Generative Remove runs on the CPU instead of the GPU since version 27.9.1

Here, it's exactly the same with an RTX 5090 and on a second PC with an RTX 4080. In fact, Photoshop actually crashed on the PC with the RTX 4080.

As already described in this thread a month ago,

it worked with the beta version (Adobe Photoshop Version: 27.9.0 20260616.m.3575 199f0a1 x64 (beta, PublicBeta) . Why it isn't working properly again now… Adobe, Adobe… 🤔

YES! ~ an issue with Photoshop/Beta 27.7+ on Windows 11 where the new Remove Tool’s on-device generative AI model won’t work with 16 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080/90 cards from PNY, MSI, ASUS, and others. This problem has been around for several months without a fix from Adobe or Nvidia. Might as well stick with the RTX 5070 and use the free-credit cloud-based remove tool until it’s resolved—after all, most people are online anyway. Feels like a pointless feature unless you’re one of the rare few without Internet access. However, you're in luck with a high-performance MAC PC.

When you say “generative mode on”, have you also checked “Device” in the options bar rolldown?

With the “Cloud” setting, it’s using Firefly, and Firefly is processed on Adobe’s servers, not locally in the GPU. In that case it’s a server connection slowdown, which is reported here quite often.

Hi ​@n00nstudio,
 

Thank you for the detailed bug report. This appears to be related to a GPU qualification/detection problem rather than your system lacking capability.
 

Your RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell with 24GB of VRAM absolutely qualifies for GPU-accelerated on-device processing.
 

A few questions to help us gather more diagnostic data for this specific card:

• When you observe the CPU processing, are you seeing it through Task Manager CPU load, or are you also monitoring GPU utilization? Specifically, does the GPU tab show any "3D" or "Compute" activity during the removal, or is it completely flat?

• In Photoshop, go to Help > System Info, then click Copy in the dialog that appears. You can paste the result directly into your reply here. This gives us the full picture of how Photoshop sees your hardware, drivers, and current GPU settings.

• Share the GPU Sniffer file: This file is generated every time Photoshop launches and contains the raw data about how Photoshop detected your graphics card. On Windows, you'll find it here:

  C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2026\Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings\sniffer-out.txt

  (Note: AppData is a hidden folder, you can paste the path directly into File Explorer's address bar, or type %appdata% to jump to the Roaming folder.)
   

  

   

• Does this same behavior occur with both "Cloud" and "Device" settings under Edit > Preferences > Image Processing?
  Also, does changing the Remove Tool Processing to "Stable" makes any difference?

• Have you tested with a clean Photoshop preferences reset? I ask specifically because this may force a re-evaluation of your hardware profile, not as a general troubleshooting step.

• Is the RTX PRO 4000 the only GPU in this system, or do you also have an integrated GPU (Intel UHD, Iris, ARC, etc.)? If both exist, which is set as the preferred graphics processor for Photoshop in NVIDIA settings?

• Did this work correctly on version 27.8 or earlier with this same GPU?

We'll be looking forward to your response.

Best,
Anshul Saini

Same issue here, and I can confirm JohnDG Photography's observation with measurements: the Remove tool loads its model onto the graphics card, then performs the actual removal on the processor.

**My system**
Photoshop 27.9.1 (build 20260803.r.1 65900e1), Windows 11 Pro 26200
NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, 24 GB, driver 32.0.15.9672
Intel i9-13900K (32 logical cores), 128 GB RAM

Worth noting that this is a Blackwell **workstation** card, not an RTX 50-series consumer card, so the problem is not limited to the GeForce line. It is the whole generation.

**One difference from the other reports in this thread**
For me the on-device model was not greyed out and it did work correctly on **27.8.0** (build 20260610.r.13). It broke immediately after updating to 27.9.1 on 6 August 2026. So in my case this is a regression between those two builds, not a feature that was never available. That may help narrow down what changed.

**Measurements**

Sampled once per second with nvidia-smi (graphics card power, utilisation, memory) and the Windows per-process graphics performance counters. Test conditions: one single small selection, every other program using the graphics card shut down, and 18.9 GB of graphics memory free before starting.

| Phase | Graphics memory | Card power draw | Photoshop processor use |
| :-- | --: | --: | --: |
| Idle | 5.6 GB | 13.4 W | 0 % |
| Remove tool selected | 5.6 to 11.7 GB | peak 54.8 W | 0 % |
| Removal running | 11.7 GB held | **12.8 W** | **74 %, peak 97 %** |
| Partway through | released to 7.3 GB | 12.8 W | still 74 % |

Out of 169 samples, only 3 exceeded 40 watts, and all 3 were during the model load. None during the actual removal.

**12.8 W is this card's exact idle draw.** A card that is running inference does not sit at idle power. Photoshop also does not appear at all in the per-application graphics usage counters while the removal runs. So the model is loaded onto the card, held there, and then released without ever being used for the work.

The processor side of it: 74 percent of 32 cores sustained, and up to 50 GB of system memory. A small removal takes minutes. A large one took 80 seconds. In a normal retouching session with many small removals, the tool is unusable.

**Things I ruled out before posting**

- Not a graphics memory shortage. 18.9 GB free during the test, and shared system memory stayed flat, so nothing overflowed either.
- Not disabled in preferences. Use Graphics Processor and OpenCL both on, sniffer crash counter at zero.
- Not a detection failure at the general level. The sniffer log exits normally and reports the RTX PRO 4000 as the preferred device, OpenCL compute score 19,138 against 339 for the integrated Intel graphics. This matches what others here have said: general graphics acceleration qualifies fine, only the on-device model check fails.
- Not related to selection size or batching. Identical on a single small selection and on twenty at once.

**Workaround for anyone stuck**

Turning the generative mode off and using the classic Remove makes it instantaneous again. Only the generative path is affected. You lose the better texture reconstruction, which is genuinely the reason to use it, but at least the tool is usable.

**Why this matters beyond the slowdown**

I bought this card one month ago, for 2,000 euros, specifically so that the on-device Remove model would run locally. It did exactly that on 27.8.0. Since 27.9.1 the card is no longer used for it.

Loading 6 GB onto the card and then not using it is the worst of both outcomes: the memory is spent and so is the processing time. If the hardware check decides the card is unsupported, the model should not be loaded onto it at all. And if the card can hold and load the model, it is hard to see what the check is actually rejecting.

I will attach my Help > System Info and can run the Creative Cloud Log Collector if that helps, as Srishti Bali asked earlier in this thread. I can also share the raw measurement files or repeat any test that would be useful.

Meanwhile on Nvidia studio driver 610.62 and Ps beta 27.10
AI Removal tool uses GPU for selecting (goes very fast), but for actual removal it uses CPU (very slow).
RTX5080