Make Illustrator multi threaded on CPU
Illustrator performance is awful, its slow and lumbering at all but the most basic operations. It is bound to only a single cpu thread which is ridiculous now in an age of multi core and multi thread CPU's and it has been this way for many years. It cannot handle background tasks and is completely out of parity in function and performance with other Adobe software such as photoshop and inDesign.
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Adobe Illustrator's Multithreading Journey Begins!
Dear Illustrator Community,
I'm thrilled to announce that we've embarked on an exciting journey to bring multithreading capabilities to Adobe Illustrator. This significant undertaking will enhance performance and responsiveness across various aspects of the application.
While this is a complex process that will take some time to fully implement, I wanted to share our progress so far.
Our Approach
We've strategically begun by focusing on the most computationally intensive operations—those that typically take more time and block the main thread, resulting in slower response times while you work. By moving these operations to separate threads, we aim to significantly improve your overall experience with Illustrator.
It's important to note that you may see more noticeable impact in some areas than others initially. However, we want to assure you that this is just the beginning, and we will continue this journey to bring improvements across the entire application.
What We've Accomplished So Far
We've already moved a few areas to multiple threads:
- Periodic document back-up
- Snapping guide generation
- Rasterization (currently for JPEG, PNG, and TIFF formats)
- Thumbnail generation for layers
- Linked/Embedded image (jpg, png, tiff) handling
What to Expect
These improvements will lead to more responsive and faster performance in several key areas:
- Placing multiple images
- Embedding linked images
- Object > Rasterize
- Export to PNG format
- Document opening with heavy linked images
- Simultaneous placement and drag-and-drop of multiple linked/embedded images (JPEG, PNG, and TIFF files)
We're committed to enhancing your Illustrator experience, and this is just the beginning. While the full implementation will take time, we're excited about the improvements already in place and those yet to come.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue this journey. Your patience and support are greatly appreciated as we work to make Illustrator faster and more efficient than ever before.
Try It Now in Beta!
We're excited to announce that these multithreading improvements are available for you to try right now in our Beta builds. You can access these builds through the Creative Cloud Desktop App:
- Open the Creative Cloud Desktop App
- Navigate to the "Beta apps" section
- Look for the Illustrator Beta and download it to experience these performance enhancements firsthand
We encourage you to try out the Beta version and share your feedback with us.
Thank you for being part of our community!
Best regards,
Adobe Illustrator Team
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
@GameArt if creators focus on 3d now they could just use a 3d program. Why should illustrator incorporate 3D functions when it can't do it's basic ones right?
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er1k commented
I just smile and look back at Macromedia Freehand and then I look over to Adobe... What happened???
@GameArt I would love to see a "2D version of blender" just for vector graphics. The blender workflow is great and was thoroughly crafted to get fast results - it's basically the opposite of using Illustrator; where almost every repetitive operation hides behind an endless wall of context menus.
I also don't get the part where you can't calculate vectors in multiple threads?! Every 3D software is stuffed with vector maths. Blend2D supports it since last year - there you go, Adobe. What a lazy excuse.
I would like to use another program but still there is nothing that doesn't make me miss stuff from Ai. Affinity looks like some kids learning app, sorry Affinity. If anyone has spotted something that screams productivity AND is fast - please let us know!
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Game Art commented
Illustrator now has a bigger competitor than affinity, Blender. the different area you will say, yes, different art field but it is where creators focus goes now
Adobe should add more creative tools to their apps instead of thinking about how to make more money
I'm more and more using blender instead of illustrator, because of these performance issues, I can do serious complex art and illustrator works for primitive illustrations only -
DMG commented
I think they will eventually release a native ARM version of illustrator for Apple Mxx processors with multi-core support but the x64 version has as much multi core support as it will ever get.
Not enough to convince me to pay for a full price subscription.
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Ivan Doganov commented
Until there is no "actual" competition, and they are de facto industry standard, they will not give a dime for better performance. Afiinity is good, but their Designer is far from actual replacement for Illustrator in production flow.
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Defectiv commented
I don't buy the 'isn't possible with vectors' argument. That's just a cheap excuse. Enough vector based examples out there that seem to have no issues. It isn't possible *with the current engine* is what he really meant to say probably.
