Skip to main content
C
charlene
Known Participant
September 18, 2018
Answered

Do really big brushes slow down Photoshop?

  • September 18, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 3784 views

My computer is rather new (2017), and it's maxed out with RAM which I believe is more than sufficient for Photoshop painting.

PS was working perfectly fine, even with a big load of Kyle brushes and my own custom ones.

However I recently made some new custom brushes meant for big texturing. The brush size says it 1471pixels, which is about the size of the brush Tip itself

I also saved a couple of new scanned textures as Patterns (PS uses Pattern swatches in the Brush>Texture sub-setting)

Immediately after making the brushes, Photoshop was fine. However subsequently, the performance seemed slower. I adjusted the Performance settings, and it seemed better, but I am worried that there may be a very slight brush lag.

I am not sure if I am imagining things as the delay is very, very slight. I guess I could live with it, but I am wondering if the large brushes or large Patterns have a big impact on performance?

I am using a Cintiq 24HD and the drivers are up to date. Graphics card is a Nvidia GTX 1060 3G

Below are the some of the settings for my Photoshop, according to System Info:

Adobe Photoshop Version: 19.1.6 20180808.r.398 2018/08/08: 1185588  x64

Number of Launches: 213

Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit

Version: 10 or greater 10.0.17134.1

System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:14, Stepping:9 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, HyperThreading

Physical processor count: 4

Logical processor count: 8

Processor speed: 3600 MHz

Built-in memory: 65468 MB

Free memory: 44987 MB

Memory available to Photoshop: 59982 MB

Memory used by Photoshop: 75 %

Alias Layers: Disabled.

Modifier Palette: Disabled.

Highbeam: Enabled.

Image tile size: 1024K

Image cache levels: 6

Font Preview: Medium

TextComposer: Latin

Display: 1

Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=1200, right=1920

Display: 2

Display Bounds: top=0, left=1920, bottom=1080, right=3840

OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.

OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.

OpenGL Drawing Mode: Normal

OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.

OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Trevor.Dennis

charlene  wrote

The file is about 22in x 10in at 350dpi, Not sure how many layers, under 50 at the moment. The slowdown is barely noticable but I wonder if I should unload the big brushes unless I really need them so as to maintain performance.

I think I am reading that the issue is not just when using the problem brush, but just having saved it to brush folder?  If that is right, then I don't think it should have an impact.   However we have seen lag issues with recent versions under come conditions, and I wonder if that is happening with you, and you are associating it with the large brush preset.

  1. Make sure that your new preset(s) is/are in a folder, (you can create a new folder and give it an appropriate name) then right click and delete it.  Say yes when asked if you want to save.
  2. Carry on using Photoshop and see if the issue has gone away.  If it has then you were indeed right.  My gut is that you won't see any change though.
  3. Save your work and restart Photoshop.  Open your document and see if it is working better now.  I suspect yes.

What are your Scratch file arrangements, and what type of drive is the Scratch space assigned to?

Check the root directory of your primary scratch drive.  I also have 64Gb RAM with 70% assigned to Photoshop, and I have just surprised myself finding a 49Gb scratch file on that drive!  Note that I currently have no large projects open, but have been working on two 100 layer images since I last closed Photoshop.  Even with uber fast NVMe drives, 49Gb is going to take time to read and write to.

I have a strong feeling that using multiple Smart Objects can slow things down. Especially when they are nested.  I suspect that SOs live in the temp file on the Scratch drive, and that is the reason for the hit on performance.

I'd like to be able to say exactly what conditions are known to affect performance and cause unexpected lag, but I am not sure that anyone knows for sure.  Until recently, I used a six core 4GHz system with 32Gb RAM, and ran into impossible to cope with slow down on very large projects, so I upgraded.  I now have an i9-7900X running at 4GHz with 64Gb RAM, and I _still_ sometimes see a slow down on very large projects, so I am not sure what is going on.  Some folk say it happens when the rulers are turned on.  I always have the rulers turned on, but have tried turning them off with no difference.

