ArcPro Overall Performance.
"Is this truly just the nature of Pro compared to ArcMap"
TLDR = Yes.
Anyone that stops drinking the red cordial will concur.
For many basic workflows like opening a project and making a basic map with nothing advanced, no special symbology, no radical geo-processing, and small datasets, the experience is pretty poor.
It has been for a decade.
When Pro works, it can be a fantastic tool but if your day-to-day intersects the flaws often, it will drive you up the wall without a Hardie's account
Esri people will pull you down to the coal-face to have you lodge cases on the minutia, while there are fundamentally flawed design decisions in the UI. Valid cases must definitely be lodged - up to you to decide how much time a case is worth.
Due to the many variables at play, it pays to make sure you have the fundamentals like hardware faults, bad network config, over-zealous-IT-admin lockdowns, etc sorted. Many people, from Esri and elsewhere, will post links to guide you through registry edits, full re-installs, etc. In my opinion, those should not be needed for a well written piece of software that can cost you 5 figures per user per year.
Doing a full re-install may or may not work. It doesn't fix bad design (license check feature in the house!).
Here are a list of current 3.5.x public bugs. Re-installing doesn't make them go away.
https://support.esri.com/en-us/search?s=Newest&product=arcgis+pro&cardtype=support_bug_articles&vers...
Esri also keeps some known bugs private and wait for us to lodge cases so they can judge how important they are to us. (Map series to PDF page options.....). This is normal and I understand why, but it still irks me to spend the hours needed to build a case on something they know about.
In my experience, where I have had control over everything across multiple network configs, multiple very high spec computers, various Windows flavours, Pro seems to be extremely susceptible to 'things' that cause it to break and behave poorly, over & above finding badly designed features (such as the excessive license checking that they fixed in 3.5, replaced by a crash on copy bug).
Be prepared to have a config that works OK, only to have it rendered nearly inoperable by a new bug in a new version. Then be prepared to spend hours & hours trying to get your local mandatory reseller (who are also commercial competitors) to require copies of your data, processes, etc.
From what I can see there is no authoritative Pro configuration guide with regards to rendering engine settings etc. Comments from Esri and others look to be anecdotal at best. This is most likely due to there being so many variables in play.
Tips - Learn about computers. What makes them work best? Contrary to Esri advice do not just blindly update to the latest everything - follow external guidance to the best GPU drivers, best Windows updates, etc to use. I have an Idea posted for Esri to provide a curated list of versions they have tested Pro against and certify to be stable. Please upvote it if you think it will help.
Learn networking and what makes a performant network and how to back up data efficiently. Pro on a bad network is nasty!
Learn how to optimise data and make it it perform well (using FGDB vs SHP is a great start).
These will help you sidestep the "it's your computer", "it's your network", "it's your data" when complaining about performance.
Learn to use all the various GIS & data tools available to us. QGIS, R, even bare GDAL, are your friends. Do not get rid of ArcMap (unless you don't have perpetual licenses). IT WILL KEEP ON WORKING unless Microsoft does something to make apps like it not run anymore. Your clients don't care if the PDF they receive was made in Pro, ArcMap or PowerPoint (excluding data responsibility aspects obviously).
Use the best tool for the job!!
If you have an IT department, start working with them now so they get to understand that the nature of being efficient in GIS in 2025 is no longer centred on just one app, but a toolkit made up of many tools.
To navigate Pro successfully you have to become a master of finding workarounds - you'll have a deadline and Pro plays up. You have to find a way to get your client the product he deserves without blowing the budget and once you've paid the bills and have time left over, lodge cases on the problems where you can. Please reserve time to post issues in this community so that others, who may have a support office unable to replicate their issue, can see they are not alone; and find solutions or workarounds to these issues.
P.S.
My thoughts on why relatively few people complain about performance:
1: They don't know any better. Based on what I've seen over the years, many corporate network environments are done badly, with huge techno-debt and underfunded IT. The overall user experience is slow, with things like VOIP & PC shared 1GBE network links, slow bootup times due to complex/bad GPOs, slow folder browsing, etc. Sometimes the computers are barely up to running Excel, never mind something complex.
In 2025 we have now had near 3 generations exposed to this; so if a bright new GIS gun walks in the door of their first GIS gig at a local council, they can only compare Pro's performance with what their parents and grandparents have endured and complained about their entire life, they've seen at their school or Uni, and what they may have built at home using hand-me-down parts.
I'm lucky. I've been doing computers & networks for a long time so I actually know what good performance looks like. No. Wait. that makes me unlucky in this context.....
2: They don't care. Look at the latest salary reviews - people are getting paid peanuts and now we want them to spend extra time to ask their GIS managers etc to lodge cases on their behalf (if you pay peanuts you typically don't give staff authority to deal with vendors....).
P.P.S
If you find the UI to be laggy & slow, you can always follow the official Esri advice of 'Work Slower'........
