Bug 515820 - Krita 5.3.0 beta 1 : User Interface is Absurdly laggy, slow and stuttering in many places
Summary: Krita 5.3.0 beta 1 : User Interface is Absurdly laggy, slow and stuttering in...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: krita
Classification: Applications
Component: Usability (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 5.3.0-beta1
Platform: Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Krita Bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-02-10 15:54 UTC by stephen
Modified: 2026-03-31 11:55 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
krita 5.3.0 UI and general lag (2.33 MB, video/x-matroska)
2026-02-12 19:45 UTC, stephen
Details
description : status bar (16.34 KB, image/png)
2026-02-13 15:16 UTC, stephen
Details

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Description stephen 2026-02-10 15:54:24 UTC
***

SUMMARY
Starting a certain build version, Krita 5.3.0 prealpha and now Krita 5.3.0's first beta, is
running with a UI extremely slow in almost all places. 
The only place that is seemingly not affected is the scratchpad. 

STEPS TO REPRODUCE 
1. Open a document and create multiple layers, at least 3 or 4
2. highlight one layer or the other with the mouse left click
3. on the canvas, attempt to rapidly make fast strokes with a 
simple brush. The basic opacity or ink brush is fine

OBSERVED RESULT
Stutter, delays, or lags with all the operations described above.
Major freeze with the rapid strokes on the canvas.
Oddly enough, the scratchpad isn't affected by the lag and stutters/delays.

EXPECTED RESULT
No stutter or lag on the UI or the canvas.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows 10 Pro

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
CPU : Core-i7 3rd gen mobile
GPU : Nvidia GT640 M
Comment 1 wolthera 2026-02-10 15:55:14 UTC
Can you identify which build it started at? (Or the last build that did not have this problem)
Comment 2 stephen 2026-02-11 12:59:39 UTC
(In reply to wolthera from comment #1)
> Can you identify which build it started at? (Or the last build that did not
> have this problem)

Last prealpha build I remember to not have this problem is build 9c6e268b, version 5.3.0.
Comment 3 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-02-11 14:47:04 UTC
Hi, Stephen!

Could you please make a video of the problem?

And could you also check if you have GPU Acceleration enabled in the settings?
Comment 4 stephen 2026-02-12 19:45:13 UTC
Created attachment 189498 [details]
krita 5.3.0 UI and general lag

(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #3)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you please make a video of the problem?
> 
> And could you also check if you have GPU Acceleration enabled in the
> settings?

Greetings Dmitry.
Check the video appended above.
Comment 5 stephen 2026-02-12 19:51:31 UTC
(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #3)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you please make a video of the problem?
> 
> And could you also check if you have GPU Acceleration enabled in the
> settings?

I always use GPU Acceleration by the way. It was activated in the settings. 
But even if GPU Acceleration is turned off, all the UI shouldn't lag like this.
Comment 6 stephen 2026-02-12 19:56:10 UTC
(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #3)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you please make a video of the problem?
> 
> And could you also check if you have GPU Acceleration enabled in the
> settings?

Update : after unticking and ticking "Canvas acceleration", the app crashes.
No idea why.
Comment 7 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-02-13 14:32:40 UTC
Hi, Stephen!

Could you check what exactly says the yellow label on the status bar of your Krita instance? It usually means that Krita doesn't have enough RAM. Which could basically explain why everything looks so slow...
Comment 8 stephen 2026-02-13 15:12:08 UTC
(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #7)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you check what exactly says the yellow label on the status bar of your
> Krita instance? It usually means that Krita doesn't have enough RAM. Which
> could basically explain why everything looks so slow...

I do not think RAM is the issue. 
I mean, I am running the same config for older versions of Krita 5.3.0
And it runs fine there. Surely this beta update did not suddenly begin to
consume more RAM, yes? 

Even when it turns red, it is never this slow. 
And like I said, the issue is about the UI in general. 
Even without opening a document, all is slow, as you click on the
drop-down menu buttons on the Menu Bar and scroll through. 

It is very very slow. 

