Participant

Question

Photoshop CC 2018 (and 2019) extremely slow

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 10, 2018
49 replies
58148 views

Hey guys,

I have a 2017 27" iMac, specs:

4.2 GHz Intel Core i7

40 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM

Radeon Pro 580 8 GB Graphics

This machine shouldn't break a sweat with Photoshop, however Photoshop is performing the worst I've ever encountered this example is only a 350mb Photoshop file, with about 56 layers (most flattened with a mask) in 20 groups and 5200x3500px.

• When using a brush or eraser tool, it lags so much that it takes nearly a minute to complete the stroke – then doesn't even follow the stroke I made!

• Zooming in nearly crashes the file.

• After about 5 mins of trying, PS just stalls and wont do anything. Open Force Quit Apps and it doesn;t show PS as not responding either.

I've tried using it with the 'Use Graphics Processor' unticked and it runs even worse!

30gb of RAM alocated to PS.

Using default History & Cache

Scratch disk has 1.2tb spare

I never use flick panning or scrubby zoom, or any of those kind of features.

Would this benefit if I got an external SSD to use as a scratch disk?

What is going on here?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Z

zio17

Participant

The speed improved after blowing out the dust in my PC, but it’s still lagging compared to how it was a year ago.

I downloaded Affinity Pro and wow, much faster. I believe I’m going to cancel my subscription at this point And purchase Affinity Pro.

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mowglivj

Inspiring

Same problem here and as always I find no solution here or any admission that there could possibly be something wrong with Photoshop.

It's interesting to see how most people who used Photoshop before the CC rip-off say that it used to be faster and more stable. Obviously, this will never be acknowledged by Adobe, especially when they can just send you off on a "reinstall psd, reinstall cc, clear your preferences, switch off GPU" journey which will result in no improvement.

I'm completely fed up of dealing with "bugs" every single day that I use photoshop. From the annoying to the showstoppers, some of which have been around for many years. When every time you use an application you end up posting in forums and talking to support, something is clearly not right but rather than admit it and resolve it, Adobe finds it easier to brush things off and blame whatever is at hand on an ongoing basis.

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cyclopsdx

Inspiring

I finally have some stability across the suite using different versions of each software. CC is telling me I have 7 updates available and, supposedly, some are stability-related fixes, but I have no faith in Adobe's competence to improve what I'm already struggling with. I wish Adobe would stop shoving cloud-based collaboration and file sharing down our throats (which I'm positive contributes to the sluggishness of my machine) and sort their apps out. I'd rather have speed and efficiency in my workflow than extra tools, tricks and panels every time there's an upgrade.

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DeirdreMae

Participant

I have the exact same problem for weeks now. How do you fix this?

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zio17

Participant

I blew out all the dust in my PC, including the nVidia card and it was back to normal.

I believe the PC was getting hot and causing software to slow down.

I noticed it in Premier Pro as well

M

mrwendel8

Participant

I had a specific Photoshop file that was very slow and laggy – moving items was very laggy and just hiding the layer would take a few seconds. This didn't seem to be a problem on other files. Found the cure: I had five groups full of layers with a layer style (in this case a drop shadow) applied to the group. Clearing those layer styles instantly fixed the lagginess. Layer styles applied to layers don't seem to be an issue, just to group.

This is a specific bug that wasn't an issue a few update ago. This is using Photoshop 20.0.4 on Mac.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Mrwendel8, hello, could you reproduce that issue in another file?

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mrwendel8

Participant

Hi,

I just quickly added layer effects (a drop shadow) to three groups in another file and it does slow it down noticeably. Not as bad as the other file I was experiencing the problem in, but enough that I never noticed this issue before the last few versions of Photoshop.

R

roadtrips

Participant

I tried everything and nothing worked. Until I found this guide with this super simple fix: https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/creative-software/be-warned-mac-users-mojave-breaks-photoshop/

It worked for me! I guess this is the real issue everyone is facing.

madnessgraphicspoland

Inspiring

You're lucky, I can not use Photoshop CC 2019, all the next fixes do not bring the effect, all the time is unstable, it crashes non-stop, turns off. I've made all the tips I've found and nothing. Strange that CC2018 works steadily.

