Skip to main content
S
sputnik6
Known Participant
May 28, 2026
Question

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

  • May 28, 2026
  • 8 replies
  • 134 views

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?

      8 replies

      D
      daring_wren6872
      Participant
      June 6, 2026

      This shouldn’t be happening :/

      R
      Renee27619964ccib
      Participant
      June 3, 2026

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

       

        Anubhav M
        Community Manager
        Anubhav MCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        June 3, 2026

        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:

        1. 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.
        1. System Report
          • Click the Apple icon > About This Mac > System Report.
          • Save the report to your desktop.
        1. 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

          S
          sputnik6Author
          Known Participant
          June 4, 2026

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

          S
          sputnik6Author
          Known Participant
          June 1, 2026

          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. :( 

            udderball
            udderball
            Inspiring
            May 29, 2026

            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.

            S
            sputnik6Author
            Known Participant
            May 30, 2026

            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. 

            S
            sputnik6Author
            Known Participant
            May 29, 2026

            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!

            Anubhav M
            Community Manager
            Anubhav MCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            May 28, 2026

            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

              S
              sputnik6Author
              Known Participant
              May 29, 2026

              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

              Anubhav M
              Community Manager
              Anubhav MCommunity Manager
              Community Manager
              May 29, 2026

              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

                Tina_Irvine
                Community Expert
                Tina_IrvineCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                May 28, 2026

                Hi ​@sputnik6,

                Illustrator and Photoshop both require a lot of processing power. Do your best to max out space on your drive before running both apps simultaneously. Also, close down anything else that’s running (email, browsers...). Hopefully this helps. You can also run your Mac’s Activity Monitor to see what’s eating up the most power.

                  S
                  sputnik6Author
                  Known Participant
                  May 29, 2026

                  Hi ​@Tina_Irvine, thank you for the tips. 
                  Using the Activity Monitor, I could see that the WindowServer is racing up like crazy when both apps are open (see my separate answer above). 
                  I hope to find a clue why this is happening…

                  Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                  Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices