Severe brush lag Affinity Photo 2 on Windows Surface Pro 11 (ARM64)

[_Roman_]

I tried the ARM64 version of Affinity Photo 2 on a Surface Pro 11 and I'm experiencing severe lag with the brushes while painting (oils etc.) with the Surface Pen. I tried the Affinity benchmark tool and the Snapdragon X processor exceeds ("on paper") all the benchmarks of my Desktop computer (running X86 Affinity Photo 2) - which experiences zero lag...

I already tried switching of OpenCl support on and off in the performance menue of Affinity, but it doesn't make a difference. Interestingly the CPU in Windows task manager of the Surface is only at 13%, same with the GPU (max30%) and the SSD is bored as well (around 1%). The RAM is only half-used. It appears the processor and the GPU seems to be bored. Any ideas???

[Komatös]

Hello @_Roman_ and welcome to the forums.

In Affinity Photo go to Edit -> Settings -> Tools. Find Tablet Input Method and select Windows Ink

[_Roman_]

Thank you @Komatös!

Changed the setting and did a restart of Affinity. Unfortunately same lag as before, the brush severly trailing behind the pen tip

14 minutes ago, Komatös said:

Hello @_Roman_ and welcome to the forums.

In Affinity Photo go to Edit -> Settings -> Tools. Find Tablet Input Method and select Windows Ink

 

[_Roman_]

Just did another comparison, and it seems that Affinity is using only a minority of cores of the Snapdragon Processor (seems only 2 of the 12, the rest stays idle) which seems to cause the lag...

If I change to Cinebench and do a benchmark all 12 cores fire away with 100%!

So it appears to be programming bug 😞

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @_Roman_,

On 1/18/2025 at 6:09 PM, _Roman_ said:

Just did another comparison, and it seems that Affinity is using only a minority of cores of the Snapdragon Processor (seems only 2 of the 12, the rest stays idle) which seems to cause the lag...

If I change to Cinebench and do a benchmark all 12 cores fire away with 100%!

So it appears to be programming bug 😞

Not really a comparison to draw conclusions from, Cinebench is a benchmarking tool used to evaluate and compare the performance of your CPU, and as such will maximise your CPU usage while running the benchmark. The apps will utilise your hardware components when required depending on what tasks are performed in-app.

To confirm, If you use a mouse or trackpad input for the paint brush tool is the performance as expected? Could you provide a screen recording comparing the two?

Thanks

 

[_Roman_]

Thanks for your reply NathanC!

I agree, a benchmark tools acts different, than "real" software. Nevertheless it gave some hints, how the cores reacted differently (in comparison).

>to confirm, If you use a mouse or trackpad input for the paint brush tool is the performance as expected?

I tried that, but using a mouse was as slow as when I used the Surface pen. On my older Intel-i7 (using the x64-Affinity) both input methods work like a charm 🙂

>Could you provide a screen recording comparing the two?

I would happily provide you with screen recordings, but I already sent the Surface back, because of multiple incompatibilities (with printer drivers and such).

Nevertheless I really appreciate that you are trying to find a solution! And I'm looking forward to use the Affinity suite on an ARM64 device in the future.

[Jared M]

Information

Computer: Microsoft Surface Pro 11 5G (ARM64)

Input Device: Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2

App: Affinity Designer v2.6.0 (ARM64)

Tablet Input Method Setting: Windows Ink

 

Description

As noted by Roman, there is lag when using the pixel brush to draw. The lag is present when drawing with the Surface pen or trackpad. It seems to happen at the beginning of each new stroke. When drawing one long, continuous stroke, the stroke seems to catch up to the pen tip (see attached screen recording). Hope this helps the team with troubleshooting. Let me know if you need any additional info, @NathanC.

[Marka6617]

Hi and thanks for bringing this up! I also experience severe lag on my pc (which I use with windows ink also turned on), particularly when I'm using a small brush size