You could fake it with a material, that has the 'circles' fill applied to it (I think this is a standard out-of-the-box fill that allows good tweaking, diamond-like or aligned array), and use a simple alpha-channeled object with circular holes matching your pattern. That way it will render, cast little, circular shadows, and show correctly in elevation, without grinding your machine to a halt. If there is a ton of it however (metal panel) you may consider losing the circle display for a full elevation (linework) view ...
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAICDirector
Thomson Architecture, Inc.Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
AC26/iMacPro/MPB Silicon M2Pro