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.
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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Jean-Michel Le Goff commented
And what about GPU
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[Deleted User] commented
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.
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Steve commented
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.
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Jeron Kuxhausen commented
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!
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Yaroslav commented
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!
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Filip commented
slow software + slow work = longer period subscribers :D
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Dane Muldoon commented
This seems like a an obvious and overdue architectural improvement with CPU performance mostly skewed towards adding additional cores these days.
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Anonymous commented
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
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Mark Nicoll commented
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.
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Andrew Wadsworth commented
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.
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Robin commented
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..
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Anonymous commented
YES! PLEASE! It's way overdue for multi-core/multi-thread support.
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Anonymous commented
oldie please catch up with your younger competitors cours plus vite
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Anonymous commented
Agreed, when will we see multi-threading on Adobe apps.
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Eric Bryant commented
I agree with this as well. I use Illustrator heavily throughout my workday, and I want it to be able to leverage the hardware on my computer better.
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Steve Whitla commented
We also work with extremely complex compositions and it is so infuriating that there's no way to spec a machine to handle them. We have these exteremely powerful machines with extremely powerful CPUs, GPUs and huge amounts of RAM but AI is using a fraction of the power available. I appreciate this probably means re-writing half the program but surely a single-threaded codebase isn't sustainable in the long term as more and more features are added and user requirements become more and more demanding.
In terms of performance gains I would say GPU acceleration has helped our studio out somewhere in the region of 0%. Perhaps less as in a number of cases it has made the program slower and/or more unstable. These are new machines with modern nvidia graphics cards.
Our workflows revolve around AI, so this is probably the number one reason we don't fully embrace the Adobe ecosystem - we're hoping that at some point a competitor program will come along that matches the functionality but doesn't have these performance issues. It would make a world of difference! Even just to know that it was on the radar.
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Jason commented
Agreed, this is an absolute must and fundamental considering the specs of even ordinary machines these days. For me, working on complex maps, this is the single biggest problem with Illustrator. In fact it has the worst performance of any app I use, yet the one I need to use most!! And please, don't lump the performance gains on the GPU, as for the most part this really isn't helping much.