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Slow performance when using both Illustrator and Photoshop 2026 on an M1 Mac

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I have a Mac M1 Pro with 32GB Ram and 1 TB SSD (300 GB available) and Tahoe 26.5. When I open Illustrator and Photoshop at the same time, the CPU ramps up almost to the max and the fans turn on. Working in either apps becomes very sluggish and unresponsive, even with small and simple files. When I pair Photoshop with any other Adobe app, the problem doesn’t occur, only in combination with Illustrator. So the latter seems to be the culprit.
This is very frustrating, because I need to keep several apps open for my kind of projects.
Can anyone help me here please?

E

elgasaCorrect answer

Inspiring

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’.

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shaunl19128181

Participant

Its getting so bad that maybe looking at other software products to do the same is the only answer.

I’ve used adobe illustrator since illustrator 88 and its never been so bad :(

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @shaunl19128181

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with Illustrator. Could you please try the suggestions shared earlier (https://community.adobe.com/questions-652/slow-performance-when-using-both-illustrator-and-photoshop-2026-on-an-m1-mac-1625499?postid=7717798#post7717798) and check if they help?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

Our team has tried fixing this problem with the latest release of Illustrator. Kindly try updating your app (https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/apps/manage-apps/creative-cloud-apps/update-creative-cloud-apps-manually.html) and let us know how it goes.

Anubhav

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shaunl19128181

Participant

Illustrator and photoshop are becoming so slow and laggy with simple tasks and getting worse.

Updates have not solved anything at all.

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @shaunl19128181

I’m sorry to hear you’re having performance issues in Illustrator and Photoshop. Would you mind trying the suggestions shared in these help articles and checking if they help:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/optimize-illustrator-performance.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

If the problem persists, please share more details about the OS/Illustrator/Photoshop versions you have installed, whether this happens with a particular workflow/file or when using a specific tool, and a brief screen recording of the issue so we can better assist you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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E

elgasaCorrect answer

Inspiring

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’.

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S

sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Dear Elgasa!
IT WORKED! As soon as I deselected “Application Frame” the CPU went down to 5%!! Amazing! How did you find that out?
And why didn’t Adobe tell us that?
I mean, it’s a workaround, as you said, but it gives me back the joy of working with Adobe software for the time being. I was about to quit and change software.
THANK YOU AGAIN, you are genius!
Greetings from Munich, Arne

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E

elgasa

Inspiring

One of my colleagues was working in a layout similar to Adobe CS, so I asked them, ‘How are you doing that?’
Incidentally, as we’re all in our fifties, we’re enjoying it whilst feeling a touch of nostalgia.
We’ve already reported this issue to Adobe.
Don’t forget to save your workspace!
Wishing you all happiness from Japan

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D

daring_wren6872

Participant

This shouldn’t be happening :/

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hi @daring_wren6872 @Renee27619964ccib,

Sorry to hear you're both running into similar performance issues with Illustrator. We've logged a bug with the product team for further investigation.

To help them move quickly, could you share the additional details requested earlier in the thread? Link: https://community.adobe.com/questions-652/slow-performance-when-using-both-illustrator-and-photoshop-2026-on-an-m1-mac-1625499?postid=7675638#post7675638

The more diagnostic data we can collect across affected users, the faster the team will be able to identify a pattern.

Looking forward to your updates.

Anubhav

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Maybe @udderball will also want to contribute has he/she has the same problem?

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Renee27619964ccib

Participant

Running Adobe Indesign at same time as Illustrator and same thing occurs. Adobe is killing my computer.

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hi everyone,

We've logged a bug with the product team for further investigation. To help them dig in, we'll need a few additional details from your macOS systems:

AiSniffer file
- Close all Adobe applications.
- Navigate to: Users/YOUR USERNAME/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator #(version number) Settings > AiSniffer
- Copy the AiSniffer file to your desktop.

System Report
- Click the Apple icon > About This Mac > System Report.
- Save the report to your desktop.

A brief screen recording of the problem.

Please upload everything to Google Drive, Dropbox, or a similar service and share a public link here or via DM. We'll pass it along to the team.

Looking forward to your updates.

Anubhav

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Thank you Anubhav, I sent you a DM with all the requested files.
Thanks in advance.
Arne

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

I just opened InDesign without any other Adobe Apps. I haven’t even opened any document but the fans begin spinning and the WindowServer in Activity Monitor goes up to 55-60% GPU. Together with Illustrator everything becomes sluggish again, because the GPU is running hot.
So it seems to affect a wider range of Adobe App, which is horrible. I very often need to keep at least two Adobe Apps open at the same time and switch between them. But as it is now, it’s almost impossible.
As mentioned above: Starting in Safe Mode and logging into a different account produces the same results. :(

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udderball

Inspiring

I’m dealing with the same, and on a very similar setup (Macbook M1 Pro, 1tb SSD, 500gb avail, Sequoia 15.7.7). It’s really having a negative impact on my work. Been doing a ton of research and I’ve now seen many many different user reports about Illustrator/Photoshop over-consuming RAM over the course of the last few months.

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Hi @udderball,

I’m sorry to hear you are suffering from the same problem. It’s a pain when it slows you down in your projects and it seems to affect a large array of people. The more I wish I can help others by pushing to find a solution. In fact, I have to, because I can’t work that way.
Hope to have news soon.

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Thank you for your tips so far. I have been eying on the Activity Monitor and that gives me a few clues.
First I thought the “creative cloud content manager” was devouring the most system recources. But that only seems to happen once in a while.
I then found a tutorial showing me how to reset the Adobe Cloud Desktop App, which I then implemented. It helped a bit and the apps were running a bit smoother, but still not satisfactory.
I restarted the Mac and opened Photoshop and Illustrator without opening any files. Most other apps closed.
In the Activity Monitor I can see that as soon as both Adobe apps are running, the “WindowServer” is ramping up the GPU to around 80% capacity. It uses only around 26% CPU though.
The almost maxed out GPU is causing the sluggish behavior.
Has anyone got an idea what I could do about it?
Thanks in advance!

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hi @sputnik6,

Sorry to hear you're running into performance issues with Illustrator. Hopefully, Tina's suggestions did the trick. If not, this help article has a solid set of additional steps worth working through: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/optimize-illustrator-performance.html

Let us know how it goes.

Anubhav

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sputnik6Author

Known Participant

Hi @Anubhav M Thank you! Please see my answer above. The problem seems to be the “WindowServer” that ramps up like crazy and uses almost all GPU power

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @sputnik6

Thanks for the detailed information. This helps a lot. I have forwarded all of the information, along with your findings, to the product team for further investigation. I will update you here as soon as I have more to share.

In the meantime, please try to run Illustrator under a different administrator account (macOS), after rebooting your computer in Safe Mode (macOS), and share your observations.

Anubhav

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