Affinity Photo on MacBook Pro 2017 very slow

[RJH]

Hi, I'm using the trial version of Affinity Photo (V 1.6.11) on a MacBook Pro (2017, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5, 500GB hard drive, 16 GB RAM, Mojave 10.14.1). I use it as it was installed, no changes made to the preferences or elsewhere.

The software is extremely slow. Opening Fujifilm RAW files (all about 30 MB) takes over 20 seconds. Any basic edit, such as exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, etc., takes at least 5 seconds. The editing result is shown only tile-by-tile in the image. The Mac's spinning wheel basically rotates constantly once any edit is made. Photoshop opens the same files in less than a second, Pixelmator in under 2 secs. Basic edits in both applications are real-time.

I was hoping I could replace Photoshop and Pixelmator with Affinity Photo, since it's easier to use than Photoshop and offers some features Pixelmator doesn't have. But the slowness makes it unusable for any editing workflow.

Am I doing anything wrong or is that a known issue?

Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks, RH

 

[R C-R]

14 hours ago, RJH said:

The editing result is shown only tile-by-tile in the image.

That sounds a lot like what happens if a Mac is booted into Safe Mode, when all hardware acceleration is disabled. I am not suggesting that you are running in Safe Mode but maybe a screenshot of your Affinity Photo Preferences > Performance window would provide a clue about why it acts like that.

[RJH]

Hi there, thanks for looking into this.  The MacBook is not running in safe mode. Screenshot of Preferences > Performance attached.

[terhox]

I can confirm this. Just damn terrible slow and totally unusable.

My computer specs are as follows:

I have still to use Photoshop. No issues with Photoshop.

[James Ritson]

On 12/9/2018 at 3:49 PM, RJH said:

Hi there, thanks for looking into this.  The MacBook is not running in safe mode. Screenshot of Preferences > Performance attached.

Hi RJH, it looks like you’ve got Metal compute acceleration enabled—in 1.6 this is in its infancy and may reduce performance (especially on your integrated Iris graphics). It’s worth disabling it then restarting Photo to see if performance improves.

If you’re willing, you could also download and try out the 1.7 public beta, which has much wider Metal compute support, and even in Software many operations are quicker: 

Let us know how you get on!

 

 

[RJH]

Hi James,

Thank you for your reply. Turning off Metal compute acceleration indeed helped a bit. Images now open in about 15 seconds (which is still far from fast and not comparable with Photoshop's less than a second).

Basic edits (exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, etc.) are faster, too, but still not like in Photoshop or Pixelmator or Apple Photo. This tile-by-tile thing (the edit's result shows in one part of the image, then in the next, and so on) is still there, and, for instance, changing the exposure still takes over a second.

This doesn't sound like long (and is much better than the 5 seconds I experienced before), but in Photoshop I see the whole image brighten or darken immediately with the slightest move of the dial, so I see the change immediately, which makes editing much easier. Maybe I shouldn't compare Affinity Photo to Photoshop, but even Apple's Photo provides delay-free processing.

I'd like to try the beta, but it requires a product key, which I don't have.

Again, thanks for your help.

RJH

 

[GeMenRe]

I do face exactly the same - switching off the METAL option did improve the process but not completely eradicate itself. 

Affinity Photo works 10 times faster on my old iMac from 2010...

[MEB]

Hi GeMenRe,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Please thy the latest  Beta 1.7.0.106 as James Ritson suggested and let us know if you are still experiencing issues/poor performance.

[R C-R]

FWIW, my old iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration. From what I can tell, the 1.7 beta is no faster on my system than 1.6 is on it when using that version's Open GL or Metal display option. In fact, while I can't be certain about this, the 1.7 beta might be slightly slower on a few operations, like developing RAW files -- the initial image appears maybe a bit faster but it takes just as long or longer for the file to be developed after clicking that button in the Develop Persona. 

[Sharkey]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

FWIW, my old iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration. From what I can tell, the 1.7 beta is no faster on my system than 1.6 is on it when using that version's Open GL or Metal display option. In fact, while I can't be certain about this, the 1.7 beta might be slightly slower on a few operations, like developing RAW files -- the initial image appears maybe a bit faster but it takes just as long or longer for the file to be developed after clicking that button in the Develop Persona. 

On my 2013 MacPro 1.7 is opening Raf files (50mb) in 4-5 seconds. 1.6 took up to 20 seconds on average for the same file. For Fuji shooters anyway this beta is a real jump forward.(not a serif plant) I use the default settings as AP recognises that my hardware is a bit out of date so greys out the non applicable choices 

As for other actions, develop, liquid etc. a small but discernible improvement also.

I would imagine from what R C-R says that Fuji stuff might have gotten a bit of a boost because it was 'so slow' previously.

So I hope RJR takes a bit of encouragement from my figures. It is just a shame he cannot see the improvement for himself.

If I could video the difference I would but I think even calling the process 'videoing' puts my capabilities in that respect totally in focus 

[Big_Stan]

How are your disk read/write data speeds?  I am using SSDs and, using Blackmagic to measure, get 1483/1409 MB/s respectively,

[Gunnthorian]

I've been facing the same issue with my new Macbook Pro, thankfully I found a fix for me an wanted to share it:

 

after changing "Display" to OpenGL Basic, "Retina Rendering" to Automatic, and turning off "Hardware Acceleration" I found Affinity Photo to be running just as it should. Change your settings to these, see if it fixes anything, then change each one as you'd like until it slows back down again and just revert the previous change.

Let me know if this helps!

[terhox]

Thank you very many @Gunnthorian, your example settings worked for me.

[Olivier70]

Many thanks @Gunnthorian it worked also for me.

On a iMac Retina 27" late 2015 with 8Go memory and Mojave OS, when I was under Photo 1.6 all was fine. After the upgrade to 1.7 I noticed lots of lagging in tools I use all the time like healing, cloning and brush tools. I applied settings as shown above and all came back into order, no more lagging. 

[Brianrolfephoto]

On 2/9/2019 at 11:30 PM, Gunnthorian said:

I've been facing the same issue with my new Macbook Pro, thankfully I found a fix for me an wanted to share it:

 

after changing "Display" to OpenGL Basic, "Retina Rendering" to Automatic, and turning off "Hardware Acceleration" I found Affinity Photo to be running just as it should. Change your settings to these, see if it fixes anything, then change each one as you'd like until it slows back down again and just revert the previous change.

Let me know if this helps!

Just wanted to say thanks for this! I bought Affinity Photo this week and thought I'd made a big error as I was having such terrible lag when using dodge & burn but this has fixed my issues!

[tpf1952]

On 2/9/2019 at 6:30 PM, Gunnthorian said:

I've been facing the same issue with my new Macbook Pro, thankfully I found a fix for me an wanted to share it:

 

after changing "Display" to OpenGL Basic, "Retina Rendering" to Automatic, and turning off "Hardware Acceleration" I found Affinity Photo to be running just as it should. Change your settings to these, see if it fixes anything, then change each one as you'd like until it slows back down again and just revert the previous change.

Let me know if this helps!

Many thanks for sharing your screen shot. Affinity Photo was just flying for me until version 1.7.1 and suddenly my retouching work ground to a halt. Consulted with the forum and turned of Metal as suggested, but no change. Then I discovered your post and confirmed to your setting about changing the Display to OpenGL and Retina Rending at Auto and I was back in the race. I guess my 2016 15” Retina Macbook Pro just isn’t Metal-friendly enough.

Tom