I’m not a good one to answer this, but since I outlined the specs for the Mac I’m using, I’ll offer the mea culpa that I always but as much power as I can afford. I can hope that someday Adobe will fix AI, but in the meantime, we do all our video work in Final Cut with a bunch of FxFactory modules, and FCP leverages multi-threading extremely well.

Hi guys, if you were a Surface Pattern Designer using Illustrator, of course, what would be your choice of specs on the iMac Pro if upgrading from a PC. In view of this discussion here. is it worth it to go for the most you can afford to make the work smoother and faster or would i be wasting my good money. Thanks!

@Steve:
Thanks for writing this. I have the exact same issue as you. Converting text to paths in large situations, or creating very complex compound paths would leave Illustrator useless for what feels like eternity.

Just looking at Activity Monitor, Illustrator is pegged at 100% (I have the highest end, non iMac Pro with an i7/ 32GB of RAM and an 8GB graphics card). That 100% only represents one of my four cores.

@DouglasSteel: on the Mac, I use iStats, which clearly shows the compute load across cores. Regardless of a tool's idiosnchracies, when it never uses more than 100% of the computer's processing power, it's not multi-threading and by definition, not operating as efficiently as possible. Waiting an additional 45 seconds every time I render an effect on a vector adds up when you do a hundred a week. I'd buy the argument if multi-threading were a new technology, but it's not, and Adobe, for whatever reason, hasn't kept up with the technology.

Happy to hear of your experience on an 8 year old MBP, but considering a lack of issues at your end doesn't negate the issues others are having. A comparison from one user/platform to another provides no meaningful insight unless the compute tasks are identical and the rest of the configuration somewhat similar. And I have a brand new iMac Pro, with 18 cores and 128GB of RAM along with high end GPU, and to see a beachball when I render simply isn't acceptable.

How are you testing the CPU tasks? Bear in mind the tools have their own idiosyncracies and are not written for every architecture. If you've got a single 2GHZ core operating with a decent GPU and memory, I'd suggest you might look at the supporting frameworks and OS in general. I've never had an issue on an 8 yr old macbook pro.

Please upgrade, Illustrator. If it weren't for MaPublisher, I would have found something else long ago. Multiple seconds to simply move one vertex, ridiculous. Frequent restarts to clear the cache in hopes of better performance, quick-key actions are lost because it can't keep up. You all have to do something. If you want a vid to record how slow is it, let me know. Or maybe I should post it on the web ...?

I'll add my 2¢ here. As I'm waiting for Illustrator to render the task of using the shape builder tool. I have a quad core i7 and it takes forever for Illustrator to crunch the data, using only one core.

God knows we are paying enough each month to pay for this to be done... Without yearly update sales incentives, I fear Adobe will trot along like this for a few years until the heal snapping gets too painful.

And what about GPU

Illustrator needs to be relaunched with a fresh slate, new code, utilising the latest technology and multicore-ready. I'm using Affinity Designer more and more these days which tear Illustrator a new one in regards to speed of operation. Its only a matter of time before its matched feature for feature and Illustrator loses the race. Bored of waiting for simple things to be added... why no triangle in the shapes pallet, why are the shapes not live and active? Bored of seeing pointless new features shoehorned in over fixing and improving whats already here.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of multi-threading. One of the primary reasons most of us invested in higher-power multi-threaded compute platforms is for graphics work. For Adobe to be a decade behind the curve from a development perspective is unconscionable. I have a very nice 18-core machine that slices through video rendering in Final Cut Pro like a warm knife on soft butter, but I can wait 3 minutes for AI to apply the Torn Edges effect on a simple white rectangle. Silly indeed.

Honestly I feel like this should of happened awhile ago when multicore computers started coming out. It's a little frustrating when I'm sitting waiting for files to save and I can see that 90% of my computer's power is sitting idle and that only one core is being utilized. Sooo Much wasted time!

this indicates that since 2000, that is, from the moment of the invention of two-coreity, the code of the Illustrator kernel has not been corresponded... glory to developers forever and ever, amen!

slow software + slow work = longer period subscribers :D

This seems like a an obvious and overdue architectural improvement with CPU performance mostly skewed towards adding additional cores these days.

Oh, Adobe... Please put your resources into this. I know people(myself included) who have spent thousands and thousands on their system and still have to wait on the simplest of tasks. Just because illustrator uses less than 10% of the capacity. While software like e.g. Keyshot uses the cpu power for a 100% all the time, so you can actually build a system to meet your demands or at least, save you time.

We know you can do it, so please do

I'm currently hanging around waiting for Illustrator to finish embedding some linked AI files. I have a handful of other files open, but the whole app is locked up so I can't do anything else. It's using 10% CPU capacity (100% on one core). Crazy much?

In other news, I was one of those suckers who went for an Nvidia Quadro card based on all the marketing hype of 10X performance gains in Illustrator... more like constant instability and negative performance issues (and hours wasted experimenting with drivers)! I occasionally turn on so called "GPU Performance" again to see if anything has improved; not so far.

So yeah, multi threaded CPU functionality would be favourite in this day and age.

My goodness does this need to happen.. Nothing worse than buying an amazing piece of tech and having your software shut it down or have no way of using it.

I'm going to have to agree...
On a 8 core system it will consume on full load 12.5% (one core) and be sluggish.

On our 16-CPU render pc, it will use around 7% CPU (and be under full load) and be sluggish..

YES! PLEASE! It's way overdue for multi-core/multi-thread support.