P: Lagging while zooming and painting with Native Canvas Rulers enabled - PS (v23.2.0) Windows

[Robbie Khan]

HI,

Bit of a strange one and I've only noticed this since recent updates. When I have an image (regardless of resolution etc) open and the PS window is active/in-focus, I can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel smoothly as long as the image is fully visible in the PS window canvas. But if I zoom in closer so parts of the image fall outside of the canvas, then zooming is laggy, like as if there's a CPU spike laggy but there actually is not any CPU spike.

If I click out of the PS window so PS is no longer in-focus, and then hover the mouse over the PS window and then zoom (WIndows by default will allow scrolling or zooming on whatever window app window the mouse is hovered over) then the exact same zooming actions are smooth.

I have recorded a video showing what i mean to help give a better visual of what I'm on about: https://youtu.be/3Xv7E-JPnZg

My mouse is a Logitech MX Master 3 and it is running the latest software, this issue has only been noticed since recent PS updates though so I don't think it is mouse related. Zooming using CTRL & -/+ on the keyboard does not exhibit this issue however, but the zooming steps are much larger using the keyboard shortcut.

I am on Windows 11 (up to date) and have the nVidia Studio driver v511.65.

Cheers!

[Bartattack]

Recently (version 23.2) whenever i press ALT in photoshop, my mouse starts to lag. If I press escape of mousedown then it stops. for example Zooming in with ALT + scrollwheel is very laggy. But zooming in with the magnifying  glass is normal. This behaviour only happens in Photoshop, not in any other program. It's like the ALT key starts some extra secondary behaviour. if I don't touch the ALT key, everything works normal and fast.

[Halo Photography Ltd]

Mine was doing the same in conjuction with my Wacom tablet. I tried a tip of resetting the preferences and it appears to have helped but now having to remember all my settings which is annoying.

[quienz]

Las 2 ultimas versiones de Photoshop viene trayendo un problema al hacer zoom con la rueda del mouse, es algo incomodo que da la sensacion de que el PC se atasca o va lenta porque el zoom no es fluido va a tirones, el problema es tanto al hacer Alt+rueda del raton como al configurar solo con rueda de desplazamiento en herramientas.

[Ged_Traynor]

Hi

Do you have the rulers enabled by any chance when you notice the lag, if so try unchecking this option in preferences and restarting Photoshop to see if it helps

[J453]

Do you have Rulers shown?

If you disable rulers, or go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[Bartattack]

I have the same problem. My mouse lags as soon as I press the ALT key. (zooming with ALT, colorpick with Alt? Lasso with alt). Tried resetting preferences and changing the PSUserConfig.txt file, but the problem still remains. It has something to do with the fact that if you press the ALT key, the top menu item (File) gets selected. (keyboard shortcut)

[Sylvanmist]

I was also experiencing this same problem with brush lag, also zoom lag. I restarted Photoshop and my computer several times, updated my graphic drivers, wacom drivers, nothing was working..

Thank you Jeffrey-turning off rulers worked! I did not try disabling "native canvas rulers", but i just hit ctrl+r

[J453]

@robotriot 2000 is too long I think. Chad said that 100 to 300 was what worked well.

[J453]

@Bartattack What sprk setting did you try?

[J453]

Curious if rulers has anything to do with what you're seeing. If you disable rulers, or go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[J453]

Do you have Rulers shown?

If you disable rulers, or go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[J453]

Do you have Rulers shown?

If you disable rulers, or go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[J453]

Try reenabling GPU and instead go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[LongerLex]

Yes thank you!

[joeb21851908]

Yes! that seems to have fixed it. Thanks!

[Alex Rainy]

Hello,

At first I thought the problem was with my system. But then I noticed that as soon as I press Alt, my performance drops. Even the cursor starts to move with a strong delay.

Alt I press very often. To switch keyboard layout. To insert content. To zoom with the mouse wheel. And many more features.

And every time my performance dropped. I just realized today what the Alt button does.

I hope it will be clear in the video that the cursor moves smoothly at first, but after pressing Alt it becomes very sharp. It's like the fps is dropping to the bare minimum. And the same thing happens during the zoom. But not smooth. Happens abruptly and with a delay.

How can this be fixed? This slows me down a lot 😞

[J453]

Use the following optional extension (see this kb article for info on optional extensions) in PSUserConfig.txt: 

sprk 200

The time value above reflects the time for which a key needs to be pressed to enable the spring-loaded feature

Start with 200, and try 100 or 300 to see if 200 doesn't work. We found that 100 to 300 works well most customers. 

If you disable rulers, or go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and disable "Enable Native Canvas Rulers" and restart Photoshop, does it work better?

[Kukurykus]

I don't see mention of 'sprk' in this article. Where to find more information about using it?

[J453]

@Kukurykus Updated the document with a description.

[Kukurykus]

Are you in power to update that list of all possible currently existing 'extensions' (+ explanation) / Jul 21, 2021

[J453]

Not offhand - I'd have to get a lot of details from engineering. I'll see what I can do.

[Alex Rainy]

Thanks. I turned off the canvas rulers, it's much better. There is still a slight cursor and zoom delay after pressing Alt. But he is 80% weaker than he was, which is good.

[Dimirti2228157372hc]

Whenever I try zooming (alt + scroll) or even just press the 'alt' key, photoshop becomes basically unusable. (see the cursor moving in the video attached)
I tried:
- Using different apps and pressing alt keys -> no Issues there. It's not a mouse/keyboard problem

- GPU (RTX3080) acceleration enabled

- zoom animations disabled

- flick panning disabled

- gestures disabled

[garryg70673208]

A similar experience here, on a Win 11, 64gb, i9 setup. 
Very annoying. 

[GZK666]

Adobe Photoshop Version: 23.2.1 20220222.r.303 eedc582 x64

With every update, things only get worse. The PC is powerful, Photoshop does not take up more than half of the RAM and CPU. But working in the program is comparable to testing the nervous system for strength.

AMD Ryzen 9 5950x

Asus RTX 3080ti

64GB RAM 3600

1+1TB m.2

Adobe Photoshop Version: 23.2.1 20220222.r.303 eedc582 x64
Number of Launches: 31
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Version: 10 10.0.19043.1052
System architecture: AMD CPU Family:15, Model:1, Stepping:0 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, HyperThreading
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Logical processor count: 32
Processor speed: 4100 MHz
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Memory used by Photoshop: 70 %
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ACP.local Status:
- SDK Version: 2.1.0
- Core Sync Status: Reachable and compatible
- Core Sync Running: 5.4.0.15
- Min Core Sync Required: 4.3.66.0
ACPL Cache Config: ^4
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