So I totally buy they'll have to do massive work on or a total rewrite of the engine and they don't want to do that.
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
For the price they ask and the money they make I'm sure rewriting illustrator from the ground up is not a big deal and cost next to nothing for them. They just don't care.
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Game Art commented
I think it will never happen.
Adobe worker did long explanation that multitasking isn't possible with vector and as I understood, the problem that they got to rewrite illustrator from scratch, with all its new features too, and they do not want to do it -
Ian commented
I have been waiting over 25 minutes for a rendering - watching hardware utilization of only 5.7% CPU, 0% GPU and 15% memory on a Ryzen 9 5900X 12 core processor with one core engaged and an RX 6800 GPU that is totally unutilized by Adobe. I am trying to put a shaded symbol of a label onto a vectorized can - lots of opportunity to exercise core and especially GPU capabilities.
Adobe has lots of performance tips that are completely irrelevant in this situation - the computer system is not maxed out, it is literally 98% not-used, because of obsolete application code.
In 2021 there is no excuse for this level of obsolete performance from the supposed graphics leader. We have about nine months before our annual paid subscription expires and I will move our company off of Adobe if things have not changed dramatically at renewal time. This is too high a cost in time to justify.
I will take the time waiting for it to render (now up to 40 minutes) to look at Affinity as I have seen many favorable comments about it recently.
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Anonymous commented
Don't forget, you get to pay a monthly premium for this advanced level of service. With the extra money, they can do regular updates and releases providing their customers with superior products. As well as lots of software they don't use and updates that make no difference to them. Oh, and I almost forgot this beauty!... Change the way the software works with the updates so you have to learn it all over again AND make different command functions between each of their various programs (for the same function) so you can easily get confused when flipping between programs. Glad I get to pay a premium for that service!
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
M1 and Ryzen 5XXX are tearing in single core performance. I don't say this is enough or acceptable, just that maybe adobe will rest their case with that.
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Anonymous commented
Hmmm, this really doesn't feel like a superior performance, watching Illustrator struggling along on one core, while my other eight cores are doing nothing.
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
@Oskar I'm afraid the superior per core performance will be another reason for Adobe not to care.
In PC we can only get this level of single core performance only from Ryzen 5600X and abode for now.
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Oskar commented
One thing I wonder is if there will be or is already multi core support with the new M1 (and upcomngin M2?) support that they just released.
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
Ah you guys must be new here :P I don't expect it to be addressed before 2027, maybe even longer.
At least if they don't care about illustrator they can lower the price to something like 5$ per month... -
ihax-it admin commented
Under review since September 12, 2017?! Obviously, this isn't a priority over building horrible ARM applications that mess up other platforms.
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Philipp Jordan commented
This thread is under review since what? 2017? Are you kidding me.
2017 there were already processors which could handle 8 parallel processes, we have 2021 now and the processors can handle 32 parallel processes easily.
But I have to wait over night to render out some assets. Watching my task manger reminds me of German road construction, 1 guy is working and the other 15 are watching peaceully. At least I can watch render a movie on the other processors in the mean time. -
Pedro Meca commented
Updated system to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X + Gigabyte B550 Vision D + 64 Gb 3200mh memory + Samsung SDD 950 Pro + Reinstall windows 10 system and Adobe software and Illustrator is still as slow as ever. My recommendation: Do not update your system if you want to increase the speed. My old system: X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC + AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X - Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 / 3000MHz 32GB
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Eric Bryant commented
Oh my lord. I just downloaded Affinity Designer to try it out. It's fantastic. While it's definitely not as feature rich as Illustrator, it performs SOOOO much better that it's worth not having the shortcuts that those Illustrator features provide. It's clean and modern and FAST. It makes Illustrator look like a really antiquated piece of software. What a shame.
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whstlblwr commented
Whilst it may seem that Adobe is ignoring this topic, in fact, some of the latest versions of Illustrator appear to have some multithreading capabilities for certain tasks. I noticed when I applied a blur to a vector image with 1000s of complex paths by mistake, the app became unresponsive, so I checked Activity monitor and Illustrator was utilising all 4 cores. I tested some other tasks like saving a massive file and 3d filters but they still only used one core..