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mrmhiklop3
mrmhiklop3
Participant
May 20, 2026
Question

Why is Photoshop running slowly after the latest update?

Photoshop may run slowly after a recent update because new features often increase GPU, RAM, and CPU usage, especially AI-powered tools and background Creative Cloud services. Many users also experience lag due to outdated graphics drivers, corrupted preferences, incompatible plugins, font issues, or changed performance settings after updating.

Common fixes include:

Updating GPU and graphics drivers
Resetting Photoshop preferences
Disabling problematic plugins
Turning off GPU Compositing or Graphics Processor acceleration temporarily
Increasing RAM allocation in Performance settings
Clearing font cache and removing corrupted fonts
Using scratch disks with enough free storage
Reinstalling Photoshop if update files became corrupted

Some Adobe Community and Reddit users also reported that recent updates introduced slower brush tools, delayed shortcuts, and startup lag tied to GPU settings or cloud background services.

For official troubleshooting steps, optimization settings, and performance guides, read more in the Adobe Photoshop Help Center.

    3 replies

    Imaginative_Breezef80e
    Participant
    October 7, 2026

    I’m having the same issue. Ever since photoshop updated, it’s been super slow. I’ve restarted, made sure my Mac OS and graphics drivers are up to date, restarted again, adjusted the RAM usage, lowered the history states to 20, purged the cache, everything. No plugins. Photoshop was working fine before the update, but now it takes minutes just to open a small image or zoom in on it. I use it daily for work so looks like I’ll have to just cancel my photoshop subscription and find something else to edit photos, which sucks because I’ve been a lifelong fan of PS. Hope they fix it someday.

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    Ivan_Serdiuk0846
    Participant
    September 22, 2026

    Since the latest updates, launching Photoshop takes over 10 minutes—I’ve tested this on various PCs. It seems like the background tasks and connections to AI servers and some unknown plugins are poorly coded; this has been going on for over a month, yet the developers don't seem to care. Because of this, I’m increasingly using software other than Adobe's. 

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      Glenn 8675309
      Glenn 8675309
      Legend
      September 22, 2026

      Users often install plugins and other things, and often forget to tell people about.

      Some users never ever turn their computers off.
      My fix for that?  Shut your computer down, all the way.   Go get some coffee, come back and turn it back on.   Same goes for whatever you use to connect to the internet-  turn it all the way, go get some coffee, and turn it back on.

      10 minutes to start a program?  That’s a computer issue, not  a program issue.



       

       

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