Adobe AI Denoise is VERY slow on my new windows 11 ARM Copilot+ PC

This is just my opinion, but based on recent history, I think the slow AI Denoise on Snapdragon X Elite is temporary and will be faster in the future (that’s my personal guess, not an official Adobe statement). I have a few reasons for thinking this.

What drives AI Denoise performance is much different than for most of the features in Photoshop. The two most important factors for AI Denoise performance are the GPU and the NPU. Apparently the CPU (on any hardware platform) is not well suited for the type of processing AI Denoise needs, so using a CPU with faster cores or more cores makes very little difference for AI Denoise.

Currently, the fastest performing laptops for AI Denoise are the PCs and Macs with powerful GPUs. The more expensive ones can do AI Denoise in 5 to 20 seconds per image. But the tests I have seen show that the performance of the GPU that is part of the Snapdragon X Elite is not at the same level as Nvidia, Apple, or even Intel. I am guessing that the remedy for this might be an improved GPU in a future generation of Snapdragon X Elite, unless something can be done with a graphics drivers update for current ARM Windows laptops (I am not sure how plausible that is).

On the Mac side, Adobe recently enabled support for the Apple Neural Engine NPU on Apple Silicon, and that reduces AI Denoise time a little more than using the GPU alone. Copilot+ PCs now have an NPU built in. However, the Apple Neural Engine has been included for about four years and it is only now that Adobe put it to use for AI Denoise; apparently part of the problem was on the Apple side. Hopefully they will support PC NPUs faster than that.

In short, this is what I’m thinking:

• AI Denoise benefits the most from GPU/NPU, but Snapdragon X Elite is strongest in CPU…which is the least important component for AI Denoise performance. 
• WIndows on ARM hardware is so new that it is not clear how long it will take Adobe to fully optimize AI Denoise for Snapdragon X Elite GPU and (if available) NPU. 

I think it’s going to get there, but it is unclear how much time it will take. During the Intel to ARM transition on the Mac, it certainly took a while for applications to recode and catch up. But it was worth the wait, and I think it will also be worth the wait for Windows on ARM…eventually.