PyQt, QThread: GUI freeze with large amount of SIGNAL from another thread (QListWidget massive update) - python-3.x

Question

I have an app that starts the GUI and performs "the heavy part" of the code in another thread using QThread. In this thread I emit a SIGNAL that is connected to the GUI Class and that performs addItem on QListWidget.
There are a massive "signaling" from this thread to the GUI and it "freeze".
Is there a way to avoid this? Have I to use another mini GUI in different thread only for QListWidget?
Thanks
EDIT:
This is the thread that execute the heavy logic
class YourThreadName(QThread):
def __init__(self, some variables):
QThread.__init__(self)
def __del__(self):
self.wait()
def run(self):
# Here there is a for cycle that emits a SIGNAL
for ... :
...
self.emit(SIGNAL("needed_variable"), needed_variable)
...
In the GUI Class there are some methods, particularly:
class GUI(QtGui.QMainWindow, GUI.Ui_MainWindow):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(GUI, self).__init__(parent)
self.setupUi(self)
def ... (self):
...
def start_main_code(self):
self.new_thread = YourThreadName(some variables)
self.connect(self.new_thread, SIGNAL("finished()"), self.done)
self.connect(self.new_thread, SIGNAL("needed_variable"), self.show_variable)
self.new_thread.start()
def show_variable(self, data):
self.QListWidget_object.addItem(data)
def ... (self):
...

Answer 1

The script below is a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable Example based on the information currently given in your question and comments. It emits data from a worker thread every 10ms and updates a list-widget in the GUI. On my Linux system (using Python-3.6.3, Qt-4.8.7 and PyQt-4.12.1) it does not block or freeze the GUI. There is obviously some flickering whilst the list-widget is being updated, but I am able to select items, scroll up and down, click the button, etc. And if I increase the sleep to 25ms, I don't even get any flickering.
UPDATE:
The performance can be improved by using setUniformItemSizes and sending the messages in batches. On my system, after a slight initial delay, the list populates with fifty thousand items almost instantly.
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
class Worker(QtCore.QThread):
message = QtCore.pyqtSignal(object)
def run(self):
batch = []
for index in range(50000):
if len(batch) < 200:
batch.append(index)
continue
self.message.emit(batch)
batch = []
class Window(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super(Window, self).__init__()
self.listWidget = QtGui.QListWidget()
self.listWidget.setUniformItemSizes(True)
self.button = QtGui.QPushButton('Start')
self.button.clicked.connect(self.handleButton)
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(self.listWidget)
layout.addWidget(self.button)
self.worker = Worker()
self.worker.message.connect(self.handleMessages)
def handleMessages(self, batch):
for message in batch:
self.listWidget.addItem('Item (%s)' % message)
def handleButton(self):
if not self.worker.isRunning():
self.worker.start()
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Window()
window.setGeometry(600, 50, 200, 400)
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())