Substance Painter Lag
Slow viewport and brush strokes while painting
Also known as: Painter slow · Painter laggy · Substance Painter performance · Painter low fps · Painter freezing · Painter viewport slow 4K
Quick answer
Substance Painter lags when the texture resolution, viewport effects or layer stack are too heavy for the graphics card. Lower the Texture Set resolution to 1K or 2K while you paint and raise it at export, turn off heavy Display Settings such as ambient occlusion, subsurface scattering and bloom, and reduce the viewport resolution. Close other programs that use the GPU, and make sure Painter runs on your dedicated graphics card.
How to fix it
Large stacks with many filters and generators on 4K or 8K sets are the usual cause, so merge finished layers into folders, bake them, or temporarily hide complex effects. Keep the project on a fast drive and watch the video memory in the status bar. Painting at a lower resolution is fine because the strokes keep their detail when you raise the resolution, but check the edges of masks and filters afterwards.
