Major issues with Affinity V2 Freezing, Crashing, Slow Performance

[Printchic]

•  

I'm posting in a separate thread per direction from moderator.

ISSUES:

I have been trying to be patient as I know programming isn't an easy task but I am really starting to have the same feeling as the OP (finding something different to use).  It has been a nightmare using 2.0 version of affinity.  What use to take me a few minutes in version 1.0 is now taking me hours.  The program freezes, is very slow and when you try to add an asset it takes forever to add just 1 thing.  To create a new sub category takes a long time before the subcategory appears.  Then if you try to rename it its take even more minutes.  That is just dealing with svg type graphics I create in designer and store as assets in both designer and publisher to use later.  Try to swap to a different asset categories and you will wait 3+ minutes or it freezes.  Happens in Publisher and Designer.  I have lost count of how many times I have had to go to task manager and END the program.

I recently created my first document in Publishers.  It was a 252 page document and I used the master page feature for the firsst time.  It was supposed to be simple.  It was, it crashed, froze and has been nothing but a headache. 

I could go back to 1.0 but have created a lot in version 2.0 so reverting would mean recreating everything again.  Talk about more hours to redo things.  I have tried all the suggestions of check/unchecking open gl option in settings.  Didn't help.

I was so hoping by now the kinks would have been figured out.  I am using the following equipment in case it could be helpful to developers;

- ASUS ROG Gaming Laptop
- Intel Core i7-8750H
-  GeForce GTX 1050 Ti-1080p NVDIA Compatible
- CPU: 2.20GHZ 2208 Mhz
- 6 Core(s)
-Memory 32 GB
- 1 TB Hard Drive
- Windows 11 10.02261 Build 22621

This is a screen shot of the performance tabs of my affinity publisher V2 & V1:

NOTE:  Late this morning 01/17/2023: I started recreating files I created in V2 back into V1 of affinity.  V1 of affinity was fast, didn't lag or crash.  I was able to add assets in without issue, delete them, ,etc.  There was no lag.   Just sharing that the issue definitely with V2 of affinity.

[myclay]

For a start I would try out to Enable OpenCL compute acceleration and then switch the Renderer; Default (Intel UHD Graphics 630) to your discrete GPU(the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti).
If that doesn´t help, I would try out to again disable OpenCL compute acceleration and then switch to the WARP engine.
WARP uses the Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform for presenting the document and can be helpful if you are experiencing performance issues.

[debraspicher]

Do you have Photo?

Can you run the Photo benchmark and paste here? About Menu > Benchmark with no documents open. Can use Alt + Prntscreen just to crop the result window and paste into forum here. Will save you time. Just so others can have an idea of where your machine stands against theirs if/when they present issues. Maybe one of us needs to start collecting machine configurations from people with issues...?

I will say that your CPU speed is on the lower end, though with V1 it wouldn't have severe issues like what you are stating... I don't think. Another thing to try, install something like HWInfo and see what is actually happening with your hardware while running... is CPU pegged at 100% the entire time? Can you do other things? Also what is your RAM/VRAM (GPU) usage when this is occurring.

[RichardMH]

Might be worth using Task Manager and/or Resource Monitor to see if anything odd is happening with memory. What you describe sounds like memory issues but you shouldn't get that with 32 Gb. 

[davepmiddleton]

Had similar issues with performance: every object selection, change etc took about 2-3 sec. with an occasional application hang.  Working with Publisher was a real pain. 

I may have a similar mixed graphics card setup i.e. a Intel HD 630 and NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti.

For me this setting works without problems: the renderer is the NVIDIA card, but I had to disable OpenCL.

[Printchic]

On 1/17/2023 at 1:22 PM, debraspicher said:

Do you have Photo?

Can you run the Photo benchmark and paste here? About Menu > Benchmark with no documents open. Can use Alt + Prntscreen just to crop the result window and paste into forum here. Will save you time. Just so others can have an idea of where your machine stands against theirs if/when they present issues. Maybe one of us needs to start collecting machine configurations from people with issues...?

