Review report performance using Performance Analyzer
A good report designer is always looking for ways to improve the end-user experience, and report speed is a common complaint. In an enterprise with many reports, every millisecond can improve the experience. By using Performance Analyzer, you can identify suboptimal report elements and adjust where possible.
What is Performance Analyzer?
Performance Analyzer is a built-in feature in Power BI Desktop that measures how long report elements take to update and refresh, allowing you to see if certain elements are significantly slower.
Monitor with Performance Analyzer
In Power BI Desktop, navigate to the View ribbon, then select Performance Analyzer. The Performance Analyzer pane will appear to the right of the canvas. When you're ready to interact with the report, select the Start Recording button, perform report actions like adjusting slicers, highlighting values, changing pages, etc. You can also Refresh visuals, and then Stop when you're done.
Some easy ways to improve performance include:
- Limit visuals per page. If the entire page is slow to load, consider spreading visuals across multiple pages instead.
- Remove unnecessary columns and rows. For slower queries, review the data and determine if anything can be removed.
- Set data types. By default, Power BI will assume data types for imported columns, which should be verified, and all new columns must be manually set.
- Apply most restrictive filters. More data will take more time to load, and isn't always the best user experience either. Consider limited results first, and allow drilling for more details.
Tip
The best time to optimize your report is before sharing it with end-users as it allows you to improve performance before soliciting user feedback. However, improvement is a continual process and can and should be done regularly once the report is live as well. Stay informed with the Optimization guide for Power BI.