Critical Performance Regression: Source Control "Review Pane" freezes high-end workstation ($5k+). Need option to disable

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Since the Cursor 2.0 update, the forced “AI Review Pane” in Source Control has introduced severe performance regressions.

I am using a high-end workstation (approx. $5,000 USD value), yet simply clicking a file in the Source Control tab causes the entire IDE to freeze and lag. The rendering overhead of this new view is unacceptably high compared to the classic file editor.

The Bug:

I unchecked git.openDiffOnClick to avoid this heavy view.

Cursor ignores this setting and forces the Review Pane to open anyway.

This results in immediate UI freezing, making it impossible to review code efficiently.

Steps to Reproduce

Go to Settings and uncheck git.openDiffOnClick (to strictly disable the diff view).

Open the “Source Control” tab.

Single-click on any modified file.

Observe that the slow “AI Review Pane” opens instead of the regular file editor (Ignoring the setting).

Observe significant freezing and application lag (Performance issue).

Expected Behavior

When git.openDiffOnClick is disabled, clicking a file should open the regular file editor immediately without loading the heavy AI Review UI.

I urgently need the classic (pre-2.0) fast behavior back. Please provide an option to completely DISABLE the AI Review Pane.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

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2.png1460×1325 79.3 KB

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.36 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 55c9bc11e99cedd1fb93fbb7996abf779c583150
Date: 2025-12-18T06:25:21.733Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

For AI issues: which model did you use?

N/A (This is a UI/Performance regression, not a model generation issue.)

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

N/A

Additional Information

To reiterate, my PC specs are extremely high (approx. $5,000 USD value). This freezing issue is NOT a hardware limitation but a software optimization failure in the new Review Pane.

The UI thread gets blocked immediately when the diff view loads. I strongly request a preference setting to disable this view entirely.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

1 Like
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3

Yes, this is a huge problem. I have a fairly expensive Macbook M2 Pro with 64 gigs of ram, and this darn diff/review mode can really cause it to chug. I think they are holding onto diff details perpetually. In some sense I think that is acting like a memory leak, but, the more severe issue I think is that something in the background must be processing all the diff details being held onto in a loop or something, as this can bring even a powerful machine to a crawl.

There was a note yesterday, in one of the megathreads, that they are going back to the classic review feature when you just click files in the changed files list in the agent. HOWEVER, they did not say they are going to remove the new diff/review mode stuff. IMO as long as the diff/review mode stuff is still active, then it will still be a problem so we users REALLY DO need a way to completely and entirely disable that feature, because it seems to have caused a number of problems, beyond this performance issue.

4

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue - several users are seeing similar performance problems with the Review Pane.

The team is working on optimizing that pane. You can follow the discussion in the official megathread: [Megathread] Cursor layout and UI feedback

Temporary workaround: Use Ctrl+Click on a file in Source Control to open the regular diff view instead of the Review Pane.

5

2.2.43 should resolve this and was released in the last day. Thanks for reporting and apologies.

6

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