Participant

Question

Major Photoshop performance issues, machine specific

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 8, 2022
4 replies
929 views

Issue: Photoshop practically unusable on high spec PC

Photoshop version: 24.0.0
OS: Windows 11 Professional 64bit

I have two extremely similar PCs (same CPU, RAM and M.2 drive), however Photoshop is almost unusable on one these machines. Opening files is extremely slow, the interface takes a long time to refresh/update and menus regularly hang when I hover over them. There are also numerous issues using any/all tools. It's been like this since I first setup this machine in April 2022 and hasn't improved with any new drivers or PS updates. Not only is PS incredibly slow, if I have any other applications open (Chrome, Outlook or my main application, 3ds Max) then the issue is compounded, to the extent that I can't even zoom in or out on documents and the performance issues then apply to my whole system - just opening a folder in Windows is incredibly laggy/slow, until I close Photoshop. Notably, CPU, GPU and RAM usage doesn't spike when this is happening.

I run a lot of resource intensive applications and Photoshop and Illustrator are the only ones that seem to have this issue. Also my similar system runs the same versions of PS and Illustrator completely smoothly. I've checked all of the separate hardware components and they are (from my testing) fault free, so I'm imaginging there is something specific in my setup that's causing these issues. Interestingly, After Effects runs perfectly well on the system with no notable issues.

The main specs of the PC that has the issue is:

Windows 11 Professional 64bit
PS 24.0.0
i9-10980XE (3.00Ghz)
64GB DDR4 3200MHz
1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
10GB RTX 3080
ASUS® ROG STRIX X299-E II

The main specs for my other PC (at home) which runs the exact same version of Photoshop completely smoothly is:

Windows 10 Professional 64bit
PS 24.0.0
i9-10980XE (3.00Ghz)
64GB DDR4 3200MHz
1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2
8GB RTX 2080 SUPER
ASUS® PRIME X299-A II

Obviously the main differences between the two systems are the OS, the GFX card models and the motherboard. In searching for other people with similar issues I've noted that two users have mentioned they have the ROG STRIX X299-E II motherboard and 30 series graphics cards, so I'm wondering if this specific combination could be the source of the problem? I've reached out to some people to see if they expereince the same issue.

I have tried every recommended step for performance issues, I've even wiped the whole system and reinstalled the OS and drivers but the problem persists. The only setting that had any impact was disabling the Native Canvas and/or the GPU, which gave me mildly better performance, but it's still operating at maybe 30% the speed on my other 'good' system.

The one work around I have found is that if I reboot my system and ONLY open up Photoshop, I am able to work in it for maybe 30-40 minutes (depending on the task) before it starts to grind to a halt. Obviously this is less than ideal and I'd really like to get to the bottom of the problem. I've been using Photoshop professionally since 1999 and I've never encountered performance this bad on any machine.

Here are some screen recordings of me opening some small (all less than 900KB and max 1500 pixels wide) jpegs:

Link to 4k screen recording of issue : https://we.tl/t-OuE0Wop7kG
Vimeo link : https://vimeo.com/768515936/8dab84440c

If anyone has any idea of what the next best steps would be, I would really appreciate it!

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

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olivierd42825091

Inspiring

Glad I could help,

Had a few other idea you could consider:

- A bios update, if you don't have already.

- Checking all bios setting are correct, like ram settings, PCIe lanes etc

- Checking if the GPU get enough power with a good PSU. I think the 3080 need at least a 750w PSU.

Very difficult to pinpoint the issue... Since you said it can work just after a reboot, it seems like a software problem rather than a failling peripheral... Maybe windows 11 is the issue here since it looks like the only major difference?

AJ_MDIAuthor

Participant

Ok, I've finally had some time inbetween projects to look into this issue in depth.
As suggested, I completely removed the drivers for the GPU (with DDU) and did a fresh install, but no joy. So, I swapped out the GPU for another card (a slightly older 2080 Super) and put the 3080 into the other machine. Even with the replacement card, the issue still persists and as before it's wildly exacerbated when I have other applications open (even just Chrome).

I was ready to strip the RAM out and test each strip, when it occured to me to uninstall the Wacom drivers. I use a Cintiq, which runs fine with my other system, so Wacom drivers are a must for my work. However, once I uninstalled them (I'm just using a standard monitor for all these tests) the problem vanished. Photoshop works as expected, no lag or slowdown in the UI or when opening/saving documents. I even tried working on a 10k multi-layered PSD *whilst* rendering in 3ds Max (somethging I would never normally do) but it still worked well.

So, it seems I've identified that the Wacom drivers are the issue. I know that the Windows 10 system works perfectly with the Cintiq + Wacom drivers, so for now I'm going to swap the two around BUT I will need to use a Wacom with the Windows 11 system at some point, so I will now speak to Wacom and see what they say.

AJ_MDIAuthor

Participant

Thank you so much for taking the time to work through all these possible options - it's super helpful!

For the additional peripherals, I am fortunate (if that's the right word!) that I have used both machines with the exact same monitor, mouse and keyboard. BUT the monitor is a Cintiq, so I suppose this could introduce another possible compatability issue. For testing and simplicities sake I will use a standard monitor.

That's an excellent spot on the PCIe speed. I hadn't clocked that the card is gen4. I remember looking up whether it would impact performance and most results saying it wouldn't BUT I will look into it more.

I think the best steps I can take next is to swap the GPU between the two machines (with a clean driver installation) and see what happens.

I will report back.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, switching GPUs for troubleshooting is a good idea.

Reinstall drivers, and make sure to check "clean install" to remove the old driver completely. Just install the base driver; uncheck all the extra components (you don't need them).

O

olivierd42825091

Inspiring

Hi,

Sorry Im not a technician so just a few ideas on top of my head... Troubleshooting PS is so tedious, many things can go awry.

Except an OS compatibilty issue with your hardware that can only be fixed throught updates, here is a few ideas:

- Even thought you have almost similar spec on both computers, I guess some peripheral differs, like multple screen display configuration, maybe some with Nvidia G-sync and not others ? Or Your mouse polling rate differs? A graphic tablet maybe? Sometime those can cause an issue with PS due to some driver issue/incompability. I would test with one monitor only, without g-synch and no peripheral, except a mouse and keybord obviously.

- I noticed the motherboard you use with the RTX 30 series doesn't have PCIe gen4, it's limited to PCIe gen3. Since The 30 series are on gen4, it should still work on gen3 but maybe something cause the bandwith to be slowed down or not fully used ? Maybe some bios setting could improve that ?

-Maybe some other software can cause PS to slow down ? On your video I see you use dropbox for exemple, did you try with only PS opened without the other auto-startup softwares? And be crazy and try to boot in windows safe mode so no driver at all, and see if it somehow improve performance ?

The ultimate test I would do, if possible, is to switch the graphic cards on the Win11 PC, so you could be sure if it's related to your performance issue or not.

Wish I could help more.

Rds,

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