Make ArcGIS Pro Faster (Benchmarked by ArcMap)

[JeffBishop]

Simple idea. 

GeoNet is flooded with complaints of how slow ArcGIS Pro is. 

64Bit Architecture was supposed to bring speed. 

Simple operations such as opening, saving, selecting, etc are sloooow. 

Geoprocessing takes forever and makes my PC sound like it's going to fly. 

I have compared the performance between Pro on my workstation grade laptop to my crappy admin laptop using Map and Map wins out solidly on almost everything. 

Pro has a nice UI and flow to it, but suffers from MAJOR performance issues on even the most powerful of machines. 

Working with local datasets has also not seemed to help at all. 

For reference, my workstation running pro has: 

8 core (16 Threads) Xeon 2.4 GHZ

32 GB of RAM

NVIDIA Quadro RTX300

[JeffBishop]

See this closing comment for details: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/make-arcgis-pro-faster-benchmarked-by-arcmap/idc-p/1090903/highlight/true#M16886

[JamalNUMAN]

This has been thoroughly discussed here:

ArcGIS Pro: 2.4.2: In general, ArcPro has less performance than ArcMap,

I found out myself that the performance in Pro 2.5 much better than 2.4

[JeffBishop]

Yes thank you, that post was very helpful and I have reviewed it. 

I am currently using 2.5 and in fact it is the only version i have used. 

I would have really been frustrated with prior versions if they were slower than the already slow V 2.5! 

I am still using Pro, but running all of my geoprocessing in ArcMap as well as other operations that are faster there. 

This is a very annoying workaround, but necessary to keep up my productivity. 

[KoryKramer]

Hi Jeff Bishop‌.  Sorry to hear that you're seeing performance issues when comparing geoprocessing between ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap.  In order for this to be actionable, the geoprocessing team will need additional details.

Can you share more information about what tool(s) you're running and share the execution time taken for the tool(s) to complete in ArcMap vs. doing the exact same thing (same dataset, same parameters, etc.) in Pro?

If you run in a blank project, with no maps, using the same dataset, is the execution time still slower in ArcGIS Pro than in ArcMap?

In ArcMap, do you run tools with Background Geoprocessing?  It would be helpful if you're able to share a project package from the Pro project used to document the times above - it would be good to see how many maps and other items are in the project.  Send to kkramer@esri.com and if needed because of size I can set up a secure ftp.

Thank you!

[MollyMoore]

I am also running into major speed issues in ArcGIS Pro 2.5 when trying to accomplish very simple tasks that makes Pro practically unusable for my workflows. Right now, my biggest issue has been with definition queries.

When I set a definition query on a feature service layer with around ~11,000 features, it takes anywhere from 3-8 minutes for the Pro project to become responsive again. 

When I set a definition query on the same dataset with the same computer and connections, it updates instantaneously. 

[JeffBishop]

Kory. Sorry for the late reply.

So due to the nature of my work I can't share anything. 

With that being said, I have determined if I keep my projects simple, they perform better. 

The issue is, I would like to have multiple maps, layouts, etc in a project, but Pro will bog down if I do so. 

At this point, it is one map with maybe 2 layouts max. 

The other issue is Scenes. Man they bog down and make my PC sounds like its going to fly! 

I would love to do my 3D viz work in Pro, but it is too choppy. I use Google Earth Pro still at this point. 

I would use ArcGIS Earth, but it has its own issues and lack of features compared to GE Pro. But that is another topic altogether! 

[KoryKramer]

Hi Jeff.  Given the detail about the issue being worse when working in larger projects, without specifics about exactly which geoprocessing operations, it sounds like the work that the ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing team has done in 2.6 may alleviate much of what you're seeing.

The team has taken some operations that open from ribbon buttons and context commands, like Select By Attributes, Add Join, and Calculate Field, and built them into simplified windows that run in an immediate mode which reduces the overhead of working in large and complex projects. These tools can run even when longer-running processing tools are running in the background geoprocessing thread (using the Geoprocessing pane), which will also make you more productive. If you would be willing to be part of the Pro 2.6 early adopter community, we will have availability of a beta release of the software within about a month so you could test some workflows that you aren’t able to share and let us know if you see any improvement. 

If you're interested in testing your workflows with larger projects in Pro 2.6 beta, please let me know at kkramer@esri.com.

Thank you.

[MarcelSt-Germain]

Yes, Still Very Slow in 2.6.2

Maps, for me anyway draw faster than ArcMap.  Unfortunately, working in the layout is far, far, far slower than ArcMap.

It's nice to have the elements in TOC, being able to lock them, name them.  But, selecting and element take minutes not second.  I try to uncheck the map to speed the work in layout but, see no changes.  Each operation takes forever.

Do not know if it's because of import from ArcMap projects.

Also, very frustrating to make change and thinking it's finished and see changes haven't been accepted.  By example, in scale line, I change map units, write the label test I want, select the division value, divisions and subdivisions to see that label haven't changed or division value or... always to make changes again and again until it's finally working.  Finally, find that I have to wait minutes between each entry.  So can take 5 to 10 minutes were in ArcMap it takes less than 20 seconds.

64 bits was a good news years ago to speed up ArcMap but, the result is very poor in the implementation for Pro.

Maybe, after importing things, need some optimization.  Can't find a wait to make it.

[JeromeHaaland]

Wish I could upvote this 10 times.

[SimonWatkinson]

... yeah... wow... what's going on, guys? why should it take 20 seconds to get the symbology pane up?  why should it take 40 seconds to change the text of a layout label?  what is going on with your software.  I have a pretty decent machine, I think:  32 GB RAM, INTEL XEON SILVER 4108 CPU @ 1.8GHz x 2 NVIDIA Quadro p2000.

What's going on with the code execution with these long wait times?  Why should the number of layers or the location of the data mean anything for simple operations like this?

The productivity hit on my team caused by using ArcGIS Pro is in the order of 20%.  People lose concentration because they get bored waiting for a response.

[Aaron]

No change in 2.6.3. I just don't understand the need to hit the network (or local storage) storage so often. At least be able to disable the catalog view from scanning the whole directory recursively.

No way it's my specs... i9@3.6GHz, 64GB RAM, 1TB M2 SSD, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.