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simo_9342
Participant
March 16, 2025
Question

Photoshop lag on MacBook Air M3 24gb 512gb

  • March 16, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 1443 views

Hey everyone! I recently purchased a new MacBook Air M3 24gb 512gb, and I’ve been loving it so far. However, I’ve encountered a frustrating issue when using Photoshop. Whenever I zoom in with the touchpad or try to move an image, it starts to stutter/jumping, which disrupts my workflow just like in this video: https://youtu.be/73ioA5zQrQQ?si=0EvmQJLf72zdcU1E

 

Has anyone else experienced this? How can I fix this issue? Any tips or solutions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance!

4 replies

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chriss81884290
Participant
October 8, 2025

I think you better with a windows desktop as you can put in a powerful nivida GPU  like a Quadro 8 gb or 16gb buy used on ebay that does not use basic inbuit memory lt. And have a larger inbuilt memory as well say 128gb. Macs are very restrictive. You would really have a goer then. You can have several Hard Drives too.

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ExUSA
Genius
October 8, 2025

This is nonsense and poor advice. Many of us are Mac users and they work great. I could say avoid Windows because of video driver problems but that would be bad advice as well.

And Apple sells their top-end Mac Studio with up to 512GB of RAM built in, which is the most available in any consumer desktop computer.

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Jeff ArolaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 27, 2025

Looks like your using Photoshop CC 2019, which needs Rosetta to run on your MacBook Air that has an Apple Silicon processor., so that could cause some unexpected issues, since Photoshop 2019 is made to run on Intel processor Macs.

 

As mentioned by Claire H, update to Photoshop 2025 and see if Photoshop 2025 runs better.

 

If you do go the route of getting another Mac, try to get at least a 1 TB drive, so you have ample room for Photoshop's scratch disk.

 

 

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simo_9342Author
Participant
March 16, 2025

Thank you so much for the advice! I tried adjusting the settings as you suggested, but unfortunately the problem has gotten worse.

I’m still in my trial period with this new MacBook. If I switch to a MacBook Pro M4 with 16GB or 24GB of RAM, should the problem be resolved? 

Claire H.
Community Manager
Claire H.Community Manager
Community Manager
March 26, 2025

Hi @simo_9342, I'm sorry to hear that the issue has gotten worse despite adjusting the settings. Can you send a few more details about the issue you're encountering?

  • Issue - a short description of the problem. 
  • Steps to reproduce - a numbered list of the exact steps needed to replicate the issue.. 
  • Expected result - what should happen after executing the last step.
  • Actual result -  what actually occurred after the previous step 
  • Adobe Photoshop version
  • Operating System - specify Windows or macOS, along with the version

Let's try troubleshooting the problem. I see that you're experiencing stuttering when you are working in Photoshop. Please try the following:

  • Update Software: Ensure you have the latest versions of Photoshop and macOS. 
     
  • Adjust RAM Allocation: In Photoshop preferences, go to "Performance" and increase the RAM allocation to 80-85%. 
  • Disable Graphics Processor (GPU): In Preferences > Performance, try deselecting "Use Graphics Processor" to see if that resolves the issue. 
     
  • Skip Plugins: Launch Photoshop while holding down the Shift key to skip loading third-party plugins. 
     
  • Disable Background Processes: Close unnecessary applications and processes running in the background. 
     
  • Reset Preferences: If Photoshop was running well earlier, but has recently become slow, reset preferences.

Switching to a MacBook Pro M4 with 16GB or 24GB of RAM should help with the problem. The MacBook Pro M4 is designed to handle more intensive tasks and offers better performance for applications like Photoshop. If you decide to switch to the MacBook Pro M4, make sure to also follow the recommended settings for Photoshop, such as reducing the number of history states and adjusting the memory allocation in PS preferences. Hope this helps! ^CH

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2025

If that means a 512 GB system drive and 24 GB RAM, you're definitely on the low end of what will work for Photoshop, and you will need to take some precautions.

 

Apple silicon uses shared system memory for the GPU, and the GPU can eat up a lot. So that means you have effectively about half that available for Photoshop, and the OS may need to constantly allocate and reallocate that memory to where it's needed.

 

Then there's the Photoshop scratch disk. That's Photoshop's main memory, with RAM more as a fast access cache beyond the base memory needed for loading all of Photoshop's submodules. The scratch disk contains all history states for all open documents, with added overhead for some advanced functions. Each history state potentially adds the full uncompressed file size.

 

So there are a couple of things I would recommend. One, dial down the number of history states as much as possible. The default value of 50 will eat up your system drive in no time. Take it down to 10 or 12. Second, don't open too many files at one time. And third, set the memory allocation in PS preferences to 60-65 %. The higher you set it, the higher the chance of choking the whole system.

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