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andrewt23907588
Known Participant
September 30, 2019
Question

MacBook Pro Performance Issue - Help needed!

  • September 30, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 999 views

Hi all

 

Really hope someone can offer some advice.

 

I’be been running photoshop on a MacBook Pro from 2017 without any real issue. Recently started to experience sluggishness, scratch disk issues etc so decided it was time for an upgrade.

 

Just bought a new MacBook Pro 15inch with all the upgrades:

- fastest processer

- 32gb ram

- Radeon Pro 20 graphics card

 

Am using a 1TB Samsung external SSD as the scratch disk.

 

Turned it all on for the first time this morning to do some standard photoshop work expecting to be greeted by a very quick working experience but so far I’m close to throwing the thing out of the window due to the slowness and constant spinning wheel of death I’m experiencing (slower than my old MacBook at times).

 

Can someone offer any words of advice??

 

- am I hamstringing myself with the external scratch disk

- is there a known issue here

- should I be on the phone to apple asap

??

 

I’ve read someone suggest turning off the graphics processor in the preferences to tackle MacBook issues. Big doesn’t that negate the benefits of upgrading to the top graphics card? (Sorry, I’m not that technically knowledgeable!)

 

Any thoughts or advice gratefully received.

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 30, 2019

Coggleton, the advice to keep a physically separate scratch disk is now outdated. It applied to spinning hard drives with a moving read/write head, and the idea was that the head couldn't be in two places at once. But that's not a consideration with SSDs. In fact, consensus now is that you get the best performance with scratch set to your system drive.

 

If you have space, and that's important. Several hundred GB is a realistic requirement. Photoshop moves huge amounts of data around, and everything it does, as far back as your history states go, is written to scratch. That means about 10-20 times the full size of your largest file.

 

Don't partition. There's no benefit at all.

A
andrewt23907588Author
Known Participant
September 30, 2019

Amazing, thank you so much for your advice. Can I ask you two further (hopefully simple) questions:

 

1) Am I right in thinking the info written onto a scratch disk whilst photoshop is running is then deleted once photoshop is closed? Or do I need to regularly delete certain files to ensure I'm keeping another clear space.

 

2) If the answer to the above is that I need to manually do something to keep things clear then where would I find that.

 

I'm planning to keep this new macbook exclusively for photo editing work so will devote the entire internal ssd to operating system and photoshop scratch disk. I just want to make sure I'm going about things properly from day 1!

 

Thanks again

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 30, 2019

Hi, yes the scratch disk is cleared when PS is quit.

I agree with the advice to share the system disc (SSD) as a scratch disk, of course this means you'll need decent size system disk. HIH Neil

ps, if you're editing important stuff, a laptop its worth mentioning a colour management issue with the macbook (or laptop) screen type - because of viewing angle, move your head and the appeerance changes! You might like to consider a decent external screen such as an Eizo Coloredge. 

Akash Sharma
Akash Sharma
Legend
September 30, 2019

Hi there,

 

Sorry that you're facing performance related issues with Photoshop on  your 2017 MacBook Pro. That shouldn't be happening, let us help make it right.

 

Which version of Photoshop are you using and when exactly is the application performing slower than expected?

 

I'd recommed that you take a look at the suggetions mentioned in this article https://helpx.adobe.com/in/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html amd let us know if that helps.

 

For troubleshooting, please checkout this tech note: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/photoshop/kb/photoshop-slow-lags.html

 

Thanks,

Akash

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 30, 2019

You can turn off the graphics processor as troubleshooting. If that helps, it may be a buggy video driver. Unfortunately you can't update the driver separately on Mac, it's integrated into the OS, so you'd have to wait for an OS update. But at least you'd know where the problem is.

 

That said, don't underestimate the importance of the scratch disk. It's essential for smooth Photoshop operation. External is not ideal, and you really need to make sure you have enough free space. All things considered it's usually best to set Photoshop scratch to your system drive. But watch the space! Don't fill it up with image files (or videos and so on). All this should go to separate storage, away from your system drive.

    A
    andrewt23907588Author
    Known Participant
    September 30, 2019
    Hey D_Fosse
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