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

[Nik Nastev]

new beta - and I can't believe! 

Finally, no errors!

Thank You!

[Nik Nastev]

Ok, new update here.

With latest Nvidia drivers - 551.23 studio and latest beta of Photoshop - all good. No errors.

But then my other 3d software start crashing (3ds max) with access violation error in d3d11.dll module.

I returned to previous Nvidia driver - 546.33 (studio) and my 3d software is good again. But guess what's happen with Photoshop beta - error is back again!

Something is wrong still! It is like one of previous Photoshop beta updates, when After Effects stoped to work.

I'm tired of all this. We need to work ...

[Xanathon]

I always use the nvidia Studio drivers and I can confirm that 551 has multiple problems with 3D software such as C4D with external render engines. Rolling back to 546 solves those problems. I have not yet tested the latest PS beta, but I cannot use Nvidia driver 551.

[Nik Nastev]

Yeah, rolling back to 546* - everything is rock solid, except Photoshop Beta/24

[Mark.Dahm]

Photoshop is relatively late to the D3D game, and we've selected D3D feature level 12 as the minimum supported version for Ps (it was released in 2015, which has given customers plenty of time to adopt newer hardware to keep up with the times; we've deprecated support for DX11 in our APIs). One of the reasons for this is that DX11 support could likley degrade over time, manifesting in driver updates that are unstable. We have already seen this with OpenGL and OpenCL, and the technical debt from investing in these APIs is widespread and deep.

Photoshop's largest investment in GL was its 3D features, which are now being fully deprecated from the application. We expect this to improve stability. We have not been able to replicate the behavior described in this thread, so we've been unable to target the right set of updates to address it, but we have been trying successive patches in the hopes that, paired with the right driver, we might stabilize. I think we are seeing here is simply that drivers supporting DX12 apps might conceivably rarely work equally well for DX11 apps. But if/when they do, that's a combination worthy of hanging on to that driver for longer than the next version up.

[Mark.Dahm]

@usagi35416700n13b ,

Can you share with us your Photoshop System Info (from under the Help menu in Ps)?

Looks like you are using an eGPU via dock?

[Xanathon]

Any news on this? The latest PS25 version still does not work, still the same GPU error.

[Xanathon]

This problem now seems to creep into other Adobe applications. After Effects suddenly after the last update tells me that the GPU cannot be used for 3D acceleration. Until last version this worked flawlessly.

[Nik Nastev]

This is bad 😕 

[Xanathon]

@Mark.Dahm Now what? It's weeks since the last update and nothing. This still does not work. I am running out of patience. I was told that if I buy Creative Cloud I can always use the latest version with the latest features and you bombard me with advertising for the AI-functions on Facebook. But this blatant bug still is not fixed, despite what was told here.

Quite contrary, now this problem also appears in After Effects.

[Mark29332349j631]

We are investigating different APIs for discovering GPU devices, as we have noticed inconsistencies between our crash reports and they way Photoshop detects hardware on startup.

Our focus is on finding marginal hardware (like USB displays) and turning off GPU capabilities because we still see a lot of crashing on those systems, which are not capable of supporting the latest features. But this may also help Ps correctly find a valid GPU resource in dual discrete GPU scenarios, which I believe is the outstanding issue in this thread.

We've seen some customers recover from this issue since it was initially supported, but the dual card situation where the model of the cards are different remains admittedly problematic. The heavy use of GPU computing that has been reported from affected customers might be creating unique operating environments that we have not been able to replicate. We are having to prioritize based on improving the broadest affected customer set, but we have not given up on this scenario.

[Xanathon]

@Mark29332349j631 

@Mark.Dahm 

this goes on for months. I cannot use the Photoshop functions I am paying for.

I am not using any displays connected via USB, I am simply using two Nvidia GPUs with multiple monitors attached to them, that is a common solution in graphics work and in coding. So if you imply I am a minority to get rid of me, this is another insult added to the already bad support I (and others) receive from Adobe. I canceled an appointment with my lawyer about this problem because I was promised in this thread and in personal messages this will be resolved soon. I even was given free subscription time to compensate for the time this will be resolved, from that I gathered it will be resolved within this extension time.

And now you have the audacity to tell me I'm a minority and this will not be fixed? Because "we have not given up on this scenario" is obviously a hollow phrase to get rid of me and so I wait some more months, which I will not do. This is a clear warranty case under european laws and if you want to force me to take legal action, please be sure that I will after getting no resolution whatsoever from Adobe after all this time.

Do I sound angry? You bet!

Edit: my two video cards are nearly identical, or at least very close together when it comes to GPU architecture and they are same genration, so this cannot be the problem in my case. Adobe botched this in an update because before later 24 versions and 25 versions this worked without any problem. I can still use earlier 24 versions without the bug, but those lack the AI functions I am promised and that I want. So PLEASE stop stalling and fix this instead of implying I'm a minority.

[Xanathon]

@Mark29332349j631 If I do buy two identical video cards, do you guarantee me it will work?

[PanBeep]

Adobe please stop embarassing yourself, please!

