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. 

[Lingwisyer]

1.8GB? How big or detailed is your site? Why are you scaling it up and down?

It could be failing to generate due to the Mesh Skirt Height. Make sure that the skirt comes down below the lowest point, or that the skirt is turned off.

[Erwin Edel]

You could try saving your morph columns as objects and given them a more simple 2D floorplan symbol.

[jonafa]

First project: talked some of classmates above my year. When I said the landscape model came from Rhino they mostly shaked their heads, because according to them Archicad simply does not like Rhino 3D models. The landscape is not a mesh, but everything in it consists of objects (the model was given to us in the course by our teacher). I think that model is a bit of mess honestly, and another classmate who had the same course last year was also given the very same model. He said that file was a horrible to run. 

As for the second project however which represent alot more the repeating performance pattern I am having in 2D, I can show you these  images which shows some the custom profiles and morphs that has been used. The image showcasing the SEO is one of the elements that has the most operations on it, its not alot actually. Looking at the floor plan, those custom made columns that you see along the nave of the church are incredibly slow to interact with, be it selecting and moving one when working in floor plan. Further the zooming in and out and navigating in the view is slow as well - sometimes the view freezes for a couple of seconds too.

[MinhNguyen]

from my past experience, there are 2 things that Archicad doesn't like in your case: complex profiles that are too complex (too curvy) and imported models with too many polygons.

The first one is easy, depending on your level of detail, don't include all the curves in the complex profile just because it will look nice. Segment them to straight lines whenever possible, and don't include too many components in one profile (I would say no more than 6 separated shapes)

The second one is more difficult as it is not something you can control. Have you try hotlink module workflow? Essentially you split the file into 2:

- Your working model

- Overall model/siteplan

You would import your working model into the overall model/siteplan for checking/rendering, but the actual design happens on a lighter file. This ensures that the stuff you're actually working on is not held back by redundant reference model that may not require constant manipulation.

Then there's an additional pro tips: if you only need the reference model in 2D format, try exporting that into PMK. It'll help immensely, although I didn't know about this until I started working at an architectural firm

[jonafa]

I see, no I have not been using hotlink or pmk system before. I'l be sure to check those features out. 

Last semester when we did the project all of us who used Archicad used alot of custom profiles, morphs etc. for our 3D model. What you see on some of the images are the very same methods they used (which they showed me), since Archicad while being fantastic on many areas, is not a program to my understanding which excels in making complex shapes compared to Rhino 3D. The only difference between me and other fellow classmates who used Archicad for the church project was as mentioned that their 2D performance was great from start to finish, barely slowing down.

Some of them had also imported a 3D landscape model (using same source as me), but maybe as you say, instead of using the importing feature they had been using this hotlink system instead which made their file much lighter.

I will ask them about this. 

[karsten_bauschert]

Another problem could be geometry far off the origin.

Especially if importing data from the surveyor it gets placed many km away because of the world reference system.
Having Archicad to calculate with high coordinae number was giving some projects of us a hard time, esp. if zooming in.

[MASz]

Have you tried using the old rendering API and seeing if 2d performance is any better?

Open Registry Editor and navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GRAPHISOFT\Archicad\Archicad 2x.0.0\Graphix
Change RenderingAPI value data from 0 to -1

[jl_lt]

great work man, keep it up!  would have loved to have Archicad back in school instead of... those other things we had.  

about solutions to your problem, cannot add up more than the other users excelent suggestions, but i will go to the basics: restart your laptop every now and then; dont have too many wepages open, specially videos; try not to use too many ms office products while using archicad; and keep a healthy % of disk space free. Do not edit REGISTRY keys unless you know what you are doing;  Also, always clean up cad files before importing them to archicad:  in spite of its aggressive names OVERKILL and PURGE commands are your friends; Running an AUDIT or open with RECOVER on the file could also help; also make sure your lines and polilines are on the same z value, and try to clean up unnecesary points in the file you are importing all of which can be done with the FILTER  command(i really dont know if it gives a performance boost in archicad, but its a good practice to check for that anyway). Also, make sure you dont have rogue geometries very far from the main geometries you will be using to work with; If possible and doesnt mess with other workflows, move all the geometry to import as near as possible to the 0,0 origin within the Cad file; and finally, after doing all this, you could copy the needed geometry and put in a new clean file, either with copy basepoint or WBLOCK.

best of lucks

[jonafa]

Didnt know this could have an impact, I'l keep it in mind for the future. 

[jonafa]

Yes, I tried last week, found an old post explaining this could be a solution. I closed Archicad, changed the value and rebooted the program, but alas it made performance in all aspects worse, layout, views, 3D, all of it.