I will say that your CPU speed is on the lower end, though with V1 it wouldn't have severe issues like what you are stating... I don't think. Another thing to try, install something like HWInfo and see what is actually happening with your hardware while running... is CPU pegged at 100% the entire time? Can you do other things? Also what is your RAM/VRAM (GPU) usage when this is occurring.

I have attempted to do a Benchmark (unsuccessfully).  Affinity photo kept crashing at a certain point in the test.  I eventually decided to write down the tests results that I saw before it crashes.   I also did a Benchmark Test in V1 also in case it will be helpful.  

NOTE: I was getting a blue screen crash message a lot before version 2.03 in all 3 programs.  However, after updating Aff. pub and Designer didn't give a blue screen it just was slow and I had the issues I posted in original post.  As for Aff. Photo I just updated it a week or 2 ago an it now gives off blue screen crash messages a lot.  I actually did better when I was using 2.0.

All said, below are the test results I was able to capture. 

NOTE:  This is with the Enable OpenCL compute acceleration CHECKED:

 

 

[Printchic]

55 minutes ago, davepmiddleton said:

Had similar issues with performance: every object selection, change etc took about 2-3 sec. with an occasional application hang.  Working with Publisher was a real pain. 

I may have a similar mixed graphics card setup i.e. a Intel HD 630 and NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti.

For me this setting works without problems: the renderer is the NVIDIA card, but I had to disable OpenCL.

Thanks for response.  I will be trying different combinations to get a good Benchmark Test (as someone else suggested) and then see if that setting works.  I seem to remember that my pc was setup like you showed and it worked for a while then slowed.  I will go back and do some testing.

[RichardMH]

Other things to try.

In Windows, Settings->System->Display->Graphics, make sure Photo.exe etc is set to high performance.

In Windows Settings->Apps->Installed Apps->Affinity Photo 2 (etc)  Advanced Options, scroll down to Reset and try Repair. Then if that doesn't work, maybe Reset (after saving assets etc)

 

[debraspicher]

2 hours ago, Printchic said:

I have attempted to do a Benchmark (unsuccessfully).  Affinity photo kept crashing at a certain point in the test.  I eventually decided to write down the tests results that I saw before it crashes.   I also did a Benchmark Test in V1 also in case it will be helpful.  

NOTE: I was getting a blue screen crash message a lot before version 2.03 in all 3 programs.  However, after updating Aff. pub and Designer didn't give a blue screen it just was slow and I had the issues I posted in original post.  As for Aff. Photo I just updated it a week or 2 ago an it now gives off blue screen crash messages a lot.  I actually did better when I was using 2.0.

All said, below are the test results I was able to capture. 

NOTE:  This is with the Enable OpenCL compute acceleration CHECKED:

 

 

That's... telling! Do you know which portion of the bench it fails? If you suspect it is GPU-related, something to do would be to run something like DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), it will scrub the system of all display drivers and allow you to reinstall fresh. Even Intel has an article linking to it. For some people that can make a big difference, but in the very least it could rule out a driver problem at least as far as the GPU is concerned.

I see you attached a jpg, but I can't see it when clicking. It just shows broken link. Anyway, what you described sounds like a more serious problem and is not acceptable, imv.

[Printchic]

44 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

That's... telling! Do you know which portion of the bench it fails? If you suspect it is GPU-related, something to do would be to run something like DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), it will scrub the system of all display drivers and allow you to reinstall fresh. Even Intel has an article linking to it. For some people that can make a big difference, but in the very least it could rule out a driver problem at least as far as the GPU is concerned.

I see you attached a jpg, but I can't see it when clicking. It just shows broken link. Anyway, what you described sounds like a more serious problem and is not acceptable, imv.

Sorry don't know what I did to loose the image of the benchmark.  It is failing in the GPU parts on V2 but on V1 it just puts N/A.  The setting in performance had the OPENCL option checked/(Enabled)  ( see first photo)

After posting I went back and unchecked/(disabled) the OpenCL optiont and the benchmark worked.  (see 2nd photo)

I will look into your other suggestions about software to monitor what is going on and maybe the DDU uninstaller next.
Thanks you all for your responses and help.

