PS and AI Lagging Issues

Hi ​@AlphaArslan,

Thanks for sharing your system specs, that's really helpful. I can see you're running a Lenovo Legion 5 with dual GPUs: the AMD Radeon integrated graphics and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. This is a configuration we're aware can sometimes cause performance issues in both Photoshop and Illustrator, especially after updates.
 

Here's what's likely happening and some targeted steps to try:

1. Force both Photoshop and Illustrator to use your NVIDIA dedicated GPU: On dual-GPU laptops, Windows can sometimes route applications to the integrated AMD Radeon GPU rather than your dedicated NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti, which dramatically impacts performance. After updates, these assignments can sometimes get reset.
 

Via Windows Settings (Windows 11):

Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics

Find Photoshop.exe and Illustrator.exe (add them manually if they don't appear)

Set both to "High Performance" (which maps to your NVIDIA GPU)
 

Via NVIDIA Control Panel:

Open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings

Add Photoshop and Illustrator

Set "Preferred graphics processor" to "High-performance NVIDIA processor"
 

2. Since you have two GPUs, you need to update drivers for each one separately:

NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti: Download the latest Studio driver from https://adobe.ly/3TApkRR

AMD Radeon integrated: Download the latest from AMD Drivers & Support

On hybrid-graphics laptops, outdated drivers on either GPU can cause issues.

3. Lenovo Legion laptops have power modes (Quiet / Balanced / Performance) that can throttle the discrete GPU to save battery. If you're plugged in, could you make sure you're in Performance mode (via the Lenovo Vantage app or the Fn+Q shortcut)? When in battery-saver or balanced mode, the system may force applications onto the integrated GPU.
 

A few questions to help narrow this down further:

• When you say "since last week," did both apps update around the same time, or did the lag start with a Windows Update?

• What specific operations lag? Is it everything (just moving around the canvas, zooming), or specific tasks like using brushes, filters, or generative AI features?

• Are you running on battery or plugged in when you notice the lag?

• Did you recently update your Windows version, NVIDIA drivers, or AMD drivers around the time the lag started?

The answers to these questions will help us determine whether this is a GPU routing issue (most likely given your hardware) or something else. Looking forward to helping you get both apps running smoothly again.

Best regards,

Anshul Saini