Refine Edge Brush not feathered strokes Photoshop 2022

Engineering suggested going to Preferences > Performance and click on the "Advanced Settings" button. Uncheck Use OpenCL, restart Photoshop and try your steps to see if the problem persists. That would give them more datapoints as to what you might be encountering.

The file I am trying to mask is 95 Megs on its own, before adding it to a larger image. I eventually got decent results by using my ipad and pencil to paint on the mask itself in the alpha channel. But from every video I have looked at online about using the refine edge tools, I should not have had to do this.

Can you post a screenshot - you mentioned the size of your image, is it small?

Even after release, the result was hard edge. I rebooted my computer and it has improved, BUT the selection / mask now is barely changing. If anything, it is masking some areas within the image that I did not even paint over with the brush. When I straddle less of the image and more of the background, there is no change, yet I can clearly see there is more hair strands to add to the mask. When watching "how to" videos online of the refine edge brush, the results are MUCH more live/interactive rather than waiting for me to release. Maybe that is due to the image size, but with all the compute power I have, I expect something different.

As you're laying down a stroke in Select and Mask, the brush looks hard edge until you release - then the compute occurs and the soft edge is rendered.