GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: win8
GIMP Experience: Intermediate Level

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Just installed GIMP on my win8 laptop and it's performing REALLY sluggishly...It's the partha build and I'm wondering if thats it, but I have a major hunch this is because of my very slow 5400rpm hard drive...Can anyone else agree with me? It's the handicap of this computer and so far I haven't had any problems with it. Games would still run and I did some basic fractal stuff and it didn't seem terrible there either. Could this be win8? or the harddrive or just GIMP?

I can't be of much help to you Willy but you'd think a machine capable of running Windows 8 would have plenty of power for GIMP.

So how do you like Metro? It makes me go

I avoid it like the plague


Simply click the Desktop Tile or w/e they're called and forget I have win8 besides the fact that I have no start menu...which is annoying and I haven't bothered with different program to get one because well I've gotten pretty much used to it now and just keep all my shortcuts cluttered about on my desktop lol

You might want to check this out, Willie. It's a nice package.

http://www.classicshell.net/

I installed it for a few Windows 8 clients. They really like having the start menu back and being able to skip past Metro. With few menu tweaks and file associations, you can pretty much push Metro to the side completely.

I did check that out before

and idk why I uninstalled it though... but now I'm so used to not having a start menu that I really don't miss it at all and hoping on the win7 computers at school feels almost kind of awkward at times...

with an i7, and an nvidia 680m and 8gb of RAM it darn well better run GIMP lol...just that hard drive though

About the hard drive, I seriously doubt the hard drive is causing the sluggish response you're seeing in GIMP. It more likely a software issue, probably related to how GIMP was compiled and the dlls (or GKT version) it's using not getting along well with Windows 8.

Maybe you should uninstall the version you have and try another version.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/

After uninstalling 2.8.2 (didn't know that was on here must have been for a school project a little while back) and partha's 2.8.4 and installing 2.8.6 from the link provided I still have issues with the sluggish GIMP...I am flipping through menus rather quickly, but I don't remember ever having problems with this...

An example where it doesn't respond:
1. Select bucket tool (quick response)
2. Select Pattern Fill (quick response)
3. 1 of 2 options now either way it slows
option 1. try to select another pattern, this does not even register the click and other options such as trying to select bg/fg fill option does not register either
option 2. trying to select bg/fg fill right after selecting pattern fill, click does not register and I have to wait a matter of seconds then my clicks will register

It's so weird and completely interrupts my flow of work too :/


I'm going back to partha's build and will just live with the sluggishness for now


and upon further working smudging is found to be NEAR impossible as it freezes up after each smudge stroke


Also pretty sure it isn't the hard drive according to task manage atleast, I had it in full on lock up, from trying to move a layer up in the order and task manager is still showing a rather low Hard Drive usage!

that is one thing win8 did right and thats task manage sort of lol

I noticed that clicks and movements were sluggish in general, when using Win 8 on a laptop. I was able to turn off some of the annoying gestures and other mouse pad functions by tweaking the Synaptics driver setup. It helped a little but not that much.

Are you noticing any sluggishness while selecting various options in other apps or it it just with GIMP?

just purely with GIMP :/

and don't get me wrong with some of these I could expect it as I'm really ripping through some menus but Smudging and moving these layers orders around is next to unbearable

Another thing, did they get rid of the ability to drag layers to reorder them? or is that just because of the sluggishness?

No, you can still reorder layers by dragging them.

I think you're the first member had who has mentioned running GIMP in Win8. I guess you're officially the Win8 tester.

Maybe a member who uses GIMP for Windows can chime in with more suggestions. I'm pretty much out of ideas.

Don't worry about it, thanks for the help you provided

and oh joy testing for win8

I'd be totally alright if this computer wasn't as "modern" and ran win7 lol

See if that can help you in getting your Partha's build fast :

I was using the win32 version of Partha 2.8.4 build and it was sluggish as you noticed yourself.
The "official" 2.8.4 (i mean the one from the download page of the gimp.org website) was much faster and responsive.

It happened to be all the work of a broken cairo library in the win32 version of Partha's build, while the one from the "official" release was playing nice.

So try this :
install the "official" 2.8.4 and in
...\GIMP 2\bin\
Make a copy of the file named libcairo-2.dll

Take that copy and replace the file of the same name that is in the bin\ folder of your Partha version.
For me it was like night and day, Partha build became as fast and responsive as the official build was.

But that was with the win32 version (and i'm on XP) , i have no idea if the win64 version from Partha suffered of the same problem, but still worth a try if you wish to use Partha's version

Funny. I didn't have any issues with Cairo, and the Partha win32 build in Vista.

I have some news, I have a weird "combination drive" on my computer, supposed to be the 5400rpm harddrive and a small SSD. (who knows)
But I tried installing GIMP portable on the SSD portion and it's still extremely sluggish.

Also the GIMP from gimp.org was still sluggish for me, and replacing the Cairo from gimp.org into partha's build made Partha's throw an error
"The program can't start because libgcc_s_seh-1.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstaling the program to fix this."

didn't touch libgcc_s_seh-1 but w/e



I couldn't explain it, but I started the file called "GIMP.exe" from within the BIN folder and now I have NO ISSUES...friggin shortcut

and now the shortcut version works aswell...

I hope this isn't just a temporary fix but for now I can just be pleased it works

Okay an update (sorry to sort of revive something dead) I have ubuntu running off my flash drive right now and installed GIMP (working on the full install as well but I'm having issues but thats another story) anyway just had a 5000x5000 image open and was abusing GIMP as much as possible and have come to the conclusion Win8 is my problem

I am pretty sure I'm totally done with win8 now. But thanks I had used star dock or similar on my vista machine a while back

New window versions do not play well with GIMP at all.

I have 8 too
I am using samj portable that seems running well

Anyway i suggest you a quick experiment
1) close wireless and disable internet
2) Now switch OFF firewall and ALL antivirus (no danger to do, if you are not connected )
TAKE CARE: antivirus don't like be closed, most of time when you try to close they just go on working hidden;
click on each antivirus and chose EXIT, and confirm (will be warnings...you just confirm each time

3 Now if gimp goes faster you know what happened, some program is suspiciously monitoring each gimp process and obviously that slow down a lot
SOLUTION : be disconnected from the net is not a solution,
Luckily each decent anti-virus /firewall has a way to add item to the white list (instead then "white list " some use the word "ignore") ...so just add the whole Gimp to the ignore list