Sugestions on improving computer performance for Harmony needed, please...

Hey folks. I’m a Harmony 12 user and my computer, a 4 month old Mac Pro, is getting considerably bogged down to the point of extreme frustration in what I deem to be only mildly complex scenes (a lot of deformers and tone, but only two or three characters and some background stuff). I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on improving performance, either in preferences for the program, a tip or trick, or upgrading some of my computer to handle the load better. I’ve noticed that when it starts to run extremely slow, where it even takes a couple of minutes just to open up a layer so I can turn it off, if I go to another program while it’s trying to complete that simple task, that program runs completely normal while Harmony is still struggling. This makes me think Harmony isn’t accessing all of the processing power and cores my computer has to offer, and thus upgrading to a processor with more cores won’t make any difference?

Here are the specs of my computer:

Mac Pro (Late 2013) OS X Yosemite 10.10.5

Processor: 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

Memory: 16 GB 1866 MHz DDR3 ECC

Graphics: AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB

Anyway, thanks ahead of time! :slight_smile:

I presume, you have upgraded to the newest version of Harmony 12.2.1 ?
What is stopping you upgrading to El Capitan ?
In Harmony Preferences / Render / Multi Threading / specify your Render Threads.
Check Enable Graphic Card Acceleration (I presume the AMD card supports this feature).

Run Activity Monitor / CPU / double click CPU Load to open the CPU History window.
Check how many Threads are running when working / rendering in Harmony or else…

Thank you for your reply, Nolan. I haven’t gone to El Capitan because I’ve heard nightmares from people upgrading to it and I don’t want any unneeded issues. I am on Harmony 12.2.0. I didn’t see anything in the release notes for 12.2.1 that made me decide to update.

As far as multi threading… I thought that was just for when I render out, but am I wrong on that? Is it also for when I’m working? Also, I had it set to 12, as I had read your supposed to do 2 per core and I have 6 cores. However, I just read it again and it says start with 2 per core, but it doesn’t say how many you can go up to or if there are any pros or cons. Could this be my issue? Should I put a higher number in for multi threading?? I do have ‘accelerated’ checked for the graphic card.

I’ll check the CPU History window tomorrow when I’m working, though I don’t really know how to read it.

I have been very reluctant as well upgrading to El Capitan…
(still have a cloned Yosemite backup on an external drive, just in case)

All software installed, including Harmony 12, works perfectly.
The whole system just feels a little snappier…nothing serious…

So far only one issue, my Wacom Intuos is seen as a “no trusted input device”.
This effects sensitive input information like “Keychain Access”, “ICloud” etc…
I have to use the Mouse instead of the Wacom-Pen, no big deal.

That is correct, Multi Threading effects only render speed…
As far as I know, Processor speed and Graphic Card are the main force for Viewport playback.

I am still using a “Vintage” 2009 Mac Pro 2.29GHz… (16 Threads)
Since upgrading to a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 and a SSD Boot-Drive, performance is just marvellous… No issues with Viewport speed and rendering is lightning fast, using an internal WD Hard-Drive as Media-Drive.

Regarding your system specifications, everything should work in a snap…
Still in doubt, contact the Toon Boom Team.
Be aware, even the most powerful workstation can become slow on heavy complex projects.