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Participant
June 27, 2013
Answered

Photoshop CC -> performance down, memory usage up.

  • June 27, 2013
  • 42 replies
  • 138056 views

I recently switched to Photoshop CC.

I noticed performance was slow, memory usage was huge. At first I thought it might be because I was processing somewhat larger panoramas than previous ( eg merging 25 images at 21 MP each ).

Then my SSD drive crashed when the sysem ran out of memory, and I can't recover it.

I reinstalled Mac OSX 10.7.5 on the original HD and re-installed PS. Now my network bandwidth has jumped from under 1 GB uploaded per day, to 20GB, 30GB, 44 GB uploaded.

I don't know how much of this can be traced to PS CC, other than it's slow performance and high memory usage, but it' a suspicious coincidence.

Tom Legrady

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Chris Cox

That would be because the memory usage is about the same as previous versions, and we don't know of any major memory leaks in Photoshop CC (we do a lot of testing to find and eliminate memory leaks in Photoshop).

And because we've seen third party drivers and third party plugins with memory leaks.

If Photoshop consumes that much RAM without opening any documents - then you have about 6 Gigs of presets being loaded at launch (which is presets that you added, because by default Photoshop doesn't load that many presets, and consumes under 300 Meg at launch).

If you mean that Photoshop cosumes that much after closing documents - then that is how much you allocated to Photoshop and used in your documents.  Photoshop not releasing memory back to the system until exit is perfectly normal behavior (otherwise it would run much slower).

We can try to help you determine what is consuming memory on your system.

But insisting that Photoshop is the cause when it is easily verified as not being the cause, won't help you.

42 replies

August 3, 2015

One of my users has the 2013 Mac Pro, with 64GB of RAM, no other software installed except CC and CS6. No external photoshop plugins at all.

He is currently working on a 16GB file, and while merging layers on CS6 takes only 6-7 minutes, doing same thing on CC takes more than 40 minutes.

Ive tried same thing on 2010 mac pro with 24 GB RAM and it took 20 minutes to merge this file on CS6, and CC just crashed at around 80% after 16 ( !! )  hours of work.

Besides that there is a huge lag in CC in almost everything, zooming, copying layers, using retouching tools. This happens on a lot of machines in my company and we have similar problems with Indesign and Illustrator too.

AysunS
Participating Frequently
August 3, 2015

Insert here ignorant opinion of staff member stating that your all computers have a problem and Photoshop CC is faster.

By the way, CC 2015 is worse is terms of performance.

Inspiring
July 6, 2015

one problem that haunts Photoshop no matter which recent ver, is the program's (in)ability to release memory when closing out a file.  Starting with an empty Photoshop (~ 250mb memory use) I can open a few files (ranging from 5mb to 500mb in file size)... several mins later, I close all files and Photoshop continues to use over a gig of memory (even after closing all open files!).  I can even open and close the exact same file over and over and Photoshop memory will grow and grow and grow and grow... and never release it's hold.

The only remedy is to close Photoshop completely and then reopen the program.... talk about killing a workflow!

Inspiring
July 6, 2015

example screenshot, I open a 900mb PSD file...memory jumps to over 2.4GB of use.  I close file (you could leave Photoshop for 2 hours after closing file and no change..actually Photoshop will slowly grow on it's memory use, ha) and memory usage is still over 2.4GB - and no, you cannot purge anything because all I did was open and close a file with ZERO edits or anything.

War Unicorn
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 6, 2015

So... Edit > Purge > All doesn't work?

(Alternatively, hold down Alt (Option on Mac) > click Help > About Photoshop)

iuliap67723557
Participant
July 5, 2015

How it's posible just to release the memory that was alocated for memory usage, in the moment when all the documents are closed, and even the unsaved document, wich consumed about 6GB?

Where are located the files wich takes this much memory, or what is the solution just to release the taken memory?

War Unicorn
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 6, 2015

If using PS CC 2015, there's a new command:

Edit > Purge > All

ericg12211465
Participant
June 9, 2015

Hi,

After upgrading a few machines to Mavericks and Adobe CC 2014 people have noticed this problem when working with files larger than 1gb.  Here's the breakdown of what we have:

Mac Pro 5,1 (2.8ghz - 3.2ghz)  Several machines with these processors

16gb RAM

SSD drives as the boot drive

SATA drives as the scratch drive

What should be the optimal settings I should use?  Should I get SSDs for the Scratch volume?  Will deleting the photoshop setting files make a difference? 

