Skip to main content
December 5, 2025
Question

RAM Overload and out of memory (RAM) errors

  • December 5, 2025
  • 12 replies
  • 1606 views

My Workflow:
I work in the shoe sales industry. I use a 1000x1500px PSD file to scale down and position product photos. I then retouch them using Generative Fill, the Remove Tool, and other features. After that a create a copy backup file with all the photos of certain product, delete all the layers and continue with the next one. The source files I import are large (4480x6720px).

The Issue:
In previous versions of Photoshop (Pre v27), I had no RAM issues and could process a batch of 200 photos without stopping. However, with the new 2026 version (v27), my memory usage hits 90% after doing small batch of about 20-40 photos. Currently, the only solution is to close and restart Photoshop to clear the cache, I can also confirm using v26.7 version of Photoshop (2025) fixes the RAM problem.

Troubleshooting attempted so far:

  • Changed scratch disks

  • Adjusted max memory usage in Photoshop settings

  • Reset preferences

  • Used Edit -> Purge -> Purge All (this had no effect)

My Specs:

  • CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D

  • MOBO: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk

  • GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X 24GB GDDR6X

  • RAM: G-SKILL RipjawsV 64GB 3200MHz CL16

    ram-overload-and-out-of-memory-ram-errors-v0-6y7cjqmo8d5g1_png.jpg

12 replies

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 6, 2025

Quite a few users have had this problem, and almost all of them, at least those who came back here, report that a complete reset of preferences fixed it.

 

By complete I mean moving the whole Adobe Photoshop 2026 Settings folder to the desktop, so that a new one can be rebuilt (users > yourname > appdata > roaming > Adobe > Photoshop 2026). Just clicking "reset on quit" will only reset a smaller subset.

 

The preferences/settings contain the full application configuration, not just your own user settings. It is rewritten on every application exit, so are vulnerable to corruption by irregular shutdowns. Errors will accumulate over time and carry over, and new graphics code in a new version can bring out latent errors. Corrupt preferences tend to look like application bugs and are frequently mistaken for that.

 

Apparently, there is a particular vulnerability here that exposes something to easy corruption, given that a fairly high number of users see this. It's actually not Photoshop itself that uses this memory; it's the GPU performing (AI) tasks called by Photoshop. But the GPU should normally cap memory usage at a much lower level, and recycle before any problems appear.

 

As always, make sure to save out your custom actions, brushes etc so that they can be reloaded later. They will be wiped in the reset.

December 6, 2025

I have had this exact same problem for couple of days now and I don't know what to do!  Thank you for the info that downgrading version 26.7 could help for now.