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How do the items in the Performance pane (Preferences) affect optimization?


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I'm curious as to how each of the items affects the applications' performance. There's no explanation in the help files.

  1. RAM Usage Limit: I notice this can be dragged up to ~64 GB (which is more than 5 times how much RAM my Mac has...); does lessening the amount keep the application running smoothly... or do I need to open it up to the maximum amt of RAM I have so that it doesn't get "bottled up"?
  2. Disk Usage Warning Limit: This one's a bit confusing--does the application warn you if there's less than the set amount when you try to save a document? Again, the max is set at 64GB, even though my hard drive has 40 GB of free space at the moment.
  3. Undo Limit: I presume that the lower I set this, the less RAM the application will need
  4. Dither gradients: faster performance checked, or unchecked?
  5. Use precise clipping: same question
  6. Use hardware OpenGL: same
  7. User only integrated GPU: same
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I can help with some of those! (and the basic answer is - it's best to just leave them all at their defaults unless you have a specific problem!)

 

- Dither gradients = slower by about 7% when turned on, but looks nicer so best left on

- Precise clipping = slower - sometimes by quite a lot, and not something you'll usually be able to see either, so best left off

- Hardware OpenGL = a LOT faster if it's turned on! Otherwise it reverts back to software implementation which will mean that there is less CPU time free to draw the document

- Integrated GPU only = if you have a MacBook Pro then it will (by default) try to pick the discrete card (if you have one) which is fastest but uses more power. I have mine set to only use the integrated GPU because my 2015 MacBook Pro has a bit of a 'wobble' on the screen when it goes in/out of discrete GPU

 

Hope that helps a bit :)

Matt

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Thank you Matt, always helpful  ;)

 

I guess, like Dave pointed it out, there's no point to go over the size of the machine RAM. May be you should modify the scale dynamically so the maximum is the max available RAM.

OS X 10.12 - AP 1.6.6 - AD 1.6

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HELLO MATTP!!     YOU MENTION USING  THE INTEGRATED GPU WITH YOUR MBPRO .... ARE YOU USING IT IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE OPEN GL OR BY ITSELF ... I FIND IT CONFUSING THAT YOU CAN CLICK BOTH ON WHEN THE GPU OTION IS AN ONLY OPTION...HMMMMM  DO I MAKE SENSE? I AM CURRENTLY WITH BOTH ON ON MY MACBOOK PRO AND FRANKLY  I CANNOT SEE A DIFFERENCE SO FAR.... :-) WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND MATT ? LET SAY YOU ARE ON A MACPRO WITH THE BEST VIDEO CARD ON THE MARKET YOU WOULD NOT USE IT ? YOU WOULD GO WITH THE OPEN GL OPTION ???   THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!

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Hi fmlfoto,

 

I have the Radeon R9 M370X discrete card in my MacBook Pro and I do not use it for Affinity - mainly because the amount of OpenGL processing we require to run at 60fps is well within the scope of what the integrated card can offer - especially on OS X El Capitan (which I'm running) because it has much improved OpenGL performance thanks to the fantastic work Apple did with Metal.

 

You need to make sure you have got the 'use hardware OpenGL' button checked, then I just set the 'use integrated only' because I can't see much of a difference to warrant using the extra battery power... and like I said, my machine has a noticeable screen 'wobble' when it goes in or out of the discrete GPU and I can't stand it - it looks very poor :(

 

Thanks,

Matt

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I can help with some of those! (and the basic answer is - it's best to just leave them all at their defaults unless you have a specific problem!)

 

[...]

 

Hope that helps a bit :)

Matt

What are the default values for the RAM usage and Disk Usage Warning? I already changed mine, thinking i knew what I was doing....  :rolleyes:

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