Horrible 2D performance on high spec laptop AMD

[jonafa]

Specs:

Laptop: Lenovo Legion pro 7, modelnr: 82WSCTO1WW

Cpu: Amd ryzen 9 dragonrange 7945hx

Gpu: 4090M

Ram: 64GB

SSD: Samsung Evo 990 pro

Mux system: yes - I am using dgpu only

OS: windows 11, bios: LPCN59WW

Hi student here, I am writing this because I have put up with it for almost a year now, but now I am growing quite impatient as my projects become bigger and bigger. In 2024 I bought this high spec laptop in order to be able to run archicad/rhino and several other programs as Adobe package at the same time and run it well. This has worked well for all programs except Archicad. I have also read earlier posts about bad archicad performance and tried to see if there is anything there I could do to resolve this issue, but alas to no avail. It is sad to see how my classmates with 5+ year old macs have better performance than mine. Now I do know that archicad, as well as many creative programs, are first and foremost optimized for Mac, but using a Mac is no option for me. I've looked up at the recommended specs and it says that Archicad do support mulitcore ryzen 9 series, so I dont see why that would be an issue. Using NVIDIA overlay when working in 2D it shows horrible CPU usage, sometimes as low as 5% and rougly 20% when it lags the most. I have enabled multicore so it uses all cores and threads at the same time to maximize performance and it works for everything it seems except Archicad. In 3D it works as it should, having the gpu using anyware from 30%-80% and it is buttery smooth, so I know the dgpu is being utilized correctly there. 

Things I've done to try and improve this:

-Enable in Nividia 3D settings Archicad to use primarily dgpu and set all performance settings to max

-Setting the taskbar to static, comment; sometimes when a loading process is going on in Archicad, sometimes dragging my mouse down to the taskbar has increased cpu usage and thereby increased the task performance. It is really weird. Normally I have the taskbar hidden, but I now tried to have it shown static and noting improves. 

-Made sure I use openGL and ticked off hardware acceleration in view-->3D view options

-enables dgpu in Lenovo vantage.

-I did try some time ago to disable enabling all cores and letting the cpu autocontrol it, but all I saw was a downgrade in performance in everything. 

-upgrading Archicad version from 27-28. That helped a little bit. 

In short I find it really weird how other people are working with 5+ yr old laptops that have much better 2D performance than me, but obviously have horrible 3D peformance compared to mine (some still even use laptops with only igpu). Any tips would be appreciated. 

[Barry Kelly]

I am not sure if this will help or not, but make sure Archicad is set to use the dedicated GPU and not the built in one.

Go to Settings > Display > Graphics ...

Barry.

[Lingwisyer]

Do you have this issue when both on battery and on mains? It you only have it while on battery, you might be bottlenecked on your power draw for your CPU.

[jonafa]

Set it as you said, but sadly no improvement. Could there be some setting within Archicad which could help to tweak? I read disabling bakground updating can improve performance, but weirdly it made no difference for me. after testing In advanced redraw options I set memory to max (it was set to nearly max) as I obviously should have enough memory. 2D drawing hardware acceleration is greyed out but it is set to max. Model display is set simplified for 2D navigation. 

[jonafa]

Issue remains both on battery and mains. 

[Laszlo Nagy]

You should also start looking into what you are doing in Archicad that may cause these performance issues.

Can you say exactly where these issues occur? Slow opening of files? Slow navigation in 2D/3D? Slow generation of Sections/Elevations? Slow loading of libraries? Program lagging during editing? What is the exact nature of the problem?

Also, what is the size of the file? Is it a solo or teamwork file?

[jonafa]

The issue of bad performance takes place when I am in a 2D document, be it section, elevation or story plan. In the beginning of a design, it is snappy and good as it should be, however as a project progresses and becomes more advanced, bigger, more complex, it becomes increasingly laggy even though the file sizes are quite low? (less than 30 MB). What stands particulary out to me is how classmates with older and far less powerful laptops have better 2D performance than me when we have dealth with the same assignment with similar design. It becomes very laggy when I try to mark/select several GDL or other objects/lines to move them and using the navigation tool becomes particulary slow compared to others. Just this desember I finished a master course where we designed a cathedral project and I watched my classmates with MACs' or Lenovo legions of lesser configuration, having super snappy and high performance in 2D even though our projects for the most part had the same complexity of a design near the deadline.  Opening files I dont find a problem with, not sure what is considered long boot time there, usually takes less than 1 min.  Loading libraries also works fine, it loads fast. 

I did some digging and apparantly according to an earlier post, it mentions that using alot of solid element operations and morphs can impact the peformance, especially when it becomes many elements and operations. Since I use that frequently, I guess that could be the somewhat reason? Example, making a custom morphed doric column will move perfectly smooth in 3D, but as soon as I enter 2D view, it lags hard to select it, copy it, move it, opening the objects menu etc. 

As previously mentioned, what I dont understand is why the cpu and wattage draw is so low when working in 2D but it works fine when I am in 3D. It would make sense if the performance was there, as the cpu wouldnt draw more power than it needs to, but it just sits around 7-13% usage causing this slowed performance. Thats why I meantioned the weird thing about moving the mouse cursor to the hidden windows taskbar, because bringing that up in the view increases the power draw and hence increases the cpu wattage and -usage, and thus for a short 2-4 seconds increases the performance before it goes back down again. Sometimes I would end up moving the mouse up and down between Archicad and the taskbar when doing any operation just to be able to skip waiting time. I really dont know what else I can say other than what I have presented here, I guess the only thing I can think of if this has nothing to do with the software is that the amd dragonrange architecture may not be fully optimized for this? I'm sry if this doesnt do you any good, but its the best way I can describe the problem. 

[Lingwisyer]

Use the Polycount addon to check your file.

[jonafa]

Landscape model onlyChurch projectFirst one is for a file of 1,8GB containing a landscape model only. The model is scaled down to 1:1000, so when I try to scale it back to 1:1 it becomes either a model consisting of many black points (no surfaces), or it simply doesnt load in either 2D or 3D (infinite loading). Of course this is a big file so I dont expect much there. 

This second image is from my church project. File size is just under 300MB

NOTE! small correction from previous post, I meant file sizes of 300MB, not 30MB

[Laszlo Nagy]

First project:

If you try to display a terrain (Mesh element) in 3D and it shows only selection hotspots but no surface, that usually means that the data structure of the element is damaged and it cannot be generated. When something like this happens, I try to start a brand new project based on the default Archicad Template, select the mesh, and copy-paste it into the new file. When Archicad pastes it, it will try to repair its data structure. It may or may not be successful, and if it manages to repair it, it may be at the price of having to delete surface points from the Mesh that caused its 3D to degenerate. But it is worth a try.

Second project:

I can see that most of the 3D polygons are coming from Morhps. Can you show Floor Plan that gives us an idea of the type of Morph elements you are modeling? Also, can you select an element where there are many SEOs performed on an element and show a screenshot of just how many (dozens, hundreds?) When the element is selected, the SEO handle will show and it will indicate all the SEOs performed on the element. SEOs could be a source of performance issues.