Artifacts when flattening images in PS

[Fuzzbass2000]

Every so often when working with images in PS I experience weird artifacts that are generated in the image when flattening.  

I'm up to date with the latest versions of PS, LRC, and my various drivers.

I run Windows 11 with i7 and Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti (w/ latest studio drivers).

My workflow is typically LrC edits > PS fixes / cleanup > LrC for crop & export

Images attached show the flattened image with the artifacts and the unflattened original.

Any ideas what they are and how to fix them?

[Sameer K]

Hey, @Fuzzbass2000. Welcome to the Photoshop community. I'll need more info to help you figure this out.

Does this happen with specific documents? Are the documents stored on an external drive? Have you tried moving a few documents to the internal drive and opening them from the internal drive?

Does this happen when you send the file back without Flattening the image? Please record your workflow & share it with us. 

Awaiting to hear from you. Thanks!

Sameer K

(Use '@mention' to tag me when you reply)

[Fuzzbass2000]

This is my very typical work flow:
LrC edits > PS fixes (layers / bracketed shots / cleanup) > LrC for final crop & export
Everything is stored on internal drives (NVME drives)
I notice most often when flattening files before finalising edits in LrC, but then that's because that is an operation I might peform many time in a photo session edit. I may have noticed the same issue when zooming (enlarging) the displayed image in PS.

Can you tell me what you think the artifacts are before we drill down to far into the rabbit hole of how exactly I use the software.

Cheers

[Trevor.Dennis]

Well they look like video card glitches.

If you save out to JPG and reopen the file, are the artefacts still there?  I am guessing they aren't.

What GPU are you using, and what driver?
If Nvidea, are you using Studio or Game Ready driver?  The studio driver tends to work best with Photoshop.

Do you have multiple GPUs?  Photoshop does not always play nicely with more than one GPU.

Glitches can occure when flattening, but they don't tend to look like your example.  In any case, a workaround that I find usually works is to add a copy merged layer to the top of the stack before flattening (Shift Ctrl Alt E).  But I don't think is an issue here.

[Fuzzbass2000]

Well, as I mentioned in my original post I run Windows 11 with i7 and Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti (w/ latest studio drivers).

Whilst work arounds are interesting (i've of course figured out some for my self) I'm more interested in finding the root cause and fixing that if possible.

The next time it happens I'll check to see if the glitch is in the output file and not just on my display.

[Fuzzbass2000]

So I encountered this again today.
It seems to be grabbing from another image I have open in Photoshop at the same time.  And seem to be output into an exported file (so it's not just a screen glitch)
Images attached are the clean file, a desktop grab and the exported jpg
As stated before, I'm using the studio driver - on a fresh install
Any ideas?