Poor performance on Windows

[Lee D]

14 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

@Lee D can you please test this file on

(a) any M1 Mac

(b) on Windows 10, any Ryzen CPU, any Nvidia GPU. Both Photo and Designer become totally frozen for about 5 Minutes, whereas the Mac reacts more graceful to user input.

The difference between both platforms is so striking - hope this could give some insight where the performance breaks under windows.

For me it seems like single-threaded operation despite 15 of 16 cpu cores idling. On Mac, more cores get utilised (270% M1 vs. 8-12% Win)

@NotMyFaultCan you give me some idea of the workflow to show the performance issues. So far I've come across render/redraw issues but they only last a few seconds, nothing close to 5 minutes.

[Hellodesigners]

18 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

I confirm the same issue. The file Design (2) tested on 3 devices:

1. M1 Mac: takes some seconds to start, the ok when zooming / panning
2. iPad Pro 2018 10.5 inch: Slow, lags severely behind to draw screen, rendering issues
3. Windows 10 PC:
   totally unusable. Designer fully utilizes 1 of 16 cores for several minutes. During that startup time, it is unusable / unresponsive to any input.
   Designer complaints about missing fonts. 
   After waiting that time, Designer is usable (panning / zooming).

 M1 Benchmark:

 

Windows Benchmark (GTX1080, 8+8 core Ryzen, 32 GB Ram):

IPad

Hi,

Thank you for your help.

So you think the issue is related to Windows? And on Mac you have absolutely no issue ?

 

[NotMyFault]

6 hours ago, Lee D said:

@NotMyFaultCan you give me some idea of the workflow to show the performance issues. So far I've come across render/redraw issues but they only last a few seconds, nothing close to 5 minutes.

Hi Lee

just opening the file in Designer leads to several minutes of high CPU utilization. On all platforms (Mac. Win. IPad). 
After about 3 to 5 minutes utilization goes down. During the first minutes Mac shows tolerable degree of performance. Windows shows Designer frozen / no reaction to any user input (maybe zoom change 30 sec after input)

During this time it is impossible to work with Designer on Windows.    Other Apps could be used. Only Designer is kind of unresponsive.

On Mac Designer is slower than usual  but still usable  

 

 

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Hellodesigners said:

Hi,

Thank you for your help.

So you think the issue is related to Windows? And on Mac you have absolutely no issue ?

 

Mac get a performance hit, but stays usable. Win is unusable for about 5 minutes after opening. After waiting it is usable. 

[FRNKSTN]

Hey there, 

New member. I just recently built a PC rig, adding to my Apple M1 lineup. I've used Affinity Designer and Photo for about a year on the M1 and ended up getting frustrated with the M1's performance, or lack there of. I didn't set out to build the PC to run Affinity but I wanted that option.

Spec:

Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core

128GB of DDR4 RAM

2TB M.2 SSD

MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GPU

So far, it runs like garbage. Any load put on the software slows everything down, nothing is smooth. I've adjusted every setting (which, honestly, is pretty lacking) under the performance tab in Designer. No luck. I was really hoping to find a solution. 

[NotMyFault]

i made a similar journey the other way round. Despite better GPU spec the Windows PC is slower for work with Affinity apps.

Some hints to get best from your system:

• Affinity does not support more than 64 GB RAM. As you have 128, set Designer RAM to its max.
• use the latest studio drivers for GPU (not the game ready ones). Carefully check if performance changes after driver updates, some are broken. Then revert to older version.
• Affinity apps run on single CPU cores for many time consuming operations like file read / write. In this situations all your other cores are not utilized. A CPU with the highest single core power suits you better than more cores.
• For other operations like rendering of canvas, all cores could get utilized. Windows becomes then laggy, all user input from mouse keyboard may get queued. Mac handle this much better.
• Designer depends more on CPU as on GPU when doing vector work, or using CMYK.

In general, the M1 architecture has an edge over x86 In principle for use with Affinity apps. 

[Komatös]

Hi.@FRNKSTN

Please navigate in the Affinity programm to Preferences.  Under Performance deactivate Hardware acceleration.

[FRNKSTN]

11 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

i made a similar journey the other way round. Despite better GPU spec the Windows PC is slower for work with Affinity apps.

Some hints to get best from your system:

• Affinity does not support more than 64 GB RAM. As you have 128, set Designer RAM to its max.
• use the latest studio drivers for GPU (not the game ready ones). Carefully check if performance changes after driver updates, some are broken. Then revert to older version.
• Affinity apps run on single CPU cores for many time consuming operations like file read / write. In this situations all your other cores are not utilized. A CPU with the highest single core power suits you better than more cores.
• For other operations like rendering of canvas, all cores could get utilized. Windows becomes then laggy, all user input from mouse keyboard may get queued. Mac handle this much better.
• Designer depends more on CPU as on GPU when doing vector work, or using CMYK.

In general, the M1 architecture has an edge over x86 In principle for use with Affinity apps. 

Thank you for the information! it's greatly appreciated.

[FRNKSTN]

11 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi.@FRNKSTN

Please navigate in the Affinity programm to Preferences.  Under Performance deactivate Hardware acceleration.

I'll give this a try as well. Thank you!