Android Studio emulator extremely slow

Question

I have Android Studio updated at latest release (today is April 22nd, 2017) and Haxm installed, but the Android emulator is completely useless. It is extremely slow.

I don't know why, a few days ago it was running fast and smooth. Then I restarted my computer and it became extremely slow. It must be some reason for this.

Please, do not answer to install Genymotion. Genymotion doesn't allow me to emulate the phone in the free version.

As I said, intel haxm is installed.

The message "Process system isn't responding" is displaying all the time.

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UPDATE April 25th, 2017: My Android Studio installed a new update (I cannot specify what got updated) and now the emulator suddenly runs fast again (the same AVDs, I haven't created new ones) But this same behavior has happened before. I am sure that in a few days/weeks it will suddenly run extremely slow again, and it will be this way for a few days/weeks, after another update will run smooth again. This has been happening for me during months. I will post here when that happens.

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UPDATE April 30th, 2017: My Android Studio installed a new update (Google Repository) and now the emulator suddenly is going extremely slow (the same AVDs, I haven't created new ones). I am sure that in a few days/weeks it will suddenly run fast again.

Answer 1

I've faced similar issue, even though I haven't got low end computer it took up to 15 minutes when my virtual device come alive and then it was extremely slow. After a lot of googling I found this solution:

Go to control panel - find Programs and Features - Turn on or off Windows Features - checked Windows Hypervisor Platform.

After some installation (and maybe restarting your computer) your virtual device should work properly

Answer 2

Just update Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator(HAXM installer) to lastest version from studio

It really make change.

Answer 3

I've used the solution of Márcio Oliveira, but in only one step: on my laptop with 2 integrated GPUs from Nvidia Control Panel -> Managed 3D Settings I forced the qemu-system-i386 application (located in \AppData\Local\Android\sdk\emulator\qemu\windows-x86_64) to run on the Nvidia processor, this resolved my problem.

Answer 4

After experiencing the exact same issue and reading the other comments in this thread it dawned on me that attempting to run twin monitors and an emulator on a laptop with an Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset might be too much for the chip.

I removed the second monitor and restarted Android studio and the problem disappeared immediately. I can now run the emulator at full speed with the "Hardware - GLES 2.0" setting.

and thinking back this problem started around the same time I replaced my old 17 inch secondary display monitor with a far larger 25 inch flat panel. I think the solution for me will be to go and find an smaller display with a lower resolution.

Answer 5

Finally I've found a solution (at least to me). I've followed this steps (I don't know if all of them are necessary): 1) Manually updated HAXM to last version from Intel website 2) As my laptop has 2 integrated GPU's (Intel and Nvidia, where Intel is the default and weaker one), in Nvidia GeForce control panel, I've forced both emulator.exe and qemu-system-i386.exe to use Nvidia card instead Intel. 3) I've created new AVD's with x86 image and setup the GPU to use "Hardware - GLES 2.0" profile.

Now the emulator is incredibly fast. It seems better than never.

Answer 6

In my case the problem was (and still is) the emulated graphics settings (see AVD / Virtual Device Configuration), probably indicating a problem with video card and/or video driver. I had very random speed using Automatic or Hardware - GLES 2.0 - sometimes it's silky smooth, sometimes it's unacceptable. (On a side note: I find these issues only on Android 6.0+ emulator, for example Android 4.1 is always very fast).

After switching to Software - GLES 2.0 performance is now acceptable: not very fast, but usable, and also the color gradients are not as nice (it's software rendering after all). I hope it works for you too.