[debraspicher]

Since it is causing a BSOD (blue screen), you would need to diagnose that first, separate from Affinity.

You can check through Event Viewer (right click on start button) and may even see other errors pop up to this effect.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/find-and-view-bsod-log-files-in-windows-10-event-viewer

Here I linked an article with a program that can be downloaded to analyze the dump file. It will tell you which file on your system generated the crash. (Edit: If you see it in Event Viewer, you can skip this step) You really just need the file causing it and to search to see what may have triggered the crash. Usually, it's a bad driver.

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/fix-windows-bsod
 

Edit: If the BSOD is linked to a graphics drivers, then please follow the DDU+GPU reinstall suggestion from my prior post. You will need to install for both your Intel onboard graphics and the NVIDIA GPU as well once you use DDU to clean old drivers from your system. 

[Printchic]

I wanted to return to update on this situation.  I decided to get a new pc since it was mentioned that my processor was pretty old.  I reset the old pc to factory settings and download a trial version of affinity on it as I was giving the pc to my brother that would have less requirements.  He used had the trail version 5 days before the trial version locked him.  He didn't get the full 30 days.  So we abandon the idea of affinity being an option for him.  However, we need to use the same software so I can help him if he needs it.  I am currently looking for an alternative for him.  I so much version 1.

Anyway, moving onto my new pc.  It worked great for a few months.  Now it's also very slow.  Today it's taking about 15 minutes + just to save a document.  It hangs/freezes a lot while using designer.  In publisher it seems to have issues with tables.  It will hang if you use tables.

All said I will not be able to work with this level of performance and will be moving to another vector program which  hate to do as there are so many thing I like about affinity.  I'm currently actively searching for a replacement. 

My daughter has a different pc and mentioned she has been having hang up too.  My daughter mention she noticed the slowness started for her in designer when she installed photo.  I have all 3 on my pc.  I don't use photo much but I do use designer and publisher.  My old pc (details in original part of this post) had 32 gb memory this pc has 16 but was running fast for a few months.  Now it has started slowing to a crawl. 

MSI GE76 Raider Gaming Laptdop - 12 Gen Intel
Core i7-12700H - GeForce RTX 3060 - 144HZ 1080P
NVIDIA WiFi 6 (2x2/160) Gig + Bluetooth 5.2
17.3" Thin Bezel IPS FHD (1920x1080) 144Hz Display
Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
16GB Memory
Raider Model #: GE76 12UE-871

I'm also sharing my daughter's specs;

[myclay]

I am tipping on a software conflict.
Both systems manufactures  have problematic software  affecting multiple consumer programs.
the former pc was an Asus now it seems that both systems are from MSI?
For your old PC its either Asus Sonic or Asus GPU Tweak III
In the Msi systems case(the laptop of your daughter and your new PC)  its probably Nahimic.

Quote

 Check if Nahimic is running as an active Windows Service. Kill the service and see if the problem temporarily stops

 

 

[Printchic]

@myclay thank you for the tip.  I checked and sure enough I do have that service.  I have disabled it and will test how things go.

 

[debraspicher]

I have an MSI laptop and can confirm Nahimic software does tend to cause all kinds of weird quirks with other software. I believe they have settings beyond just audio-related integrations now in their software.

[PaulieT]

I recently bought a new PC and Affinity Photo keeps crashing. It might also be the latest update to version 2.1.0 that's causing the problem.

This morning I opened a .jpg file, switched to the Develop Persona, clicked on the White Balance Tool, clicked on the image, and the program disappeared (crashed). I have been experiencing Affinity Photo crashing rather often and with no particular pattern of operations.

Windows 11 Home, Version    22H2     64-bit operating system   OS build:    22621.1848
Installed on:    ‎4/‎30/‎2023

13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700H   2.40 GHz
16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable) Installed RAM
1 TB Samsung Solid State Drive
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with 8 GB video memory
No pen or touch input is used.