I do plan on cleaning up the fonts.

Thanks,

Eric

Justine N .
Participant
May 27, 2015

I just purchased a brand new computer ( built by us for us for my business - 3rd one in 15 years) after installing Photoshop CC and working in Camera Raw I have noticed an extreme difference in the processing time of the images . For instance - prior to CC I would grab say 10 images in Camera raw do my edits and hit save..while these 10 were processing I could be on my merry way to the next 10 and working on them . No longer . I have to wait for the 10 to process and then start again . Frustrating and so slow ! I was on with tech support for 3 hours last night and he went over my entire computer and found no issues . He said he was sending it to a different division and they are going to call me on Friday . While it processes the current Raw files to jpg when I try to click to do more I see a circle that is a bunch of smaller circles as the images process. So , I went to my husband's computer and tried . BAM! lightening fast ! no issues and when I hit save on the Raw to jpg the circle is a complete circle going fast ( I guess to show the processing of the images.) We have checked all of our computer's processors etc and they are larger then what he has or what I had in my last computer . Checked drivers etc. all good . The Adobe tech confirmed it should not be happening and it was indeed not my computer . Help!!

oligeorgef
Participant
May 20, 2015

Hi Guys,

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I was having this issue, mainly because Photoshop is not the main program I was using, and it's default was to use 70% of memory.

I am using Photoshop alongside things like Visual Studio and other text editors/compilers.

In Preferences > Performance, I took down the memory usage to 50% and this completely resolved my issue. The performance of my whole PC was compromised based on Photoshop constantly using the maximum amount of memory available, which in turn was ruining my Photoshop experience.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Oli

Participating Frequently
March 9, 2015

I almost always use CS5.5, so when I opened CC2014 today I was extremely disappointed in the performance. Slooow saves. Slooow flattening. Just slooow everything. I had stayed away from CC2014 because I'll probably not continue with CC past my initial discount offer period, and this is one suspicion that I'd always had; when Adobe started playing the game of making an "app" for everyone it'd become a snail in practical work usage, but would have all the bells and whistles that aren't necessary (which are the reason it's slow).

CS5.5 did the same work probably 8 times faster overall. Some things were slightly slower with CC, but others were just unbelievably slow.

Chris Cox
Legend
March 9, 2015

If CC 2014 is slower than CS5, then something is wrong with your system or the installation.

The apps are about the same speed, with newer versions usually being a bit faster.

Participant
March 10, 2015

System Specs

Lenovo S30

Xeon E5-2630 (6 Core)

64GB ECC Ram DDR3

Sandisk Extreme Pro 256GB (boot drive and also where my CC apps are installed)

Sandisk Extreme Pro 256GB (lightroom catalog, scratch disks, premiere media cache and camera raw cache)

LSI Megaraid RAID6 Array with 4 * SSHD Drives (My working photos are on here)

Geforce GTX780

When I open up CS6, and drag and drop 10 5MP JPGS onto the program, the files open up in about 5-6 seconds. I can make layer edits, etc. and it performs like what I would expect running on the above config.

When I open up CC 2014, and drag and drop the same 10 5MP JPGS onto the program, the first 4 open up in 5 seconds and each file after that takes progressively longer. The last 3 files take 5 seconds each. I then tried to drag and drop 20 files, and it took 5 minutes to open up everything... I don't understand. Efficiency drops way down as well. It goes from 100% down to 93% after the 3rd file. The standard memory allocation in the performance tab is set to 60% ~37GB. I have to take this to 50GB for it to stay at 100%, but it doesn't make the files open any faster. FWIW, Lightroom also has taken a serious performance hit with each version as well. Developing from LR to PS and overall navigation in LR is also very slow. With the setup I am running, there is no reason that the performance should be anything like what I am seeing now.

Alternatively speaking, Premiere Pro CC 2014 is lightning fast on my machine. I drag and drop my 4K footage and start working and I'm never waiting for the software.

