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Excess memory usage in Photoshop when using Spot Healing Brush

Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2021 Nov 17, 2021

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I am running on Windows 10 with the latest fixes and on Photoshop 23.0.1. System has 64GB of memory

I have been doctering some old, very dirty slides using the Spot Healing Brush. On some images this could involve a few thousand small corrections. On loading and with an image open, Photoshop uses a working set of approximately 4GB. I repair the image at 100% magnification. After repairing the image the working set can be as high as 25GB. But when resizing to screen size there can be a response time of many seconds and the working set can go as high as 50GB. While waiting I can see the memory ramping up in the monitor.  When the image resizes, the background is the same as when Photoshop opens the first time, rather than a black background.

When the image is closed, the working set still remains at the same level. If I try to open a second image, the response time is very slow. Generally I have to close Photoshop and reopen it.

This situation repeats regularly, so it is not a one-off situation.

The information was gathered using the Resourse Monitor.

 

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Adobe Employee , Nov 17, 2021 Nov 17, 2021

Go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and check "Disable Native Canvas" - then restart Photoshop. Does the problem still occur?

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Community Beginner , Nov 20, 2021 Nov 20, 2021

I can't say that I know how Windows provides memory to an application, but I suspect that if a large amount is requested, the memory is already fragmented.

My experience of the Photoshop usage of memory is limited to what I have seen in the last few days. I was cleaning a number of scammed images, doing practically the same operation to each. In the course of processing about 50 images there was a gradual increase in memory used of approximately 10 to 20 MB per image. To me this indicated that th

...

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 17, 2021 Nov 17, 2021

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Go to Preferences > Technology Previews... and check "Disable Native Canvas" - then restart Photoshop. Does the problem still occur?

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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I ticked 'Deactivate native canvas'.

The memory is still increasing, but much more slowly than it was before. It is still not releasing the memory between images.

I have not reached the level of memory usage that triggered the rapid ramp up when fitting the image to screen. I will keep going and see if it happens.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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I'm not saying there isn't a problem here, but just to clarify the basic principles of normal operation:

 

  • Photoshop is not supposed to release RAM between images. This is by design, to speed things up. Requesting memory from the operating system is slower.
  • Memory usage will quickly increase up until the limit you have set in Preferences. Then it will stay there for the remainder of the session, until you exit. The memory is reused. Don't set the allocation too high! About 70-80% is usually optimal.
  • With saturated RAM, there will be a lot of activity on your scratch disk. Current data will be held in RAM as much as possible, but everything will be written to the scratch disk. Data will move back and forth.
  • There is no such thing as "enough RAM" no matter how much you have. As history states and open documents accumulate, 50 GB does not sound excessive at all. With big files, total memory content of several hundred GB is not uncommon.
  • Photoshop will not stop working with low RAM. As long as you have enough scratch disk space, everything will be moving along, only limited to the speed of your scratch disk. With a fast NVMe, this is no longer the bottleneck it once was.

 

Working at 100% is the right way to do it. But as long as you stay there, only that slice of the full data is processed, the rest sits passively on your scratch disk as history states.

 

If you ever see Photoshop using more RAM than the allocated limit, you have a problem. That's a memory leak, but they are usually caused by badly written third-party plugins.

 

So, again, I'm not saying there isn't something wrong in what you describe - but the above is the normal and expected behavior. Photoshop eats RAM and disk space, and you just have to expect that.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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I fully understand what you are saying. However I thought that any memory related to the image, rather than to the program, would be released when the image is closed. It will never be needed again.

I will continue to try to increase working storage to see if the problem when the 'fit to screen' reoccurs when the working storage gets to s certain level. This I would regard as a problem.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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quote

It will never be needed again.


By @MMcN

 

As I said, it will be needed again. As long as the application is open, it will be reused for new images.

 

If you close Photoshop, it won't be needed again.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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I don't understand, but I would like to.

I can't see that the 'heals', or any of the history, that are applied to an image can be of any use when a new image is opened.

 

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Community Expert ,
Nov 19, 2021 Nov 19, 2021

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Hello, if Photoshop releases a chunk of memory because an image is closed, and the OS grabs it, the memory is fragmented, this has been explained to slow down Photoshop.

That's why we've been told to prefer CTRL+J to jump a selection to its own layer, rather than a CTRL+C, CTRL+V, as it would shared with the OS's Clipboard.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 20, 2021 Nov 20, 2021

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I can't say that I know how Windows provides memory to an application, but I suspect that if a large amount is requested, the memory is already fragmented.

My experience of the Photoshop usage of memory is limited to what I have seen in the last few days. I was cleaning a number of scammed images, doing practically the same operation to each. In the course of processing about 50 images there was a gradual increase in memory used of approximately 10 to 20 MB per image. To me this indicated that there was some memory reuse, but also that some memory was not being reused and extra memory is being requested.

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