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Very poor performance in Affinity Designer (Win7). Better on slower computer! Why?


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What sort of speed should I expect from Affinity Designer?

 

I am used to running Xara Designer Pro 9, which zips along, rarely lagging.

 

Affinity Designer is nowhere near this smooth.

 

See this video for a demonstration of performing similar actions in each application.

 

  • Notice in AD the zoom takes 4 or 5 seconds to render, where it is instant in Xara.
  • Also while typing the text takes a second or more to render in AD while it keeps up with the cursor in Xara.

 

I understand that the two programs use different methods, but with AD acting this choppily it is almost unusable - even to move a few basic vectors around the screen is painful!

 

I can't work out where the bottle neck lies.

 

I have watched the GPU and CPU graphs both in Windows task manager and using MSI After Burner.

 

I can't get CPU usage of more than 50% nor GPU usage grater than 45% despite the program hanging for seconds at a time as the display struggles to update.

 

My system specs are in my signature. This is by no means a cutting edge machine, but generally handles what I throw at it quite nicely.

 

Judging by the tutorial video I've watched this performance is not normal?!

 

What should I try to remedy the situation?

 

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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Hey Aammppaa,

 

This definitely isn't right. I'm not sure if the video was exacerbating things but it looked painfully slow.

 

We would also expect to see your CPU going all the way up to 100% when required which means the app is running at full capacity.

 

Looking at your system specs in your sig, you should be running the app much faster than this. Even on some of the ancient laptops we have for testing we were getting better performance. 

Can you go to Preferences > Performance and check that the renderer is using your GPU and not WARP. 

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Hi Chris,

 

I am glad that you confirm my hunch that "something is not right"!

 

The video really isn't exaggerating! I can take further video and upload uncompressed, but I don't think it would help with the diagnosis would it?

 

I have tried all three settings under performance: Default (nvidia 660Ti), nvidia 660Ti, and WARP.

 

The video was taken with nvidia 66Ti selected.

 

To be honest the performance doesn't degrade a great deal if I use WARP!

 

I did a clean install of Win7 the day before purchasing Affinity Designer so the system as a whole is running very smoothly.

 

Win7 installed nvidia drivers on first run (v372.x from memory)

 

I have since installed updated drivers twice (new drivers were launched yesterday - v397.6)

 

None of this improved performance.

 

I'll try reinstalling Designer, but would welcome other ideas.

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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I uninstalled and reinstalled AD on my desktop - there was no improvement to performance.

 

I have installed AD on my laptop and it is noticeably smoother despite having significantly lower specs...

 

i3 3110M @ 2.4GHz

12 GB RAM

Intel HD 4000 onboard graphics

Win10 x64

 

Yes it is a different OS, but the CPU is slower, there is less RAM and the GPU is pathetic!

 

I am stumped as to what to do. At present AD is unusable for me, and I've run out of ideas of what to try.

 

What can I do to help diagnose the problem?

 

Help please!

 

PS - I notice a similar thread has emerged here... https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/26959-huge-performance-issues/albeit on a Mac.

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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Today's' update: have installed the latest Beta 41 and still getting the same poor performance.

 

Can anyone / developers shed any light on what is happening?

 

Very happy to test any hypotheses but need some guidance!

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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Why do I see like ghosting when rotating the rectangle in AD and not in the video part of Xara ?   :o  this doesn't make sense.... Even if goes slow, should not have different ghosting in different parts of the video... (I mean, I've had AD/AP slow at time when I was actually killing my machine with other huge processes, and doesn't do a ghosting like that....)  ---> Not implying anything, it could be as well that you have some serious problem in your graphic driver. 

 

Anyway, in case you have an issue, I'd maybe look in your general card settings, see if you have an specific modified settings in general. Maybe make nvidia specific settings for the Affinity applications, see if that improves the situation (activating or deactivating features in nvidia control panel), as the font thing when zooming, seems to me graphic card/driver related stuff.

(if you are running it with the parameter to not run Aero, that could explain many things)

 

BTW: I have blazing speed in all those operations, and here am using a first generation i7 (in benchmarks, kind of below several i3 of today, indeed, in many aspects even a pentium g4500 can beat it) with 8 gb RAM, a graphic card that is twice worse (gtx 275) than yours, and also win 7 64 bits. (and a mechanical HD instead of SSD, tho here wouldn't be affecting much)

AD, AP and APub V2.5.x. Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
 

 

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To be honest the performance doesn't degrade a great deal if I use WARP!

 

 

This could be an indication that is not really using the card or doing it badly (as I do notice quite the difference)... So, I kind of insist in looking stuff in that direction (driver configuration, and definitely have well all the Aero / .net stuff, and not running the apps with the parameter trick, etc)...

AD, AP and APub V2.5.x. Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
 

 

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To be honest - install MSI Afterburner or Aida or some other hardware sensing/tracking app, and check the GPU/CPU loads and temperatures when you're trying to rotate the rectangle.

Start Windows Task Manager, turn on "Show kernel times" option, and check the CPU load tab.

 

That's definitely something wrong with your system - right now I have some program using all 4 cores on my 2600K, and I'm still was able to launch Designer, load some random file and rotate everything without a single problem.

 

PS: Is there some other programs that are lagging on your machine?

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Update: I killed all other applications on my PC, even suspended the virus killer, and just ran Affinity Designer... and it is...

 

As smooth as silk!

 

So Joss13 and SrPx are correct - there is some weird interaction going on with something else on my system. I'll gradually reactivate my various apps and report back with the culprit!

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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OK so the culprit is (without question) Bins by 1UP Industries.

 

This is a small application that allows icons on the Taskbar (aka Windows 7 Superbar) to be grouped / stacked.

 

I've used it for many years and never had issues with it before. AD is the only application that has reacted badly to its presence.

 

Have tried several versions (current and old) and all exhibit the behaviour.

 

Really odd thing is...

  • I run AD and it is super smooth.
  • Then I run Bins and AD starts to lag.
  • I quit Bins and AD continues to lag!
  • I quit AD and run it again, AD is super smooth.

Sadly Bins seems to get little love from its developer these days - I am not sure if the support forum even exists anymore (I will check). - so I think there is not much chance the this will be investigated.

 

Time to bin Bins?

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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Aammppaa,

 

What a great find, thanks you for persevering and doing such a great QA job, particularly checking different versions.

Perhaps at some point we can see what it's doing wrong, but at least it's not going to be a common problem.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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surrendernate,

 

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :)

 

Thanks for confirming this workaround

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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  • 8 months later...

Sorry to dig up my old thread, but I just noticed that there is an official post of known 3rd party conflicts here…

And Bins is not listed.

 

Perhaps not a commonly used piece of software (I have no idea!), but it has already caused two of us grief!

 

Thanks.

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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  • 1 year later...

Update: Bins has received some updates since I last posted in this thread (current version 1.5.0.948)

I am happy to report that there is no longer a conflict between Bins and Affinity products.

Yay! Best of both worlds.

 

Win10 Home x64   |   AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz   |   48 GB RAM   |   1TB SSD   |   nVidia GTX 1660   |   Wacom Intuos Pro

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