Designer v2.1 Slowdown after program has been open

[thegary]

Designer was open for hours yesterday, it just got slow, slower and then time to close and open.

This has persisted since v2 was released. Please FIX!

was taken 3 secs to select new object. Close and reopen software and problem is gone for a short while.

 

Gary

 

[NathanC]

Hi @thegary,

There were some general improvements to performance made in 2.1, but I don't think this is an issue we've been able to re-produce likely due to the number of Windows system and Hardware variables involved. I've included some follow up points below so that we can better understand your setup as it's likely to be an issue specific to your environment:

- Can you provide a screenshot of your System Information Summary so we can see your specs and OS version?

- Can you provide a screenshot of your in app performance preferences? Have you got the same settings as your performance preferences in V1?

- At the point at which you begin experiencing the lag within the app after having it open a few hours, could you send us a screenshot of your task manager 'Details' an 'Performance' tabs so we can see the app hardware usages?

- You mentioned that it has persisted since V2, have you tried comparing this with V1 on your setup by leaving it open for a few hours? It would also be great to see a comparison recording between V1 and V2's performance after a few hours.

- Does it matter what type of document you have open, for example if you were to just leave a blank new document open for a few hours and then come back to it does it then start lagging?

----

I've also included a number of suggestions below to try to see if this helps improve things:

- Try turning on Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) if your GPU supports it, restart the app and then see if the issue persists. Also make sure that you have the latest Graphics card drivers available for your GPU installed, if possible do a clean install of the drivers when updating.

- This may sound counterproductive, but try reducing your RAM usage limit in the app performance preferences to half of your installed memory and then restart and monitor, we have had reports of this helping some users under certain circumstances.

- If you're using the standard sandboxed MSIX apps, try uninstalling them and switching over to the .MSI/EXE apps as we've had reports of improved performance when using the MSI apps.

 

Many thanks

[thegary]

2 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @thegary,

There were some general improvements to performance made in 2.1, but I don't think this is an issue we've been able to re-produce likely due to the number of Windows system and Hardware variables involved. I've included some follow up points below so that we can better understand your setup as it's likely to be an issue specific to your environment:

- Can you provide a screenshot of your System Information Summary so we can see your specs and OS version?

- Can you provide a screenshot of your in app performance preferences? Have you got the same settings as your performance preferences in V1?

- At the point at which you begin experiencing the lag within the app after having it open a few hours, could you send us a screenshot of your task manager 'Details' an 'Performance' tabs so we can see the app hardware usages?

- You mentioned that it has persisted since V2, have you tried comparing this with V1 on your setup by leaving it open for a few hours? It would also be great to see a comparison recording between V1 and V2's performance after a few hours.

- Does it matter what type of document you have open, for example if you were to just leave a blank new document open for a few hours and then come back to it does it then start lagging?

----

I've also included a number of suggestions below to try to see if this helps improve things:

- Try turning on Hardware Acceleration (OpenCL) if your GPU supports it, restart the app and then see if the issue persists. Also make sure that you have the latest Graphics card drivers available for your GPU installed, if possible do a clean install of the drivers when updating.

- This may sound counterproductive, but try reducing your RAM usage limit in the app performance preferences to half of your installed memory and then restart and monitor, we have had reports of this helping some users under certain circumstances.

- If you're using the standard sandboxed MSIX apps, try uninstalling them and switching over to the .MSI/EXE apps as we've had reports of improved performance when using the MSI apps.

 

Many thanks

@NathanC Hello Nathan,

there are a number of posts with videos of others reproducing the exact same problem.

Director from my movie was proofing graphics yesterday beside me, and the slowdown happened. Even he commented on it.

asked why i don't use adobe. 

I have tried all the above fixes. They other people in the forum have. The longer the software is open the slower it gets.

Tried it on a brand new machine with nothing else on it. Same thing .

There is a issue with V2 please fix it. Never happened with v1.

Also use the MSI EXE installer ..thats all i can use for work.

Gary

 

[Chris B]

Hi Gary,

You keep asking us to fix the issue but we cannot reproduce the issue. You have not provided some of the information we have asked for. A zoomed-in video of you shaking a shape around is, unfortunately, of very little help when we cannot replicate it. We don't know you document dimensions either.

Perhaps share a project with us that you can upload to a private Dropbox folder. Only development would be able to see it. I appreciate some work may be under a Non-Disclosure Agreement but if you could replicate a similar project and share it that also shows the problem that would be great too.

If there's some sort of memory leak (which could indicate why the app gets slower after a few hours) we need as much information as possible so we can closely replicate the environment you are working in.

