copy/pasted Vectors are much smaller (I am working on a portfolio which includes mockups and various types of files)

- Saving, Closing and Reopening your Illustrator file seems to 'refresh' it a bit, making it run smoother

Hope this helps!

[stakisc76956130]

After trying everything on this list, and some disabling of navigator and playing with preferences, NOTHING WORKED...

But i did solve it! but uninstalling and installing previous verion cc 2015   oh well..

[Archetects]

After upgraded my PC with better resources there is improvement, now remain to purchase a good graphic card and i think our most big problem is that we use integrated or gaming graphic card instead of the one special made for this type of applications like Nvidia Tesla or Quadro.
Did someone have this types of graphic card to test with AI?

[JNBX]

I got a Nvidia 1000M and i7-6829 and 16gb RAM and it's barely useable. I've tried all tricks here and still same laggy hell.

Previous rig I had got 2x1080 Nvidia and a monster cpu and there it was the same problem so I don't think the solution is to throw expensive hardware at it.

[Archetects]

Well the truth can be like this, slow app + slow work = long term subscribers.

[JKC386]

I had the same issue and realized it occurred after I had set up a keyword command for dictation.

It resulted in an extreme lag, unresponsive commands, and strokes created while hovering with pen or mouse.

I changed those settings in my Mac (by unchecking "enable dictation keyword phrase") and the AI issue was resolved.