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skexxx
skexxx
Participant
April 19, 2026

P: (MacOS26) Photoshop v27.5 & later extremely high GPU usage from the WindowServer process

  • April 19, 2026
  • 31 replies
  • 962 views

I have several M1 Macs—from Mac mini to iMac—and they all have the same issue. Whenever I open Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign, even if I don’t do anything, WindowServer will jump to around 80–90% GPU usage. Once I start working with files, even just opening a single image, the whole system becomes choppy and starts dropping frames, with GPU usage almost maxed out.

But : if I switch the app to full-screen with menu bar mode (press F), the window shadows disappear, GPU usage drops back to normal, and everything runs smoothly—even with large files open. This makes it pretty clear the issue is related to how window shadows are being handled in macOS 26 and how it interacts with Adobe apps.

It’s been months since Adobe 26 came out, and I’ve been waiting for updates to fix this, but even the latest versions still haven’t solved it. At this point, I’m wondering if it’s even fixable.

M1 Macs are not that old—most Mac minis and iMacs from around 2021–2022 are still M1, so they’re definitely not outdated. It shouldn’t be the case that running basic Photoshop functions causes this level of lag. Mac and Adobe are supposed to be a perfect combination.

Even though macOS 26 seems to put more load on the GPU, Apple’s own apps don’t have this issue at all. For example, Final Cut Pro runs large projects smoothly without any problems like this caused by window shadows.

I really hope this gets fixed. Or is it just impossible to solve, meaning the only options are either upgrading to the newest Mac or  back to macOS Sequoia?...

      Pinned Reply By Sameer K

      Hey, All! Thank you for your patience and for adding these details. The team is aware of this behavior, and we will announce the fix here once it is available to try.

      Workarounds for now: 

      1. Set the monitor refresh rate to 60hz in macOS Settings
      2. Diable Photoshop’s appication frame from Window menu > Application Frame

      (Mentions for recent merge: ​@philippe642 ​@Petar26655212pizq & ​@tomzag)

      31 replies

      Show previous replies
      Srishti Bali
      Community Manager
      Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      August 6, 2026

       Hi ​@philippe642 ,

       

      Thanks for taking the time to share such a detailed report. I'm glad to hear the Illustrator issue has been resolved. To help us investigate this further, could you please share the following?

      • Your System Info (Help > System Info > Copy, then paste the details here).
      • Does this occur with all documents, including a new blank document, or only with specific files?
      • If possible, could you share a short screen recording showing the GPU usage increasing while Photoshop is visible and dropping when the application is minimized or hidden?
      • Are you using an external monitor? If so, does the behavior change when using only the built-in display?
      • Does the issue occur only in Full Screen mode, or does it also happen in a floating or windowed workspace?

       

      In the meantime, could you also try the following and let us know if any of them make a difference?

       

      Looking forward to your reply.

      Thanks, Srishti Bali | Community & Engagement Strategist, Digital Imaging | Adobe
      philippe642
      philippe642
      Participant
      August 6, 2026

      Hello,

      I am reporting this issue here following a suggestion from the Illustrator team.

      I originally reported what appeared to be the same problem in the Illustrator UserVoice forum:

      https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50552691-high-gpu-load-on-macos-26-tahoe

      The Illustrator engineers investigated it and confirmed they found the cause. The issue is now fixed in the current Illustrator Beta (30.8.72), and I can confirm that the fix works correctly on my MacBook Pro M1 Max.

      Unfortunately, Photoshop still shows the same behaviour.

      Configuration

      • MacBook Pro 16” M1 Max
      • macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
      • Latest Photoshop version

      Observed behaviour

      • WindowServer (not Photoshop) continuously uses a high amount of GPU while Photoshop is visible.
      • Photoshop CPU usage remains low.
      • GPU usage is proportional to the visible area of the Photoshop window.
      • Minimizing or hiding the application immediately drops GPU usage.
      • The behaviour is very similar to what was previously observed in Illustrator before the Beta fix.

      Since the Illustrator team already identified and fixed a similar issue in their application, I hope these observations may help determine whether Photoshop is affected by the same underlying problem or by a similar one.

      Thank you.

        Z
        zrngajic
        Participant
        July 21, 2026

        Same issue confirmed on Intel — with measurements and a documented root cause + one-line fix from Chromium's source code.

        Setup: iMac 27" 2020 (Intel), AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB, 64 GB RAM, macOS 26.5.2, latest Photoshop 2026 and Illustrator 2026.

        Symptoms — identical to OP: with Photoshop and Illustrator open in windowed mode, WindowServer climbs continuously (I measured it at 83% CPU / 28% GPU in Activity Monitor, with GPU History pinned near max). The entire system stutters — cursor, window switching, everything — not just the Adobe apps. Quitting one of the apps (or Photoshop crashing) instantly frees the GPU and the system recovers. RAM is irrelevant: 64 GB installed, memory pressure green, swap at zero while the problem is active.

        I can also confirm the workaround: pressing F (Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar) makes the problem disappear immediately — GPU History drops to normal in real time. Since fullscreen windows have no shadow, this points at window shadow compositing, exactly as OP suggested.

