Rhino 8 still much slower than Rhino 7

Hi,

I am using Rhino 8 on a Mac Studio M1 Ma, 64GB Ram and 32 GPU.

When I first switched from Rhino 7 to Rhino 8 I was surprised that Rhino 8 was so much slower in performance. I mean the user interface, when opening a model, turning around the view - the shaded view for example is moving not smooth. There is always a short delay which drives me crazy. I mean it is a fast Mac after all. I never had this problem with Rhino 7 and still don’t have.

I asked the support last year and was told to wait until one of the next updates (2-3 months) which was more than 1 year ago… nothing changed. Still, it is not running smooth, performance is so poor, I really can’t work in Rhino 8!!

This is such a disappointment! I opened recent models in Rhino 7 to compare again, and it is working so much more smooth.

I also searched the forum, found several people who had the same problem but could not find any solution.

I also tried Rhino 9 / WIP and it is as slow as Rhino 8.

Does anyone have the same problem?
Does anyone have an idea what is the problem here?
@ McNeel Team: Please, could you help me out?

Thanks!

Hi Sascha -

Please post both a 3dm file that has performance issues on your system and the output from the Rhino SystemInfo command.
-wim

Rhino 8 SR25 2025-11-10 (Rhino 8, 8.25.25314.11002, Git hash:master @ 305475a429872768e321960d34ed215b72a0da18)
License type: Educational, Build 2025-11-10
License details: Cloud Zoo

Apple macOS Version 15.5 (Build 24F74) (Physical RAM: 64GB)
Mac Model Identifier: Mac13,1
Language: de-DE (MacOS default)
.NET 8.0.14

Metal GPU Family Apple 7
Metal GPU Family Common 3
Metal GPU Family Mac 2
Graphics processors
Apple M1 Max
Studio Display (2880 x 1620 @ 60.00Hz)
GPU Vendor: Apple

USB devices
Wacom Co.,Ltd.: Wacom Intuos Pro M
Apple: USB3 Gen2 Hub
Apple: USB3 Gen2 Hub
Apple Inc.: Studio Display

Bluetooth devices
None

Third party kernel extensions
None

Third party plugins
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCore.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftObjectiveC.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDarwin.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDispatch.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftIOKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSystem.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftXPC.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_Builtin_float.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_Concurrency.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_StringProcessing.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_errno.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_math.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_signal.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_stdio.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_time.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftos.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftsys_time.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftunistd.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDistributed.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftObservation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSynchronization.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftMetal.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftOSLog.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftQuartzCore.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftUniformTypeIdentifiers.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftsimd.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftRegexBuilder.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_RegexParser.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreAudio.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCryptoTokenKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAVFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreLocation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreMIDI.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreMedia.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreImage.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAccelerate.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftNaturalLanguage.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftMLCompute.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCompression.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDataDetection.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreGraphics.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSwiftOnoneSupport.dylib
/usr/lib/usd/libusd_ms.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftIntents.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSpatial.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftPassKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAppleArchive.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDemangle.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftVideoToolbox.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftGameplayKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSpriteKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftGLKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftMetalKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftModelIO.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftSceneKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftMapKit.dylib
/usr/lib/log/liblog_network.dylib

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhMaterialEditor.framework “Renderer Development Kit” 8.25.25314.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots” 8.25.25314.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RDK_EtoUI.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools” 8.25.25314.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/Displacement.rhp “Displacement” 8.25.25314.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/PanelingTools.rhp “PanelingTools” 8.25.25314.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoDLR_Python.rhp “IronPython” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/GrasshopperPlugin.rhp “Grasshopper” 8.25.25314.11002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoCodePlugin.rhp “RhinoCodePlugin” 8.25.25314.11002

25-22-18_Rhino-Testfile.3dm (11.4 MB)

It is not a specific file that is making problems. It has performance problems with every file I open that has more than e.g. a simple cube in it… seems to be a general problem. I posted an example file with an array of simple tubes and it is already running absolutely not smooth in Rhino 8 while in Rhino 7 there is no problem.

A post was split to a new topic: Laggy Containers/Groups

Is this something we could see in a video?

You notice a big difference between Wireframe vs Shaded view?

Which parts of the user interface are slow?

It’s hard to show, but if you look how the mouse is moving and the viewport is much slower you see what I mean.

It is in the viewport, no big file, just for testing I created a few tubes and made a simple array.

With user interface I meant the viewports.

So what can I do now? How can I get Rhino 8 running as smooth as Rhino 7?

Anyone can help me out here?

@saschasartory I cannot replicate that here on my end (M3 max) but I will test as well on an M1 as soon as I can.

In the meantime, could you test a few things:

  • If you don’t work in maximized viewport, but in 4 views, do you see/feel the same slowness?
  • If you resize Rhino to about half the screen, do you see/feel the same slowness?
  • Do you have any display scaling enabled other than Default, if so can you switch and see if that makes a difference?
1 Like

@saschasartory I can definitely repeat that here with your file on M1

What I would suggest (in the meantime) is to use a less dense grid, or less grid lines. I see a significant improvement in performance in that file without grid or with the default grid settings.

RH-90576 Mac: slower performance in Rhino 8/9

Thanks for checking on this.

  • 4 views is the same
  • resizing Rhino about half screen: I think it is a little bit faster
  • display scaling is enabled, but switching it off made no difference

I also tested on my MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB RAM 32 GPU and it is the same here.

A less dense grid brings makes the performance a little bit better. But the grid in the file just works perfectly in Rhino 7.

Thanks a lot for your effort. I hope we can find a solution here!

@saschasartory it would be helpful too if you can indicate if working without any grid at all makes a difference and/or if without the grid Rhino 7 is still faster for you.

Version 8 (8.23.25251.13002, 2025-09-08) on an Apple Mac Book Pro with M4 Max 36 GB running with Sequoia 15.7.2 shows no lag or jitter, with or without grid.

@Gijs I tested several files now on my two macs. If I turn out the grid it runs faster and I can’t make out a difference between 7 and 8. So I guess it is a problem of the grid!? With the grid turned on it is slow no matter on what system I work.

So, after I have worked a while without the grid in V08 I figured out the same problem starts to come up if I have a simple geometry which is pretty big compared to the rest of the models in the scene. For example I have been working on wall-mounted items and built a simple wall-volume just as a reference. The wall is 10 x 6 metres while my objects are about 2x3 metres. If I turn the wall off Rhino runs smooth, if it is visible in the scene, Rhino gets slow and it is not running smooth.

That is something that is not acceptable in my eyes for a 3D-Software running in 8th generation. Especially if V07 works just fine.

@user_9123125 Please, could you take care of that problem? I would really appreciate this, thanks.

@saschasartory Can you share a model that shows this behavior? I’ve changed the name of the user you were referencing as mcneelsoftware, that is not an account that is related to us.
ps: If you want I can send you links to the latest 8.27 internal builds. From my testing, display performance has improved significantly there for grid drawing. You should see this improvement also in Rhino WIP

RH-90576 is fixed in Rhino 8 Service Release 27

Sorry for my late reply.

I have the latest update installed and the problem is still there. If the grid is about 2000mm it works fine, everything above 3000mm > it gets slower and slower. I can’t see that it has become better since the last update.

1 Like