( I give Krita 4GB of Memory limit RAM and 511 MB of swap )
Comment 9 stephen 2026-02-13 15:16:09 UTC
Created attachment 189532 [details]
description : status bar

(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #7)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you check what exactly says the yellow label on the status bar of your
> Krita instance? It usually means that Krita doesn't have enough RAM. Which
> could basically explain why everything looks so slow...

File appended for the info.
Comment 10 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-02-14 12:46:07 UTC
Hi, Stephen!

Could you please check two things?

1) Could you check if you have enough free memory at the OS level. Just check the status in the Tasks Manager, if Swap File is used.

It seems like you have 8GiB in total, and that might be a really low amount for Windows 11. Perhaps you got some Windows update that installed you some Edge/Copilot things?

2) If that doesn't show anything, try removing (with a backup) all Krita settings in %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA%.
Comment 11 stephen 2026-02-15 17:06:39 UTC
(In reply to Dmitry Kazakov from comment #10)
> Hi, Stephen!
> 
> Could you please check two things?
> 
> 1) Could you check if you have enough free memory at the OS level. Just
> check the status in the Tasks Manager, if Swap File is used.
> 
> It seems like you have 8GiB in total, and that might be a really low amount
> for Windows 11. Perhaps you got some Windows update that installed you some
> Edge/Copilot things?
> 
> 2) If that doesn't show anything, try removing (with a backup) all Krita
> settings in %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA%.

1 ) Yes, I have enough RAM available. The swap file is not the problem here. Even when i open a brand new A4 
document at 300ppi, with only 2 layers, Krita consumes at most 300 Megs for itself and my 
document( 33 Megs of RAM in actuality for the document itself ). 
Given that I have 12 Gigs of RAM, that's like consuming only 2% of my RAM. It is not much, really.
Also I don't do windows updates for the sake of stability. I have disabled everything that makes updates 
automatic since I prefer the manual route.

2 ) I literally tried a brand new environment as suggested. Issue remains the same. 
Please remember that an older prealpha 5.3.0 version works without that UI lag issue. 
Also Krita 6.0.0 beta 1 doesn't have this UI lag problem either.  Remember also that the scratchpad is not affected at all, however
the items of the brush settings UI are affected.
Comment 12 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-03-26 14:35:18 UTC
Git commit 3391d892b69f6f139dffec30e20701b215dd7211 by Dmitry Kazakov.
Committed on 26/03/2026 at 14:34.
Pushed by dkazakov into branch 'master'.

Fix accessibility-induced problems on Windows

The QML-based tooltips caused too many updates
of the accessibility object name, so the system got
just drowned in them.
Related: bug 512694, bug 516149

M  +1    -1    ext_qt/CMakeLists.txt

https://invent.kde.org/packaging/krita-deps-management/-/commit/3391d892b69f6f139dffec30e20701b215dd7211
Comment 13 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-03-27 09:02:30 UTC
Git commit b7adcdc551cd47c79f59403ba0a68a7a73b76e1c by Dmitry Kazakov.
Committed on 27/03/2026 at 09:02.
Pushed by dkazakov into branch 'transition.now/qt6'.

[qt][win] Add a switch to disable accessibility on Windows
Related: bug 512694, bug 516149

M  +1    -1    ext_qt/CMakeLists.txt

https://invent.kde.org/packaging/krita-deps-management/-/commit/b7adcdc551cd47c79f59403ba0a68a7a73b76e1c
Comment 14 Dmitry Kazakov 2026-03-31 11:55:17 UTC
Git commit 8e132683450445b0aed4f6a955a5fc8c0df19c79 by Dmitry Kazakov.
Committed on 31/03/2026 at 11:45.
Pushed by dkazakov into branch 'transition.now/win-clang21'.

Fix accessibility-induced problems on Windows

The QML-based tooltips caused too many updates
of the accessibility object name, so the system got
just drowned in them.
Related: bug 512694, bug 516149

M  +1    -1    ext_qt/CMakeLists.txt

https://invent.kde.org/packaging/krita-deps-management/-/commit/8e132683450445b0aed4f6a955a5fc8c0df19c79