Photoshop, IntelARC and Live Preview ... The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

[TenTin]

Does Photoshop have a problem with Intel ARC?

Why isn't there a live preview of effects and filters? Whenever I apply a Gaussian blur, I have to toggle the "Preview" on and off once to see the effect in the main window!

I've set the graphics settings to High Performance. Speed and performance are good.

I've heard the new Intel Core Ultra's ARC+NPU cooperation has great performance for such lightweight editing. Have I missed something here?

Photoshop: Latest version

Win 11 24H2: Latest update
CPU CoreUltra 7 (14th Gen) + 32 GB RAM DDR5
GPU: Intel Arc Graphics + NPU Assisted (latest driver update installed)

[shallymarcabe]

That thing where you have to toggle the Preview checkbox to actually see the effect sounds like a rendering issue—probably the GPU and Photoshop not syncing up the preview properly. Not normal behavior.

A few things you could try:

Go to Preferences  Performance and try turning off GPU compositing just to test if it makes a difference.

Try running Photoshop with your integrated graphics instead of Arc (just as a quick test) to see if the issue is GPU-specific.

Keep an eye on Intel’s driver updates, especially any that mention Photoshop, “Creator” optimizations, or NPU performance.

Let me know if this helps or if you've already tried some ofo this. 

[TenTin]

Thanks 👍

By disabling GPU Compositing, it works real time (the preview)! Should I have to wait for an Intel driver update?

Update: I don't have this problem on another older PC (4th-gen Intel CPU with 2GB AMD GPU). AFAIK, my Intel ARC (CoreUltra Gen 14) is in Adobe's GPU list (supported GPUs). I don't have any problem in Premiere Pro (Editing with lag!).

[CMass]

Hey! To add to what @shallymarcabe shared, I also wanted to pass along this helpful article about GPUs and troubleshooting in Photoshop: https://adobe.ly/3U5lJIm It also helps answer a few questions you may have. : ) 
^CM