Improving map drawing performance by deleting attributes?

[BjornHenningsson]

We use published map services on our ArcGis Server to display GIS data. The map layers have a lot of attributes which we dont use. Will the map performance (drawing speed) increase if we reduce the number of attributes in the map layers?

[TimWitt2]

Its always a good idea to trim fat. The less the client has to load the quicker loading times will be.

It is also a good idea to remove unnecessary vertices. Maybe look into the simplify tools ArcGIS Desktop‌

[RiyasDeen]

Hi Bjorn,

I would say no, map drawing speed is dictated by number of features displayed at a given scale, complexity of geometry (number of vertices used to define a polygon) and symbology used for rendering.

Refer Performance tips for uncached maps section in ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)