For what it is worth, I wouldn't use a brush preset for a large texture.  I'd use the free Paper Texture Pro extension, and place the texture file you assigned to a brush preset to the Add more textures folder.  This will obviously only work if you want to apply to the whole canvas, and I have a feeling you might be using the large texture to do something like distress edges.   Anyway, there are a few thoughts for you to consider.

3 replies

D
Community Expert
DaveJCummingsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 19, 2018

1471 being the size of the brush tip itself?  How big is the file itself?  But yeah,  brushes that big are definitely going to slow things down a bit,  despite how much ram you have.

    C
    charleneAuthor
    Known Participant
    September 19, 2018

    The file is about 22in x 10in at 350dpi, Not sure how many layers, under 50 at the moment. The slowdown is barely noticable but I wonder if I should unload the big brushes unless I really need them so as to maintain performance.

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Trevor.DennisCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    September 19, 2018

    charlene  wrote

    The file is about 22in x 10in at 350dpi, Not sure how many layers, under 50 at the moment. The slowdown is barely noticable but I wonder if I should unload the big brushes unless I really need them so as to maintain performance.

    I think I am reading that the issue is not just when using the problem brush, but just having saved it to brush folder?  If that is right, then I don't think it should have an impact.   However we have seen lag issues with recent versions under come conditions, and I wonder if that is happening with you, and you are associating it with the large brush preset.

    1. Make sure that your new preset(s) is/are in a folder, (you can create a new folder and give it an appropriate name) then right click and delete it.  Say yes when asked if you want to save.
    2. Carry on using Photoshop and see if the issue has gone away.  If it has then you were indeed right.  My gut is that you won't see any change though.
    3. Save your work and restart Photoshop.  Open your document and see if it is working better now.  I suspect yes.

    What are your Scratch file arrangements, and what type of drive is the Scratch space assigned to?

    Check the root directory of your primary scratch drive.  I also have 64Gb RAM with 70% assigned to Photoshop, and I have just surprised myself finding a 49Gb scratch file on that drive!  Note that I currently have no large projects open, but have been working on two 100 layer images since I last closed Photoshop.  Even with uber fast NVMe drives, 49Gb is going to take time to read and write to.

    I have a strong feeling that using multiple Smart Objects can slow things down. Especially when they are nested.  I suspect that SOs live in the temp file on the Scratch drive, and that is the reason for the hit on performance.

    I'd like to be able to say exactly what conditions are known to affect performance and cause unexpected lag, but I am not sure that anyone knows for sure.  Until recently, I used a six core 4GHz system with 32Gb RAM, and ran into impossible to cope with slow down on very large projects, so I upgraded.  I now have an i9-7900X running at 4GHz with 64Gb RAM, and I _still_ sometimes see a slow down on very large projects, so I am not sure what is going on.  Some folk say it happens when the rulers are turned on.  I always have the rulers turned on, but have tried turning them off with no difference.

    For what it is worth, I wouldn't use a brush preset for a large texture.  I'd use the free Paper Texture Pro extension, and place the texture file you assigned to a brush preset to the Add more textures folder.  This will obviously only work if you want to apply to the whole canvas, and I have a feeling you might be using the large texture to do something like distress edges.   Anyway, there are a few thoughts for you to consider.

      Joely10623436
      Community Expert
      Joely10623436Community Expert
      Community Expert
      September 19, 2018

      Yes. Also the Brush-Options play a role. But however, as long as it works ;-)

        lambiloon
        Community Expert
        lambiloonCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 19, 2018

        Hi yes big brushes take some time to do work not only ram is playing role the main work is done processor of your computer if your processor memory is big like 8 - 10 mb then it not take such time but if you have 2-4 mb then might be slow your work.

        Thank you

        Ali Sajjad / Graphic Design Trainer / Freelancer / Adobe Certified Professional
          JJMack
          Community Expert
          JJMackCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          September 19, 2018

          And additional things can compound the problem. A large document zoomed out so you can paint on the document entire surface and setting brush spacing to 1% cane easily overtax your processor. Make it a mixer brush and watch as the pixels are laid down.

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