A DXDIAG would be a start. If you are unsure how to provide this, you can press the Windows key + R and type dxdiag and hit Enter. This will show us a screen of your System but then there are additional tabs for Display we would be interested in.

Nathan suggested adjusting your RAM limit - we cannot work out why you have it set to approx 42000MB or 42GB - Do you have 64GB RAM or more? The RAM usage limit is half of the installed RAM, if you've increased this to 42 from say 32, you may be causing an adverse effect - reduce it to 10GB or 16GB at most. Not many files would use more than this. 

Are you running any other software at the same time that draws a lot of resources such as video editing software? You've said in the past that other apps are not affected but if they are hogging resources and Affinity is fighting for it, we need to know.

You've explicitly said V1 is not affected - that is a possibility but it could be that you also haven't been using the same settings as V1 (RAM usage limit for one) - a screenshot of V1's Preferences and V2's Preferences would also be handy.

I appreciate you are busy and Affinity is seemingly delaying you but I would certainly appreciate a few minutes to provide what we've asked for. 

There is no way for a developer to fix an issue we cannot replicate or something we don't have a crash report for.

So far, I cannot even log a report to the developers because I have nothing to give them. We've asked if there are any known memory leaks or other issues that you could be seeing. I am certainly not trying to deny an issue is present, I just cannot replicate it.

Unfortunately, until we get some of this additional information, you will likely be met with the same questions from other support staff on any future posts you make about this.

2 hours ago, thegary said:

Tried it on a brand new machine with nothing else on it. Same thing .

Tried what? Can you provide steps? 

[thegary]

9 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Hi Gary,

You keep asking us to fix the issue but we cannot reproduce the issue. You have not provided some of the information we have asked for. A zoomed-in video of you shaking a shape around is, unfortunately, of very little help when we cannot replicate it. We don't know you document dimensions either.

Perhaps share a project with us that you can upload to a private Dropbox folder. Only development would be able to see it. I appreciate some work may be under a Non-Disclosure Agreement but if you could replicate a similar project and share it that also shows the problem that would be great too.

If there's some sort of memory leak (which could indicate why the app gets slower after a few hours) we need as much information as possible so we can closely replicate the environment you are working in.

A DXDIAG would be a start. If you are unsure how to provide this, you can press the Windows key + R and type dxdiag and hit Enter. This will show us a screen of your System but then there are additional tabs for Display we would be interested in.

Nathan suggested adjusting your RAM limit - we cannot work out why you have it set to approx 42000MB or 42GB - Do you have 64GB RAM or more? The RAM usage limit is half of the installed RAM, if you've increased this to 42 from say 32, you may be causing an adverse effect - reduce it to 10GB or 16GB at most. Not many files would use more than this. 

Are you running any other software at the same time that draws a lot of resources such as video editing software? You've said in the past that other apps are not affected but if they are hogging resources and Affinity is fighting for it, we need to know.

You've explicitly said V1 is not affected - that is a possibility but it could be that you also haven't been using the same settings as V1 (RAM usage limit for one) - a screenshot of V1's Preferences and V2's Preferences would also be handy.

I appreciate you are busy and Affinity is seemingly delaying you but I would certainly appreciate a few minutes to provide what we've asked for. 

There is no way for a developer to fix an issue we cannot replicate or something we don't have a crash report for.

So far, I cannot even log a report to the developers because I have nothing to give them. We've asked if there are any known memory leaks or other issues that you could be seeing. I am certainly not trying to deny an issue is present, I just cannot replicate it.

Unfortunately, until we get some of this additional information, you will likely be met with the same questions from other support staff on any future posts you make about this.

Tried what? Can you provide steps? 

@Chris B I haven't touch any of the setting for RAM. These are installed numbers. I will lower it. 

Screen shot attached. I have lowered the ram usage number and trying today. But to be clear that higher number is what it set at install..

Gary

 

 

[Chris B]

37 minutes ago, thegary said:

Screen shot attached. I have lowered the ram usage number and trying today. But to be clear that higher number is what it set at install..

 

Thanks for clarifying. It should be half of what is available so it's calculated something wrong there. Mine is set at about 16000 because I've got 32GB installed so that should also be fine for yourself.

We are going to run our automation suite over night and see if we get any leaks without the app closing. It should run for about a few hours with Designer open.

[thegary]

39 minutes ago, Chris B said:

Thanks for clarifying. It should be half of what is available so it's calculated something wrong there. Mine is set at about 16000 because I've got 32GB installed so that should also be fine for yourself.

We are going to run our automation suite over night and see if we get any leaks without the app closing. It should run for about a few hours with Designer open.

@chris B

if you can give me something to try. I have the software running all day...50 - 60 signs being made a day.

I can try something and basically torture it all day long.

Gary

 

[cgidesign]

@thegary

The below is just a guess but maybe you like to try to disable the "page file".

Windows is moving data from the ram into the page file (a system file on your disk), to free ram. It was introduced at a time when ram was limited. The issue with the page file is, that it is slow compared to ram. So, when it happens that Windows moved Designer data there but then Desinger needs the data again, it has to get it from the slow page file instead of the fast ram.

As you have 64 GB in your system it is unlikely that you will encounter ram limits - but even if there is a lot of ram, Windows still moves data to the page file.

I made a quick google search and came up with this information:

https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-pagefile-sys-guide/

It includes a description how to disable page file in Windows.

Again, all this is just a guess.

[Chris B]

That's a decent idea. However, it does not explain why Gary did not have the issue in V1. If there is an issue, I would really like to get to the bottom of it. Hopefully the automation run will show us something.

[Chris B]

16 hours ago, thegary said:

if you can give me something to try. I have the software running all day...50 - 60 signs being made a day.

 

Are you able to attach one of the files so we can get an idea about what you're doing? If it's private, could you knock something up similar?

We can include the file in our automation runs (even duplicate it) which may help. Finally, when the app is lagging, a screenshot of Task Manager's stats (as Nathan asked for) would be brilliant! 

You should also be using OpenCL as in Designer, it helps with tool performance.

[thegary]

6 hours ago, cgidesign said:

@thegary

The below is just a guess but maybe you like to try to disable the "page file".

Windows is moving data from the ram into the page file (a system file on your disk), to free ram. It was introduced at a time when ram was limited. The issue with the page file is, that it is slow compared to ram. So, when it happens that Windows moved Designer data there but then Desinger needs the data again, it has to get it from the slow page file instead of the fast ram.

As you have 64 GB in your system it is unlikely that you will encounter ram limits - but even if there is a lot of ram, Windows still moves data to the page file.

I made a quick google search and came up with this information:

https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-pagefile-sys-guide/

It includes a description how to disable page file in Windows.

Again, all this is just a guess.

@cgidesign will try system changes when i am not on contract.

Gary

 

[thegary]

4 hours ago, Chris B said:

Are you able to attach one of the files so we can get an idea about what you're doing? If it's private, could you knock something up similar?

We can include the file in our automation runs (even duplicate it) which may help. Finally, when the app is lagging, a screenshot of Task Manager's stats (as Nathan asked for) would be brilliant! 

You should also be using OpenCL as in Designer, it helps with tool performance.

@Chris B i have a NDA on any film. Can't share files.

Its pretty much any file that does it . Happens faster if there more elements.

I have uploaded in the past and made videos. Don't have time till fall to do more.

Tried going through this all in spring when i had time. But not replies to this issue.

Gary.

[thegary]

On 6/16/2023 at 3:54 AM, Chris B said:

Are you able to attach one of the files so we can get an idea about what you're doing? If it's private, could you knock something up similar?

We can include the file in our automation runs (even duplicate it) which may help. Finally, when the app is lagging, a screenshot of Task Manager's stats (as Nathan asked for) would be brilliant! 

You should also be using OpenCL as in Designer, it helps with tool performance.

@Chris B

So update...Seems to be fixed....

I reset the memory to half. still no luck. So i kept lowering and trying. At about 22 GB of ram it seems to have fixed it. 

No slow down any more. Not sure if its a bug. But I have 64GB of ram and in performance set to 22GB usuage..

 

Gary

 

[Chris B]

Hi Gary,

You might be on to something here. In V1, the app defaulted to using approximately half of the installed RAM on the machine.

In V2, there's actually a bug wherein the RAM usage slider isn't set to half, it seems to be more and we've just found resetting the app doesn't reset the usage slider... Perhaps this is why V1 was OK and V2 was not. 

I cannot imagine the app using more than 22GB unless you're keeping it open all day with multiple files so I think that value is fine going forwards.

We've fed this back to the developers. Hopefully you continue to see positive results going forward.

[thegary]

6 hours ago, Chris B said:

Hi Gary,

You might be on to something here. In V1, the app defaulted to using approximately half of the installed RAM on the machine.

In V2, there's actually a bug wherein the RAM usage slider isn't set to half, it seems to be more and we've just found resetting the app doesn't reset the usage slider... Perhaps this is why V1 was OK and V2 was not. 

I cannot imagine the app using more than 22GB unless you're keeping it open all day with multiple files so I think that value is fine going forwards.

We've fed this back to the developers. Hopefully you continue to see positive results going forward.

@Chris B

Thanks for the reply. Thing is i have programs open all day and multiple file..Nature of my business.

The ram setting seems to be working.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Gary