P: Photoshop 25.0 Graphics Processor Compatibility Check fails: Unknown GPU

[elude107]

Hello, I just updated to Photoshop 2024 but I cannot get it to work with GPU acceleration. When I start Photoshop, I get this error: 

I am running a Windows 10 PC with two Nvidia RTX 3090 video cards and a 5950x CPU. 

So far, I have tried:

- Setting Photoshop and sniffer.exe to use my, uh, 'high performance 3090' as opposed to my 'power saving' 3090 (excellent work, Windows)  

- Updated to the latest Nvidia studio drivers and installed all Windows 10 updates

- Removed 'sniffer.exe' from the Photoshop folder as suggested, causes Photoshop to not boot. 

- Enabled "Older GPU Mode" in the Technology Previews, get same error so I disabled it again. 

-  Tried setting the GPU in Nvidia Control Panel, but I don't have a "Preferred GPU" setting like a laptop or PC with integrated graphics. 

- Disabled SLI

- Uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop 2024

- Manually ran sniffer.exe, it sees the video cards just fine

Thanks for the update Adobe, it works really well

[becomingcharly]

@misterfrench most welcome

If you read the above posts, I tried to show how you get the earlier version of the sniffer file by changing the preferences and the Adobe Cloud app. You can do that without wiping out Adobe 2024. Regardless, I hope you find a solution!

@Jay32428880sy56  woot! Delay is def odd, but so glad it helped!

[Xanathon]

Is this really still not fixed after all this time?

[Snaett]

Lifesaver! It's sniffer.exe for me as well. Implementing the version 25 sniffer.exe also works in PS 25.2 for me.

[Jay32428880sy56]

@becomingcharly25.2 is out today. I'm afraid to update 😅

[becomingcharly]

@Jay32428880sy56 oh lawdy me too!! Bit the bullet, and all good for me .... so far ...hope it works for you too! At least we have a temp solution if not 🙂

[misterfrench]

it fixed it!  i never did the sniffer file, so it's all good now!  so someone was listening!

best

j

[becomingcharly]

Sweet! Odd that they didnt roll it out earlier. Seems the forum members figured it out for them, as Adobe stated it one of its reply that a fix would not be included in ne t update bc it wouldnt be timely..something like that. And voila!

[Nik Nastev]

Sniffer is broken still! In latest updates in Phothoshop and in BETA - sniffer is the same and not worked.

WHEN we will get a FIX, Adobe?

This is really ... not good.

Thanks!

[Mark.Dahm]

@becomingcharly We are tracking down multiple leads; there is no single 'smoking gun', so to speak. Sniffer is not the cause for the issue, but if you alter it's behavior (like loading an older version), then it functions differently (namely, it could allow Photoshop to load by permitting instable GPU resources, which only leads to downstream complications).

Glad it worked for you, we are still tracking down other leads, @Nik Nastev 

[Xanathon]

I really don't care at all if there are "problems downstream". All I care about is that I can use the software I pay a horrendous amount of money for every month. And for weeks this is not the case.

[Kapture benoit]

I do not have a integrated graphic, base on the pics attached can you see your graphic card ....

[Xanathon]

This problem is still not solved in Photoshop 25.2. The error message generated by Sniffer is different (OpenGL is now detected), but it still does not recognize the GPUs.

[Nik Nastev]

sniffer is not fixed yet. New Photoshop beta update - old sniffer. How many Months you need Adobe, to fix this?

[Xanathon]

Another question is how long we have to wait to use the new features we pay a considerable amount of money every month for?

[Mark.Dahm]

@Nik Nastev @Xanathon , we will be releasing changes in our Beta that are speculative to address this issue; would be great if you had the chance to try it out tommorrow when it comes out.

The sniffer is not causing the issue; eliminating the sniffer removes the signal to Photoshop that the GPU is unstable, and allows Ps to proceed, but with an unstable GPU, problems will occur downstream.

[Xanathon]

I really do not care about "problems downstream", I care about working software.

I did not "eliminate" Sniffer, i dropped in Sniffer from an earlier version of Photoshop and the GPUs were identified correctly. So Sniffer is at least part of the problem.

Can I install the PS beta parallel to the stable branches? I am no friend of beta versions if they potentially mess with my system.

