Mac Studio M1 Max Slow on Photoshop

[damiano.f]

I have just switched to Mac Studio (m1 Max 64GB Ram).

Performances on graphics are super! comparing to a MBP i9 6-cores 2019 with 32Gb Ram, the Studio is around 5 times faster on GPU based tasks, like some filters such as iris blur, path blur etc...

The disappointment comes to me when on CPU based tasks, such as Median Blur for example the two machines have the exact same perfomrances. Also, when using the option "select subject" the Mac Studio can;t really cope with it, sometimes it selects random things in the corner of the images, but no the subject at all! If you then manage to get the subject selected and you go in "refine edge mode" or "selection mode" (whatever it's called) it's very laggy and not precise on the edges. When you then have refined the edges and press "enter" to obtain the selection, the colourd (apple) wheel shows up for a 2-3 second before bringin you back to the main photoshop workspace.

Is this something i'm just experiencing myelf or are you guys noticing the same weird behaviours in some tasks?

please let me know.

Tahnks,

D 

[D Fosse]

Both Select & Mask and Blur Gallery use the GPU, so it's not as simple as GPU vs. CPU.

However, according to the documentation, both run under OpenCL, which may not be very well supported in MacOS these days. They will probably be rewritten for Metal, if they haven't already.

[damiano.f]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your reply, that's helpful to know!

However, how do we explain that those functions run very smooth on previous Mac OS machines? (Intel based ones).

Thanks 

[D Fosse]

Sorry, I don't have a fix for you - the point was that all the GPU code is in transition (both on Mac and Windows), and things change constantly. It started with Apple dropping OpenGL and OpenCL support, followed by Microsoft, thus forcing Adobe to rewrite the whole GPU code for Metal and DirectX. That's what they're doing now.

The workarounds for now, which may or may not help in this case, is to go into PS preferences and check "disable native canvas" (which reverts to older code), and/or disable "multithreaded compositing". I don't know if it will do anything here. Personally I don't have any problems.

[damiano.f]

Hi D,

thansk for your help. I tried both of the options you have listed here, but unfortunately none of them made the process better.

Hope they fix it at some point as it's very useful to have select subject working smoothly for quick selections.

Thanks so much for your help

D

[MiekeGeenen]

Hi Damiano, 

Very slow photoshop on mac studio here. Did you find a solution? I have been looking for months...

M

[damiano.f]

Hi there,

This is what i posted on another post and it seemed to work for some.

"

Did you migrate from your old mac to the new one with migration assistant? as if this is the case you must have imported the intel version of PS. 

I realised this was causing me the issue, so i have unistalled PS and re-installed the latest version (also, make sure when you do cmd+i on the PS icon it says "universal" and not "intel")

Since i have done so the select subject starts to run very smooth, quickly and precisely.

Hope this helps!"

D

Please find the whole topic here https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/select-subject-not-working-properly-f...

[MiekeGeenen]

Hi Damien, thank you for your answer. I did a complete clean install, and I tried different versions of Photoshop. It is so unresponsive no matter which version. Working with a file larger than 2 GB is impossible. M

[damiano.f]

That's new to me.

I have worked on 5-6GB files for the past 2 weeks and the machine was extremely smooth.

I have the M1 MAX version with 64GB ram.

Keep your monitor activity open while working and send screen shots of CPU load and Memory pressure when you get slowdowns. 

[MiekeGeenen]

[MiekeGeenen]

OS is the latest, and my mac is the Studio M1 Ultra, with strongest configuration. Performance in Photoshop is set on 35%, which should be plenty. Photoshop has accessibility and full access in system preferences. 

[MiekeGeenen]

previous screenshot was with PS 22, next one with the lastest. performance is similarly poor. 

[MiekeGeenen]

[damiano.f]

Right ok,

So you;re using a more powerful machine than mine, but not performing well, so there must be something going on with some settings i suppose?

Can you please get into PS setting by pressing cmd+k and scrolling to performace. Please send us a SS of that window 

D

[MiekeGeenen]

[MiekeGeenen]

I already worked with Graphics processor off, and ram at different ranges

[damiano.f]

35% Ram allocation is quite low to be honest. And graphic processor should be switched on.

Please try to match this settings, shut PS down and reopen it

[MiekeGeenen]

It stalls less at higher Ram allocation. But I am still getting beach balls moving, zooming in and out, turning layers on and off...

[PECourtejoie]

Pinging @J453  and @Matt Fuerch 

[PECourtejoie]

Hello, Did you check that you are not opening a version via rosetta emulation? (right-click the app in the app folder and check that open for intel is not checked)

[MiekeGeenen]

Hi, when I click Info for PS, the 'open using Rosetta' is unchecked. Should it be on?

[damiano.f]

No, it should be off. please see below

[damiano.f]

I don't know what else to try then, sorry.

Maybe @PECourtejoie and @D Fosse  are able to better help here.

[Jeff Arola]

What model display and screen resolution are you using?

It seems the Mac Studio is rather particular about displays.

[MiekeGeenen]

Hi Jeff, it is an Eizo CG318...