Participant
February 9, 2015

I am having problems with the CC as well. I'we installed it on my office computer, but when I start Photoshop CC my computer stops working. CPU load goes up to 100%, and I have to terminate the program with task manager (Win7).

AysunS
Participating Frequently
December 25, 2014

Hi,

I recently bought a new PC, decently powerful for my usual jobs and I encountered a strange issue.

Before explaining it, my setup is:

i5-4460 at 3.2Ghz

16GB of RAM at 1600Mhz

120GB SSD Intel 520 series

120GB Kingston V300 series

1TB WD Blue series

Geforce GTX650 TI 2GB RAM GDDR5 video card.

I'm running Photoshop CC 14.2 currently, as I didn't made the upgrade yet just because I saw so many complaints about latest version of Photoshop.

So my problem is this: I put all of my work files on the Kingston SSD and also set the scratch disks to this SSD.

I'm noticing freezes when I try to save a document, especially relatively large files (over 3000px wide). I hit CTRL+S and then can't use Photoshop for 10 seconds. After that the file saves and it goes back to normal. Same happens if I make a huge selection and try to drag and drop it to another document. Everything freezes for a few seconds. I didn't had this problem before buying the Kingston SSD and switching all of my work files. I kept them on the WD disk and had no problems.

So is it a good idea to have the work files on my SSD? I am thinking that with the write/read speeds of an SSD my print files would save faster.

Participating Frequently
December 26, 2014

This thread should probably be terminated, its getting long.  I want to mention a couple of things.  SSDs should be used for programs and/or your operating system (OS).  They are very fast for reading info but have a limited number of write cycles (about 1K to 5K).  I don't think using one for a scratch disk or to store files that are written often (photo editing) is a good idea.  Read more here: How to stretch the life of your SSD storage | PCWorld    

If you are saving large Photoshop (.psd) files then the file size can be very large due to layers.   Windows uses write cashing for HDs, where the file is put into memory and then written to the HD later so you see less delay.  I am not sure if that is done for SSDs.  If not, then you may see a stall while writing is being done because SSD memory is a lot slower than RAM. That is something you may need to look in to but again SSDs have a shorter life for writing data (reading is ok).

Noel Carboni
Legend
December 26, 2014

Modern large SSDs have smart controllers that do wear leveling.  They've pushed the practical limits to SSD write "wearout" to the point where it's no longer a worry.

P.S., I've been running a RAID array of 4 SSDs for OS, applications, data, scratch, etc. (i.e., everything) for 2-1/2 years now, and I use my computer system very heavily every day.  Zero problems.

-Noel

Participating Frequently
November 1, 2014

Don't rule out a virus, run an anti virus program (unless Macs don't get viruses).  I recently got one that produced two files in C:/Log directory called Pinlog and Debuglog.  These files never stopped increasing and filled my HD partition (pinlog was 140 GB).   I have a PC with Windows 7.  I had to run a anti virus program which found something called Agent.YM.gen!Eldorado .  To delete the two files I had to start Windows in the safe mode and delete them and the folder. 

I haven't had any problem with Photoshop CC and I have 12 GB of DDR3 RAM with 70% set for PS.   Also, if PS runs out of RAM and starts using the scratch disk it will slow down.

Inspiring
November 14, 2014

I am having the same problem - not gobbling a lot of memory, but running ungodly slow and acting like it is.   I am running Windows 8.1 on a machine with a 256 gb SSD and 16 gb RAM, with an i7 processor.  The machine isn't the problem.  Photoshop is using 607 mb of RAM, and my machine is only using 38% memory and 22% CPU.   However, when I click on a text box, there's at least a15-20 second delay for the program to respond.  What could be causing that?   I changed preferences to allow it to run 90% of RAM, but RAM doesn't seem to be the problem.   It's just slow, and I can't begin to tell why.

Participating Frequently
November 14, 2014

Check your HD disk usage (use resmon).  If something is constantly reading or writing to a regular HD it will greatly slow your computer.  You may have a virus.   Also check to see if your SSD is near full, another possible indicator of a a virus, assuming you are not installing programs on it to fill it up.  I would not set PS RAM above 80%, typically 70 - 75%.