[Xanathon]

@Mark29332349j631 

@Mark.Dahm 

I just bought and installed two identical Nvidia video cards and I can confirm that the error is gone.

This is really unbelievable: Every other company is able to handle two different video cards from the same vendor (Nvidia) and the same architecture, only Adobe devs are not able to code their software in a way this works. This shines a very bad light on Adobe and I will make sure I will spread the word about this. And since I not only work in coding and artistically, but also journalistically, I will make sure a lot of people will learn about this and how Adobe handles their customers: by taking heaps of money every months and then not being able to adress simple and totally normal system configurations. Plus Adobe thinks it is acceptable behavior to "deprioritize" this problem and stop working on it, despite all the feedback in this thread.

It may work here now, but rest assured, Adobe, that this is not the end of this! You frustrated me more than enough on this so I am motivated to get you some bad press.

What will you say to all those who cannot afford to just buy TWO new video cards? Bad luck?

[Xanathon]

There are still problems with 25, PS24 works fine:

[PanBeep]

Have you talk to Microsoft and NVIDIA? 

[Xanathon]

@PanBeep Why should I talk to Nvidia or Microsoft? It has long been established in this thread that this is an Adobe problem, caused by the major code changes in Photoshop due to so-called "AI-functions" (and those are unusable anyway, it looks like they use an older version of Stable Diffusion).

@Mark.Dahm 
@Mark29332349j631 

I now have two new video cards that are way better then old old ones and still the Photoshop performance is far worse than before. Whatever you do GPU-wise, you do it badly.

[PanBeep]

@Xanathon they should talk to Nvidia and Microsoft as is is obvious Adobe needs help with this issue.

[Xanathon]

@Mark.Dahm 

@Mark29332349j631 

PS25 stil has multiple GPU problems. On another computer with a single RTX2060 super PS25 constantily tells me I have to activate GPU acceleration to use Camera Raw. On PS23 everything works fine.

I would say you new GPU routines are extremely buggy and flawed.

To all others: keep older versions, it is crucial if you want to work professinally with this software.

What is EXTREMELY annoying is the fact tha PS23 CONTANTLY bugs me to update to use "AI functions". "AI functions" are of no use, if other standard function stop to work. Just because you jump on the AI hype train crucial functions are neglected. I would expect different from a company that claims to sell "professional" software.

[D Fosse]

FWIW, just to keep perspective, most of us don't have these problems. It has always worked flawlessly here, on two systems running the latest PS (RTX 3060 and 4060 respectively).

Considering the millions of PS subscriptions out there, the few problem reports seen here are clearly a very small minority.

Not to say that's an excuse. If you pay for it, it should obviously work. No argument. But unfortunately, this is the software reality. Sometimes it just doesn't play nice. Usually it can be fixed with a few simple precautions.

As for the dual GPU problem I can easily accept the underlying premise: you cannot send data to one GPU and get it back from the other. I don't know how you'd get around that. For an application that sends data one way downstream, that's not an issue. But in Photoshop, it's two-way traffic.

For two identical GPUs, you should get identical data fed to the same driver. So that should work. But different GPUs will clog up that pipeline.

Just to keep perspective.

[Xanathon]

@Mark29332349j631 

@Mark.Dahm 

PS25 still is mostly useless. Even with the two new video cards that no longer generate the "no GPU detected" error, GPU performance is horrible and all but one "neural filter" is greyed out and not usable, PS does not give me any hints on why, but from what I see I would assume that it does not regonize the gPU correctly.

@D Fosse read through this thread. Using multiple GPUs is perfectly normal nowadays in graphic design and especially in 3D work. The problem are not the users and their systems, the problems seems to be sloppy coding. Because this worked flawlessly until PS24. And claiming "only a small number of users" has this is a very bad excuse for not providing professional software for perfectly normal use cases.

From what I see Adobe was desperate to jump onto the "AI" bandwagon and the development of those "features" was rushed.

[PanBeep]

I've just updated photoshop to latest 25.7 version and guess what? Photoshop still can't see my GPU. This is pretty funny and at the same time pretty annoying. Why are you doing this? You are not a garage compay but multimilion dollar corporation. Stop doing that AI (cursing removed) and fix your software, please!

[Xanathon]

@PanBeep after years of experiencing extremely abysmal support from Adobe about heaps of bugs, promises that are not met, lies and bugs are not fixed for years (in one special case I was promised a fix two times, once two years ago and once some time ago in a PM here in the forums - and nothing), if ever, I came to the conclusion that they do not care at all about their customers. They are too big and rake in too much money (multimillion dollar company) to care about us.

[Shhhh!DigitalMedia]

In case you haven't solved this issue, I've found a (temporary?) workaround. I was getting the Unknown GPU error and managed to circumvent that problem in Windows 11 simply by running Photoshop as administrator (right-click the Photoshop.exe in your ?:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (Beta) folder and select Run As Administrator from the context menu). From that point onward, it correctly detected my GPU and seems thus far to be functioning as intended and that's with Photoshop Beta (25.9.0 Release).

I hope that helps.