Poor performance: Photoshop and other apps seem to run slower on Intel Macs than on Apple's M

[GregorTa]

Is it just my impression and how can I improve Photoshop's performance on my Intel iMac?

I run the Adobe suite on my Intel iMac Retina 5K 27-inch from 2020 (3,8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB, 128 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, Mac OS X 14.7.4), primary Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat. And they all just seem pretty lame not only when handling large files of serveral GB.

Processing and saving psb files in Photoshop for example the software merely uses 30% of available CPU power, even hardly any GPU power, according to a system monitoring tool. I have 400 GB of free disk space and never lack RAM. Despite the obvious performance reserves opening, saving, exporting files takes forever, sometimes even just clicking or changing the workspace view lets the annoying colorful "Mac wheel" spin forever before I can continue working (with no apparent CPU overload). It's the same even with Acrobat: Manipulating single pages of a multi-page document (e.g. deleting some) only works pretty sluggishly like back in the early 2000's when we still knew to patiently wait for our beloved Macs to finish their duties. InDesign and Illustrator aren't much better (a 40-page document is a real challenge for my nerves, only by scrolling through the pages).

I know getting one of the latest M2 Macs would be the easiest way to improve the apps' performance, but also the most expensive. As long as my Intel processor is not smoking under Adobe's load I'd rather suspect software issues than a too weak and too old hardware.

Does anyone experience similar issues? Do you guys have any good advice on improving the performance (with specific preferences and settings), besides the obvious: "Get a Mac Pro or a decent Windows PC"?

[Sameer K]

Hey, @GregorTa. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll help you figure this out. Please share the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy and paste into a text document > Upload and attach here.

Does it behave as mentioned after a specific set of steps? What troubleshooting steps have you tried already? Where are you saving the files (Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System / External HDD)? When did this start happening?

Are there any recent changes to your system? For example, have you installed any antivirus, system updates, or web extensions recently?

Please try turning it off, as multiple users have reported that TimeMachine has slowed down some apps while they were working. Also, try booting the macOS Safemode: https://adobe.ly/3F5svcI

Let me know if this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

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