[Mark.Dahm]

@Xanathon , the Beta will not install to the same location, so you can have both on the system at the same time. If you use Photoshop together with Lightroom or Bridge, the 'send to' or 'open with' features between the apps will only launch the last version of those apps installed unless you pre-launch the version you want (that means Lighroom could launch the Beta instead of the non Beta version). Also, double clicking files may launch the version you don't want. To eliminate that, you can uninstall the Beta after trying it out.

One thing that we will not have done by Friday, but is on our to do list, is the ability to launch Photoshop without the sniffer at all; we were unhappy to discover this wasn't already the case. The sniffer is designed to sniff out unstable or non GPU systems so that Photoshop can operate with the right information, but it was needed a long time ago when the personal computing hardware had far spottier GPU use. There is a slight danger that eliminating the sniffer may make Photoshop more susceptible to bad drivers or faulty GPU memory states, however with more modern systems, that risk is lower and not a greater inconvenience than refusing to start at all, which is where we seem to be today.

The change we have in place modifies one of our components that did recently change how it interacted with the GPU, so we look forward to seeing whether or not that unblocks your situation. It's a bit of best guess because we have not been able to replicate the problem on a system here to confirm a more absolute guarantee. Thanks for your patiencea and we are sorry for the inconvenience.

[Mark.Dahm]

Is anyone on this thread using a system that does not have multiple GPUs?

Photoshop does not take advantage of multiple graphics cards. Conflicting drivers may also cause crashes or other problems.

• If you have a system with multiple graphics cards, see Configuring computers with multiple graphics cards.
• If you have multiple monitors, a best practice is to connect them to the same graphics card prior to starting Photoshop.

For those that have tried the troubleshooting issues above, we are continuing to work on this, so thanks for your patience.

[Nik Nastev]

@Mark.Dahm I have installed latest Beta - 25.4 m.2422. Result is still the same - I need to copy old sniffer.exe to be able to get GPU green.

Also - another issue I have with this Beta and retail (not beta) versions is - when I close them - they are still opened in background and I need to kill exe from Task Manager. And those proccess eat my memory. May be this is because of old sniffer, have no idea yet, as I didn't try this with original one. If I open 2 or more times Photoshop ( and closing between sessions) - I will have the same amount of .exe proccess in Task manager. Pfff...

[Mark.Dahm]

Sorry, the build with the patch hasn't been posted yet. I'll ping here when it's available.

[Nik Nastev]

@Mark.Dahm About MultiGPU config that you post a link - this is for laptops, where you have integrated GPU in CPU and External GPU. Please, see our systems - they are NOT laptops and we use external NVIDIA GPU's only. 

I have tried to alocate one of GPU's only for Photoshop (sniffer) apps without ANY luck.

Only bringing back sniffer from v23 give me compatible result with GPU.

Probably this is not a perfect, but it's better for work. Otherwise it is very slow to work in Photoshop.

[Xanathon]

@Mark.Dahm all information about our systems are already in this thread and in the system infos you requested. Also I already explained that I went through all available Adobe help articles about this and also through heaps of information about this in literally hundreds of posts all over the web about this issue before contacting support.

Then I had to jump through all kinds of hoops that your support let me jump through, claiming for days that this is a Windows problem or a problem of my rig, which it obviously is not.

So, please excuse if my patience with Adobe is wearing VERY thin after all this time of being ignored and taken for a dumb user (and this is still the case with another bug I reported in 2021 that was promised to me by an Adobe representative to be solved "soon" in april 2022 and is unsolved until today - for that bug I was and am passed through from supporter to supporter, all asking the same questions all over again and all giving the same wrong advise all over again. My impression is that Adobe support tries to get me so frustrated that I give up and stop inquiring about the bug. I have wasted way more time than is convenient on that other issue. That's another reason why my patience with Adobe is wearing VERY thin).

[Xanathon]

@Mark.Dahm I just tested Photoshop Beta 25,4. No improvement, in fact it's even worse than in 25.2, now OpenGL and OpenCL are again shown as "unavailable".

[Nik Nastev]

@Xanathon It's been the same here all the time from one of updates, where sniffer was edited from Adobe devs.

All points, except the last one are RED. Probably our GPU's and systems are very old and not compatible with Photoshop anymore (laugh).

Anyway, let's hope we will get a fix soon in new Beta.

Best!

[Mark.Dahm]

The Beta has been posted; let us know how it goes; we have more we know we need to do, but thanks for letting us know if this changes anything.