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P: Photoshop 27.8 GPU Rendering Artifacts and Color Banding due to Precise color management for HDR display setting under technology previews

Forum|Forum|23 days ago
June 30, 2026
36 replies
245 views

Hello,

I have encountered what appears to be a GPU-related rendering bug when converting RGB images to CMYK in Photoshop.

System

Photoshop 27.8
macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
Mac Studio M2 Ultra
Apple Silicon GPU

Problem

Whenever GPU acceleration is enabled, converting an RGB image to CMYK produces severe black rendering artifacts across the image. The artifacts appear immediately after the color conversion and make the document unusable.

The issue occurs with multiple images and is fully reproducible on my system.

Steps to Reproduce

Open an RGB image.
Make sure Use Graphics Processor is enabled under Preferences > Performance.
Convert the document to CMYK (either Image > Mode > CMYK Color or Edit > Convert to Profile).
Large black artifacts appear throughout the image.

Expected Result

The RGB image should convert normally to CMYK without any visual corruption.

Actual Result

The converted image contains large black rendering artifacts that were not present in the original RGB document.

Workaround

Disabling Use Graphics Processor completely resolves the issue.

After restarting Photoshop with GPU acceleration disabled, the exact same RGB image converts to CMYK correctly with no artifacts.

Additional Information

The problem started recently. Earlier Photoshop versions on the same hardware did not show this behavior.
The issue does not appear to be related to a specific image.
Since disabling GPU acceleration immediately fixes the problem, this seems to be related to Photoshop's Metal GPU rendering pipeline rather than the color conversion itself.
I can provide the original RGB file, the corrupted CMYK result, screenshots, the GPU Compatibility Report, and the Photoshop System Information if needed.

Has anyone else experienced this issue on Apple Silicon Macs, particularly on an M2 Ultra?

Thank you.

Adobe PS Bug Report.txt

Pinned Reply By D Fosse

Known bug in the Mac Photoshop version. Uncheck “precise color management for HDR display” in Settings > Technology Previews and restart. If already unchecked, recycle.

Show previous replies

Comickidz20

Participant

So my Photoshop recently had an update, and for some reason, whenever I open up a document, it always seems to have this weird faded out tint to it. I’ll use one of my artworks as an example of this.

I’ve updated my Mac and Camera Raw, but the image on Photoshop still seems faded. I would like to know what happened.

albertos23258106

Participant

Hello,

I am experiencing a severe canvas rendering bug after updating to Photoshop 27.8 on macOS. Dark gradients, shadows, and color transitions appear heavily posterized with blocky, jagged banding lines.

Through testing, I isolated a critical detail: this visual banding occurs exclusively when working in CMYK mode. It affects the entire canvas view, including imported CMYK illustrations, photos, and embedded artwork, rather than just gradients drawn with the Gradient Tool. If I open the exact same file in RGB mode, or if I downgrade and open the CMYK file in version 27.7, the gradients render flawlessly.

The only way to resolve the banding in version 27.8 is to completely disable "Use Graphics Processor" in the Performance preferences. However, this severely degrades application performance and disables essential GPU features.

My System Specifications:

Photoshop Version: 27.8.0
Hardware: Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB RAM)
Operating System: macOS Tahoe 26.5.1
Monitor: Occurs across all connected external monitors.

It appears the new OpenColorIO canvas management system is failing to properly calculate the CMYK-to-RGB display conversion on Apple Silicon GPUs. I hope this specific detail helps the engineering team isolate the root cause for an upcoming patch.

Thank you!

D

displaystar

Inspiring

Hello,

I am experiencing a severe canvas rendering bug after updating to Photoshop 27.8 on macOS. Dark gradients, shadows, and color transitions appear heavily posterized with blocky, jagged banding lines.

Through testing, I isolated a critical detail: this visual banding occurs exclusively when working in CMYK mode. It affects the entire canvas view, including imported CMYK illustrations, photos, and embedded artwork, rather than just gradients drawn with the Gradient Tool. If I open the exact same file in RGB mode, or if I downgrade and open the CMYK file in version 27.7, the gradients render flawlessly.

The only way to resolve the banding in version 27.8 is to completely disable "Use Graphics Processor" in the Performance preferences. However, this severely degrades application performance and disables essential GPU features.

My System Specifications:

Photoshop Version: 27.8.0
Hardware: Mac Studio (M4 Max, 64 GB RAM)
Operating System: macOS Tahoe 26.5.1
Monitor: Occurs across all connected external monitors.

It appears the new OpenColorIO canvas management system is failing to properly calculate the CMYK-to-RGB display conversion on Apple Silicon GPUs. I hope this specific detail helps the engineering team isolate the root cause for an upcoming patch.

Thank you!

Having the same CMYK issue here with 27.8 (Mac Studio M1 Max, Tahoe 26.5.1)

Had to revert back to 27.7

albertos23258106

Participant

UPDATE:

Today I’ve discovered another solution: in Photoshop preferences you can enable "Use Graphics Processor" but disable “Technology Previews / Precise color management for HDR display”. In this way no more banding issue.

U

udcny

Participant

Same issue so had to downgrade to PS 27.7. Mac Studio (2022), Apple M1 Ultra, 64 GB Memory, Tahoe 26.5.1, Apple Studio Display (2022). I tried PSD, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, same unusable state. Even files in Camera RAW and Lightroom that look fine are faded out opened into PS.

(Have never used Colornavigator.)

D Fosse

Community Expert

A few Mac users have reported this. I’ve asked if they make LUT profiles in Colornavigator, but no one has answered the question. LUT profiles are not fully supported in MacOS and can cause problems.

Please try making a new profile with these settings in Colornavigator:

bellevue scott

Inspiring

Why would this suddenly become a problem when it wasn’t a problem before?

D Fosse

Community Expert

@bellevue scott

Because operating systems and graphics code get updated and changed all the time.

Look, I’m not saying this is definitely the cause, but it’s a very likely cause and worth a shot.

The overriding issue here is the conversion into the monitor profile, which is executed in the GPU. That conversion is not correctly executed in the GPU here, but it is correctly executed when the GPU is taken out of the equation so that it shifted back to the CPU. So something is causing the GPU to choke, and a LUT profile can do that. I’ve seen a lot of cases here where MacOS doesn’t handle LUT profiles, but a matrix profile works well. All native Mac display profiles are matrix.

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @Rostrobowitsj,

Thanks for reporting this. Could you please share:

• Your full System Info, Photoshop > Help > System Info and Copy & paste it here

• A screenshot showing the issue. Ideally, with the same file displayed in Photoshop with GPU enabled and disabled

• If possible, a sample PSD file that demonstrates the problem.

A few additional questions:

• Does this happen with all PSD files? Or only specific files?

• Does it affect JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, or other formats as well?

• Are you using any custom monitor profiles or calibration software for the Eizo display?

Once we have the System Info, screenshots, and a sample file, we can forward them to the product team for further investigation.

Best,

Anshul Saini

Rostrobowitsj

Participant

Right after the june 18 2026 Photoshop update , the colours of every .PSD that I open are WASHED OUT!!! If, in Photoshop-preferences I disengage the “Use Graphics Processor” colours look allright again….. My set up is an iMac Pro ( 2017 ), connected to an Eizo-monitor.

System

Problem

Steps to Reproduce

Expected Result

Actual Result

Workaround

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