Running Photoshop 2026 on a 2017 Mac...

Sigh...upgraded to M5 Tahoe 26.3.1 few days ago. Speeded up PS, now very fast and can have PS and Bridge opened together with several files opened. So that bit yes. BUT. Have years and years of files from multiple PS, Macs and Find Search feature seems to have almost totally gone. One of my main uses is finding old files to photoshop evolve, but somehow, it seems that Macbook ‘Finder’ will not find Bridge Files or Folders. Old machine Find character searches used to include files-all .eg. TIF JPEGs and ‘Folder’ names. MacBook seems to be suggesting need to remember date, of course not me for 000’s of pics. Now it does not include any of that...spent 2 days trying to work out why but no success - yet - ...perhaps just me??? 

Apple is in the middle of announcing new computers with M5 processors, these will run circles around your old machine. On top of that, your computer is already considered vintage and will be totally out of support soon. I’d recommend looking at both the newly announced machines and possibly an M4 refurb, those are generally a great deal.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I hate to spend the money on a new Mac to speed up / improve the efficiency of Photoshop, but with my current one being almost 10 years old, I soon may not have a choice. With that said, I do most of my photo processing in Camera Raw… I do very little extra work in Photoshop. I’m not into photo stacking / layering or currently doing very large file panos. I also don’t really care about the AI stuff because I frankly don’t find generative fill “repairs” to be very good right now. I still prefer simple cloning / bandaid tool, if needed.

I also use Bridge to organize all my photo files. While I have Lightroom, I just prefer the simplicity of Bridge and how it works for my current filing system. But I have noticed the past few years of Bridge crashing on me quite frequently and or running slowly loading files.

I did recently convert my camera to a Sony A7R5 and I got a feeling that it’s 61 megapixel files are really going to start cramping my style with my current Mac setup. I’m sure a new Mac M5 or M6 will really speed things up.

It depends a lot on the kind of editing you do. 

If you mostly edit single images, and the edits aren’t too intense, such as some color and tonal adjustment layers and some cropping (the traditional edits), a new Mac might not seem all that much faster in Photoshop because your model has above average specs for an Intel Mac. You could keep going with your current Mac for a while. But keep in mind that if macOS 15 is the last macOS version it can run, it will probably lose support for Apple software updates in 2027 because Apple only supports updates for the last three major versions of macOS. This in turn will limit how many more Photoshop upgrades will support that Mac because like Apple, Adobe offers software updates for only the last three major versions of macOS. 

The more you edit very large images (any combination of high number of megapixels, high bit depths, and many layers and Smart Objects), or the more you want to do raw-level editing in bulk (such as using Camera Raw and Bridge together), the more you’ll see a significant speed improvement in a new Mac.

And then, looking toward the future, the more you’re interested in the latest AI features, the more a new Mac will benefit you. AI features that are processed on your computer instead of the cloud, such as many of the great new features in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom, really benefit from the faster GPUs in the latest Apple Silicon Macs.

​@mas1571 Upgrading as in getting a new MAC M5? Yeah, you would definitely see a mondo difference in working with your files. Get as much RAM as possible because AI is just getting bigger and better, and likely will be a RAM pig one day!  9 years is a fairly decent run. I am trying to hold off on the M6 myself making that my last MacBook Pro I will ever use...but may buy the MacBook Neo for my kid (and me!). My work uses the M4 Studio, and it’s amazing. I sometimes don’t even bring my MacBook Pro 2013 in!

It’s hard to quantify the actual speed/efficient improvement, because so much depends on what you intend to be doing with Photoshop.
From your CPU spec, it looks like you’re running an iMac Pro - 8 core machine, with a Radeon Vega Pro 56 GPU. 
Per your specs, this SHOULD theoretically work, but I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about performance on Intel based Macs, nowadays. A couple of years ago, I wan’t pleased on my Intel machine, and I am now getting a little frustrated at times, with my M1 Mac Studio MAX. And that’s only because my patience is longer than my pocketbook.😉

There’s an old discussion about your model with Adobe Media Encoder here: 

 - from 5 years ago. 
Of course, AME usually needs much more than Photoshop does, but nowadays, you’ll find that Photoshop, with a lot of it’s filter work, the AI, and such, it needs much more than it did at the time. 

I know for sure, you won’t get to use quite a few of the filters with your model - but of course, you may not need them.

I’d really suggest trying to install it on your current machine. With your subscription, you can install it WITHOUT uninstalling your current version. If it gives you a hassle with what you want to do, that’ll be your answer. Otherwise, you can stick with the older machine, until it does.

It’s SO hard to futureproof, nowadays. Your machine was KILLER when you got it, but computer time moves so fast….🙁