I always try new Inkscape versions with the hope that the refresh issue on Windows is gone, I'm wondering if I'm the only one having this problem.

The thing is, zooming, moving objects always comes with a really noticeable and annoying lag on my canvas and there's always a refresh issue, as the image sticks to the screen and it takes time to redraw and show the new position.

Anyone else?

That's probably because the image you're working on is larger than what the RAM on your system can handle. The next major version release (0.49) will have a new renderer which should help with a lot of this kind of problem. Meanwhile, here are some tips to help with it now: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12160.

Hi.

On my system I got a great boost in Inkscape screen performance once I enabled all available CPU threads for the render "engine" - which handles screen redraws.

To figure the number of threads on Windows; Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Windows Task manager.
Click the performance tab and count the number of CPU Threads windows (here eight).


Open Inkscape preferences Ctrl+Shift+P and set Number of threads to the number of threads possible on your machine.


Good Luck.
RGDS
Ragnar

I think that only helps for display of filters....ooohh wait.... Ragnar, are you using a dev version? Your Inks Prefs looks very different from mine (0.48.4). On mine, the setting for that is under Filters. So that's why I thought it only applies to displaying filters.

I can't remember if I put that in my mini tut, but I'll check and add it, if it's not already explained.

Hi.

This helps for all screen redraws - even without filters.
Sluggish performance is most noticeable using filters.

Yes, I am always using the "latest and greatest" version - now version; Inkscape 0.48+devel r12217
Glad you pointed out the difference.

RGDS
Ragnar

Not to go too far off topic, but does it only help with filters in pre 0.49? Because I know we have the new renderer in 0.49. Maybe that's what's new about the renderer, is the ability to use the processors in every kind of element on the canvas?

Thank you for your replies,

changing the settings in the preferences actually helps a tad, but the problem persists. Especially when I import svg from other applications.
I guess I'll wait for the next release. Finger crossed.

ragstian wrote:

ragstian wrote:On my system I got a great boost in Inkscape screen performance once I enabled all available CPU threads for the render "engine" - which handles screen redraws.

This helps for all screen redraws - even without filters.
Sluggish performance is most noticeable using filters.

Multi-threading is only used for filter effects (the difference between stable and development builds is that with stable (0.48), multi-threading is only used for Gaussian Blurs, whereas with the new renderer in development builds (0.48+devel), multi-threading is used for all filter effects, not just blurs).

A summary of the major changes concerning the new renderer in development builds can be found here.

Hi.

ragstian wrote:On my system I got a great boost in Inkscape screen performance once I enabled all available CPU threads for the render "engine" - which handles screen redraws.


This helps for all screen redraws - even without filters.
Sluggish performance is most noticeable using filters.

Multi-threading is only used for filter effects (the difference between stable and development builds is that with stable (0.48), multi-threading is only used for Gaussian Blurs, whereas with the new renderer in development builds (0.48+devel), multi-threading is used for all filter effects, not just blurs).

Sorry about the mis-information. Thanks ~suv for setting this straight! Shame on me for fourteen days!!

RGDS
Ragnar

My apologies for reviving such an old thread but I'm having similar problems and was curious if anyone had found a solution to this.

I have a PC which I assumed should handle Inkscape without much problems as I use it for games, Unity game development, 3D modelling in Blender and drawing in various raster art programs. Inkscape seems to run far more slowly than I'd expect.

The refresh problem is as described by dsp_418 in the original post. I open a new file, draw a circle, box or other chape and when I try to move it the delay on the refresh is incredibly slow. It is less noyicable with less complex shapes, and speeds up if I zoom way out. The & level of zoom seems irrelevant though, with the size of the shape relative to the screen being the main factor in how quickly it refreshes.

I've tried the steps above, increasing the number of threads available to the nax supported by my processor and increasing the cache file size to something a little higher but I see no improvement.

I tried a few previous versions. I'm currently using 0.91Pre-release 2 but the problem persists at least as far back as 0.46.

Some info on my system:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer FOXCONN
System Model RS880M06-8KRS3HX
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor, 3200 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 080015, 20/05/10
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.28 GB
Total Virtual Memory 10.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 6.60 GB
Page File Space 6.35 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Also, my video card info: IAMD Radeon HD 5700 Series, with the latest version of the AMD Catalyst driver installation.

This is an issue that's put me off using Inkscape for a long time, so anything anyone can do to help me solve this would be really helpful. I don't want to be using iPad vector art programs forever.

Hello.
You say it's a problem that only affects to inkscape. Maybe it's an installation problem. Also you say that you are performed several instalations of diferent versions of inkscape. Maybe those are leaving hidden information like preferences files.

- So, try cleaning your system, check the Window's Program Installation Manager if some old installations remain and erase them all. Later, install only the stable version of inkscape (0.48.5).

- Check if there are configuration files still in your system:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... Files.html

Hope it helps

When testing older versions or pre-release versions of Inkscape I would always uninstall any previous versions though I wouldn't go so far as to remove any remaining data in the Application Data folders.

Taking your advice I uninstalled the current pre-release version of Inkscape (the only version installed) and removed all Inkscape Application Data I could find. I had Windows search the HDD for any Inkscape files I might have missed and removed those too. I installed Inkscape 0.48.5, the current stable build, but any improvements are small. Very simple shapes like squares and circles move around better than they did, though the dashed line bounding box still lags way behind. If I try to move anything more complex, like a shape drawn freehand with the pen tool, the redraw rate is very low, with the shape being visibly redrawn as you move it to new positions.

edit: I thought there was no improvement, but it seems there might be a little. I'm not sure what Inkscape running normally is supposed to look like. :/

Generally, Inkscape performance here is snappy.

I rarely get performance issues with Inkscape, unless I'm working on an image with thousands of nodes, or when also running CAD, GIMP or Blender.

My system is old & slow (2.8ghz P4 two core, 2GB ram and shared display memory.)

I'd look into the windows display settings and the display card ram. Shared display ram is a big suspect, if it is used. Fancy GPU effects/settings might also play a role.