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pierrea29852690

Participant

I've got the same problem since 2 days

jmvdigital

Known Participant

OMG, FIX THIS ADOBE! Photoshop CC 2019 is completely unusable. 5-10 seconds just to hide/show layers. Delays for EVERYTHING I do. Change a levels slider? Wait 15 seconds for the image to update. Takes 5 minutes just to add a Levels adjustment layer. You are sooo lucky there's not a viable alternative out there right now.

C

cyclopsdx

Inspiring

I've reinstalled earlier versions and am now running Illustrator 2019, InDesign 2018 and Photoshop 2017. Ridiculously this combination is currently the most stable for me, although I still have to quit apps every now and then because they act up in the normal Adobe fashion. This begs the question, exactly what am I paying my subscription for if I can't use the updates? I wonder what my consumer rights are in this current situation. Has anybody tried Affinity products?

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Hello, I will reiterate my plea for all users to share their system info, and state what other software they are running. Not all users are facing the issue, one must find why you are affected and not others.

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THinOmaha

Participant

I found some information about video cards that is very interesting here: Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) card FAQ

My HP gaming computer has so much RAM and GPU memory it's embarrassing, and it runs any AAA game at its highest settings on a 4K monitor smooth as butter. Why it takes five seconds for PS CC to select something on a layer and even longer to let me drag it elsewhere, who knows? I may reinstall the trial and experiment with the settings, and if I discover anything I will share it here. I really wanna like PS CC, but right now it's akin to a pretty girl with bad breath.

T

THinOmaha

Participant

I feel your pain, mainly the pain in the wallet. For the fifteen years I have been a Photoshop user (5,7,CS, CS2, CS4) I have read these same complaints. So many of us fell for the siren song of a better program when in truth the term "upgrade" means buckle up since you're in for a ride to Brokesville at the end of Frustration Lane. One poor guy lamented how, after spending a fortune on buggy CS5, he wished he would have given his kids a better Christmas instead.

I just tried Photoshop CC after a decade on CS4, and I was impressed... at first. But it didn't take long to see the sluggish performance in the simplest of tasks. After a few days with the trial, I uninstalled it and went running back to my peppy CS4 - no CC for me, thank you.

We need to guard against that affliction which affects most of us - update-itus - and quit thinking that just because something is newer means that it's better, while we spend our hard-earned money to be little more than beta testers for companies who then take our input, fix the bugs (or not), and sell it back to us as a new version.

twinbrush

Inspiring

THinOmaha wrote
while we spend our hard-earned money to be little more than beta testers for companies who then take our input, fix the bugs (or not), and sell it back to us as a new version.

Couldn't have said it better, that's exactly all we are. Its obvious there's a growing discontent among Adobe users over the past few years and with a few companies creating alternatives, there might be a very hefty fall from grace coming....not that they care after all the money they've taken from us gullible bunch

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THinOmaha

Participant

... and here is where we should send a card of thanks to good ol' Paint Shop Pro, another program I used extensively 10-15 years ago as I slowly warmed up to Photoshop. I just checked out the latest version, and it can go toe-to-toe with PS in just about every way, costs under a hundred bucks and doesn't force you to rent it month after month. I know that it's no InDesign, but Corel deserves some love for what they have done with PSP since acquiring it from Jasc many years ago. If they got rid of the candy-colored tool icons and changed the name to Paint Shop for Professionals it would earn more respect and be taken more seriously, since it really is way more powerful than most home users need. Maybe we should get a campaign going to coax Corel to take on Adobe and give us an alternative, since many of us are so eager for a solution, and they are uniquely positioned as a longtime maker of quality software.

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lorenzosantilli

Participant

CC 2019 takes 12 seconds to open a 15.1 MB PSD file. CC 2018 requires 6 seconds for the same file and the performance only improves as you go back to earlier, now outdated versions of Photoshop.

To quote Marcellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction:

"It's a fact of life this app is gonna have to get realistic about. See, this business is filled to the brim with unrealistic apps. Software manufacturers who thought their apps would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean the app gets better with age and future releases, it don't."

Hardware:

13 Radeon Pro 570 4096 MB graphic

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