        Important: this thread's reports are all Apple Silicon (M1/M3). My machine is Intel/AMD — so this is NOT an Apple Silicon–specific issue. It affects the whole macOS 26 + Adobe combination regardless of GPU architecture.

        Now the root cause, documented in Chromium's source code. See components/remote_cocoa/app_shim/native_widget_mac_nswindow.mm (function AreWindowShadowsDisabled, around line 31):
        https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:components/remote_cocoa/app_shim/native_widget_mac_nswindow.mm;l=31

        Google's engineers document that when window-server-generated shadows are combined with layered windows and heavy compositing load, WindowServer becomes unstable — in their words, it seems to crash "with distressing frequency" (their bug trackers: crbug.com/899286, crbug.com/828031, crbug.com/515627). Their mitigation is literally one line: overriding setHasShadow: to force NO on affected windows.

        Adobe app windows are exactly this case: very large, layered, shadowed windows — and macOS 26 clearly made the shadow compositing path much more expensive. Users cannot patch this from outside (SIP / hardened runtime prevents it), so it has to come from Adobe: either call setHasShadow:NO on the main application window on macOS 26, or add a preference to disable the window shadow, until Apple fixes the regression on their side.

        This is a one-line class of fix for a bug that currently makes Photoshop + Illustrator barely usable outside fullscreen. Please escalate — happy to provide any additional measurements or logs.

          mig90501573
          mig90501573
          Participating Frequently
          July 1, 2026

          I can confirm that this solved it, now the GPU utilization, so far, does not go off the rails!

            E
            elgasa
            Inspiring
            July 1, 2026

            Although this isn’t a fundamental solution, I’ve found a workaround other than ‘Full-screen mode with menu’, so I’m reporting it here.

            This workaround can be applied to all the affected applications—Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver. Even if you have all four running simultaneously, the GPU usage will drop to 0% if you leave them idle.

             

            [How to do it]

            Go to Menu > Window > and deselect ‘Application Frame’.

             

            After that, arrange the panels as you wish and save your workspace.

              S
              sputnik6
              Known Participant
              July 1, 2026

              THAT WORKS, THANKS A TON!!

                tomzag
                tomzag
                Inspiring
                June 27, 2026

                Just wanted to flag that I'm hitting the same bug. I've written up a detailed report on the Photoshop Prerelease Forum, and Adobe has now logged it.

                My Photoshop Plugins: plugins.pixelsucht.net
                  S
                  sputnik6
                  Known Participant
                  May 29, 2026

                  I have the same problem and had opened up my own thread before finding yours. Will follow. 

                    Ged_Traynor
                    Community Expert
                    Ged_TraynorCommunity Expert
                    Community Expert
                    May 16, 2026

                    ​@Gleeful_videography15B9 there’s a similar reported issue here

                     

                      G
                      Gleeful_videography15B9
                      Participant
                      May 16, 2026

                      Hey everyone,

                      I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with Illustrator and Photoshop for the past months. But the situation is getting unbearable.

                      I have a MacBook Pro M1 Max and a MacBook Air M4. Both with the same macOS Tahoe version, and the latest Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator versions.

                      When both are sitting completely idle with nothing open, they're at 0% CPU and 0% GPU load.
                      Then I open Illustrator. No document. I don't touch anything. Just the app sitting there. I check Activity Monitor and the WindowServer process shows:

                      • on the M1 Max, 0% GPU
                      • on the M4 Air, 20% GPU

                      The situation gets worse when I open Photoshop at the same time, where
                      the GPU goes to 50% load for the M4 Air just by doing nothing.
                      The M1 Max stays at 0%.

                      Of course when you do actual work in the programs, the GPU load gets even higher, to a point where they get laggy and unbearable to work with. The M1 Max shows no such problem.

                      I tried the following and nothing worked:

                      • Turning off Animated Zoom
                      • Turning off Real-Time Drawing and Editing
                      • Closing the Libraries panel and the Discover panel
                      • Resetting prefs with Cmd+Option+Shift on launch
                      • A full reinstall of Illustrator and Photoshop
                      • A clean macOS install on the M4 (yes, really)

                      The only thing that works and brings the GPU back to 0% is putting Illustrator and Photoshop into full screen (by pressing F).

                      My guess is that Tahoe and Adobe aren't optimized yet for the M4 🤷‍♂️.

                      Please fix it Adobe.

                        Sameer K
                        Community Manager
                        Sameer KCommunity Manager
                        Community Manager
                        May 13, 2026

                        Hey, all. Thanks for bringing this up. I’ll help you figure this out. On macOS, all GPU compositing routes through WindowServer, making Photoshop's draw calls visible in the Activity Monitor. 

                         

                        In Photoshop’s settings, go to Performance > Uncheck ‘Foreground Composite Caching’ & go to Advanced Settings > Uncheck GPU Compositing and restart Photoshop. 

                         

                        Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
                        Sameer K

                        E
                        elgasa
                        Inspiring
                        May 19, 2026

                        What you are referring to is the internal processing within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. There is no change in GPU usage (the attached image shows Illustrator and Photoshop running with settings that do not utilise the GPU). As GPU usage varies depending on the display mode, this is unrelated to the applications’ internal rendering engines. This difference is likely due to whether or not window shadows are applied to the overall interface.

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