Camera Raw consuming all available RAM

[Coma004]

Hello everyone,

I recognized a strange behaviour in Camera RAW.

I opened Photoshop, then opened about 20 RAW files waiting for Camera RAW to load. So it does. I start working in CR, but after a few minutes CR is getting very laggy, my mouse pointer is sometimes freezing, and every change, for example exposure or any other parameter, leads into a delayed output for about 5 or 6 seconds. A smooth working is not possible anymore.

So I made some tests. It doesn't matter if I open just one oder 50 RAW files, always the same. I figured out that this behaviour first occures when I use AI masking for automatically choosing the background or the main object in my picture. As soon as I choose a mask with AI feature, I see that my RAM is slowly filling up until it is completely used. From this point, the described delays happen.

I have Windows 10, 32 GB RAM (should be enough, at least for one RAW file?), Ryzen 7600X and Geforce 4070S.

I don't know when this started, because I do not use PS or CR every day.

Any hints for me that might help?

[Coma004]

BTW I use latest CR version, 16.5.1 and PS 25.11

[sprinklr-integration-user]

Hey, @Coma004. Welcome to the Camera Raw community. I'll help you figure this out.  Please provide information and share the system information from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy and paste into a text document > upload and attach here.

Are you working with multiple displays? Keep only one connected at a time to test for stability.

In Photoshop, press and hold the CTRL + ALT key, go to Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw Preferences, and select 'Yes' when prompted to reset Camera Raw preferences.

Let me know if the issue exists. Thanks!
Sameer K

(Use '@mention' to tag me when you reply).

[Coma004]

Hi @sprinklr-integration-user thank you for your hints. I attached the requested file an an additional screenshot.

I made some more tests after restetting CR as described. I opened about 20 RAW files and started editing. the first four or five pictures it is working fine and fluently. Until here, RAM usage is about 15 to 20 GB.

Then, with the next picture I use the mentioned AI tools, and CR is creating a DNG-file as a copy of the original RAW file (I think this is normal procedure). From this point, RAM usage is going up to nearly max. usage, see the screenshot. And now, CR is very slow, which might be based on the fact that there is not much available RAM anymore.

In the past, this wasn't an issue. I have to say that I use PS and CR more or less the first time again this year, so in 2023 it was the previous version of PS and CR.

[Mick Payton]

When using camera raw it starts to slow down after editing a couple of images then finally freezes, after restarting raw and photoshop it;s back to working well, then starts to slow down again.

I've reset everything, increased the cache size to 65gb, I think I've done everything that I've found to be suggested, can you help please?

System is : Windows 11, intel I9 processor, 32gb ram, 2x 1TB pcie drives, Nvidia 4070 video card.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

I have no other suggestions but can offer moral support.

Similar system to yours but identical problems. Cannot seem to get to the bottom of it.

[Mattia37261298is4l]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been experiencing some frustrating issues with Camera Raw over the last few releases, and I’m hoping someone here can help.

1. Laggy Sidebar: When I scroll through the sidebar in Camera Raw, it stutters and becomes quite laggy, making the experience unpleasant.

2. High RAM Usage: When I open 5 or 6 images at the same time and apply a mask to one of them, my RAM usage spikes to 100%, despite setting a 40% RAM limit in the preferences—it doesn’t seem to respect the limit. I’ve tried various tweaks, including adjusting settings in the NVIDIA control panel, but the issue persists.

I know it’s not a hardware issue because everything was running smoothly a few releases ago. Here are my system specs:

• CPU: Ryzen 3900x
• RAM: 32GB
• GPU: RTX 3080

Oddly enough, I also have a MacBook Pro M1, which is far less powerful, yet Camera Raw works flawlessly on it. Leaving aside the debate on how much better the macOS version is, has anyone found a solution to these performance problems on Windows?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

[Mattia37261298is4l]

Bump

[Coma004]

Seems that I am not alone with this issue.

@sprinklr-integration-userIs there any new info on this?

[NRC13]

Similar problems here.  Having to restart photoshop after editing several files to clear the memory..  Then repeat.

[Sameer K]

Hey @Coma004 @NRC13 @Mattia37261298is4l!

Check the pinned/correct answer tagged here by @Daniel the Shopper : https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/huge-vram-usage-camera-raw/m-p/147547...

Thanks!

Sameer K

[NRC13]

Hi Sameer K @Sameer K 

Thanks for this suggestion.  I will give it a try.

I am curious as to why Photoshop and Bridge are using more of the memory after I have been processing several images (but with all image files closed) compared with the memory usage when I have just freshly opened the applications.  Is this a bug in the Adobe software or is it a problem with the Nvidia graphics card?

Nigel  - NRC13

[Coma004]

Hi @Sameer K ,

thanks for the link. I tried the suggestions described there. Unfortunately there is no change in behaviour. I think the problem described and solved in the link is the other way round: The user had problems with Video RAM of the graphics card, not with system RAM like in my case. 

