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i have a report published on a fabric workspace. the capacity is F16, we have around 15 users and growing, the capacity usage average is between 50-70% daily. the report is directquery reading from a warehouse view that updates every minute.on power bi desktop, it is very fast in terms of performance, but on the service, it takes around 5-10 seconds to load sometimes. anyone has an idea what could be the issue?
Solved! Go to Solution.
Desktop can feel “instant” because it benefits from local caching, fewer concurrent workloads, and sometimes a “warmer” session. In the Service you add extra latency layers (capacity scheduling, network hop, rendering) and you’re sharing resources with other users/operations.
If near-real-time is the goal: consider a hybrid approach (Import/DirectLake for most visuals + DirectQuery only where needed), or use a small imported “hot” table refreshed frequently.
Reduce page weight: fewer visuals per page, avoid heavy tables, reduce high-cardinality columns, turn off unnecessary interactions.
Optimize the warehouse: avoid complex views for DirectQuery; push logic into a prepared table/aggregation that Power BI can hit cheaply.
Hi @Hussein_charif ,
May I know if the issue has been resolved? If you need any additional information or clarification, please let us know.
Thank you.
Hi @Hussein_charif ,
When you have a moment, please review my previous response. I hope it’s helpful. Let us know if any additional details are required.
Thanks.
Desktop can feel “instant” because it benefits from local caching, fewer concurrent workloads, and sometimes a “warmer” session. In the Service you add extra latency layers (capacity scheduling, network hop, rendering) and you’re sharing resources with other users/operations.
If near-real-time is the goal: consider a hybrid approach (Import/DirectLake for most visuals + DirectQuery only where needed), or use a small imported “hot” table refreshed frequently.
Reduce page weight: fewer visuals per page, avoid heavy tables, reduce high-cardinality columns, turn off unnecessary interactions.
Optimize the warehouse: avoid complex views for DirectQuery; push logic into a prepared table/aggregation that Power BI can hit cheaply.
what I am saying is that performance can be different based on available memory vs data size
PBI Desktop uses the resources of the machine it is running on
PBI CLoud uses the resources your capacity allocates
If this helped, please consider giving kudos and mark as a solution
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Francesco Bergamaschi
MBA, M.Eng, M.Econ, Professor of BI
Hi @Hussein_charif,
this is usually a memory issue. Please go to task manager and see how much memory on the computer where the desktop runs is been absorbed for every update. You might have more RAM on the server where PBI Desktop runs than on the cloud. Or it might be an Internet connection thing
If this helped, please consider giving kudos and mark as a solution
@me in replies or I'll lose your thread
Want to check your DAX skills? Answer my biweekly DAX challenges on the kubisco Linkedin page
Consider voting this Power BI idea
Francesco Bergamaschi
MBA, M.Eng, M.Econ, Professor of BI
Hi @FBergamaschi , so what you're saying is that it's an issue from my device, and not necessarely from power bi service app?
Hi @Hussein_charif ,
No, this isn’t a problem with your device. If the report runs smoothly in Power BI Desktop but is slower in the Power BI Service, the issue is related to service side behavior rather than your local machine’s memory or CPU. In the Service, reports use Fabric capacity, so local resources don’t affect performance.
With DirectQuery, performance in the Service can be influenced by factors like capacity load, simultaneous queries, caching limits, and how visuals request data. It’s normal for these aspects to impact Service performance, even if things work well in Desktop.
Regards,
Yugandhar.
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