I made some more testing: Indeed, the VRAM is filling up very fast when using ACR as I described before, but after that, my system RAM is filling up. So first, VRAM is filled - not a problem at all. Problems start, when system RAM is filling up.

I started Photoshop and then opened my RAW files there, so Photoshop opens ACR afterwards. That was my usual way. Now I tried out Adobe Bridge, and start ACR from there. Same behaviour. But now the interesting part: When I use Adobe Lightroom Classic, everything runs smoothly and without any problems! Video RAM and system RAM are very low (about 30% usage), even if I import hundreds of RAW files in the catalog, ready for editing.

As there are nearly all the same options in Lightroom compared to ACR, I think about to use Lightroom in the future. That certainly will not solve the problem with ACR, but is a workaround. I would prefer to use ACR again for sure.

Is there anything else what we can figure out?

[NRC13]

There is definitely a problem with Photoshop and Camera Raw.  Camera Raw is eating up the memory and not releasing it when the image is opened into Photoshop from Camera Raw.    My workflow now involves shutting down and restarting Photoshop after every half-dozen images or so.    Windows 11, 32GB,  GeForce RTX4080

[TheTomJon]

Similar issue, but doesn't have anything to do with AI tools for me. (OP check if you're vRAM is filling and it's switching AI to CPU and RAM?)

Camera Raw has a RAM leak for sure. And to top it off I upgraded from 32gb RAM to 64GB RAM and Camera Raw won't use more than 21GB -- once it hits 21GB everything starts slowing down dramatically even though system ram is only at ~41%.

Only workaround I have found is to regularly click "Done" in Camera Raw; then close and restart all Adobe programs until RAM hits 21GB again...

[jo�o_3958]

It's not just with Nvidia. with amd rx 6600 it's the same thing with version 16.5. I had to go back to version 14.5 and it works but with the loss of features from 16.5. I went through this for several weeks until I uninstalled version 16.5 and everything got better

[Coma004]

@jo�o_3958So you went back to an older version of Camera Raw and then it worked? Thats would show that we have a problem with the newer versions of ACR - and not with specific PCs of some users...

[jo�o_3958]

my system is cpu ryzen 7 5700x - gpu rx 6600 and 64gb. It had 32 gigabytes and I bought 64GB thinking it would be memory. but it's not even the most current camera raw version.

[Coma004]

@TheTomJon@Sameer K 

I now figured out that this behaviour is happening with or without using AI, after some minutes. VRAM is filling, and after that, my RAM as described. I also thought about upgrading to 64 GB. But if the problem occurs with 64 GB of RAM the same way, I can skip trying that.

[AtomicTempest]

Same problem it seems that it starts when I try using "Select subject with AI" it starts to use all the RAM 

[drtonyb]

It seems that ACR has become extremely greedy when it comes to using RAM and VRAM.

One Subject mask in ACR hosted from Bridge:

Bridge is reported as using 20 GB of RAM in total; 11.7 GB of VRAM. The RAW image being edited is only 25.61 MB in size.

I have to close ACR and Bridge to get the VRAM released. Drops to 0.7 GB when ACR is not open. The next highest RAM user that I have running is Photoshop, which is only using 1.7 GB RAM.

This situation is clearly rediculous!

[sebashipper]

The same thing happens to me, Camera Raw consumes a lot of ram memory. I join the request for help, if there is a solution please let me know. Thanks!

[сергей_7727]

Ребята, кажется, я нашёл решение! Когда мы нажимаем на вкладку «маскировка», программа автоматически начинает искать людей (лица) на фото, и оперативная память сразу же начинает заполняться. Я не нашёл, как отключить эту «медвежью услугу», НО если вы нажмёте на вкладку «маскировка» правой кнопкой мыши, то у вас сразу появится контекстное меню, в котором вы можете выбрать нужное действие, и вуаля, он сразу открывает маску без распознавания лиц, и оперативная память в норме!!!

[Marcus227013083vi8]

Same issue with no respect to prefrences on Ram usage. Used to never be a problem. I shoot photos at concerts and would import 100's of photos with ease, now getting through more than 5 at a time is serious issue. If anyone finds a workout im here for it. 

Windows 11
i7 12700K

16 gig ddr4 ram 

Nvidia 3070 

[Brian of BSE]

Very similar issue. Frequently, when creating masks (Like muliple objects, or Linear Gradients), I get a message that there are issues with memory (RAM) and that the Graphics Processor has been disabled.

Also, there have been many occasions, whilst creating masks, that ACR has locked up, completely locked up, with no means of escape, within Photoshop CC 2025. In desperation, I type in Ctrl, Alt, Del, (Windows 11 24H2) and log out.

This issue is relatively recent, and I thought that it was perhaps my new Windows 11 PC (A Chillblast Customised Apex Intel Core i9 RTX 4060 Ti, with a Gigabyte Z790 GAMING X AX motherboard and 64 GByte of RAM), but now I think the issue is with Photoshop.