Photoshop not detecting GPU (RTX 4090)

[NielsPr]

Neither Photoshop 25.1 nor 25.3 (beta) detect my graphics cards: Nvidia RTX 4090 and RTX 2080 TI. Adobe Lightroom, Davinci Resolve and Nuke have no problem working with the GPU on Windows 11.

 - I have deleted the preferences for Photoshop.

 - I have deleted the GPU folder and logs fpr CameraRaw.

 - I verified that sniffer.exe detects both graphics cards.

 - I have used Manage 3D to assign the RTX 4090 to Photoshop and sniffer.exe

 - Installed the latest studio drivers (2023-11-01)

 - Used GPU-Z to verify that everything looks normal.

The error remains the same:

I tried Adobe customer support and they told me to install the latest AMD GPU driver - Haha 🙂

I would appreciate any help here.

[J E L]

Hi @NielsPr, other users trying to run dual graphics cards has been a problem with Photoshop. I think you need to force the NVIDIA card to show for Photoshop since neither card is being detected. Here is an Adobe helpx article with guidance: https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html. Let us know if that helps.

[dendangerously]

I'm having the exact same issue... Laptop using external gpu - Nvidia RTX 2080 TI.  This was a completely perfect setup until this latest version of photoshop, where the numbskulls at Adobe simply aren't supporting systems with multiple GPUs it would appear. I've gone though all the steps in the support docs, and it's useless. I'm now installing an OLDER version of photoshop, because apparently Adobe doesn't realize their users are power users who will have multiple GPUs. Unreal. 

[OS Community Person]

This just confirms the picture that Adobe is lazy with dev and innovation in almost all fields.
Yeah, cool with some AI, but implementing something with AI has been a must for any software company since last year. Keyboard shortcuts, UI and efficiency is the same as 2000.
Using an external GPU...? What? Clueless at Adobe, "never heard of that".

[D Fosse]

The problem with two GPUs is that there is no way to lock Photoshop to one GPU and ignore the other. The reason I can say that with confidence is that if there was, Adobe would have done it a long time ago. The dual GPU problem has always been well known to Adobe, and has always been specifically pointed out in the official troubleshooting guides.

I don't think it matters which GPU is in use at any time. It's probably that it's visible and available in the OS, and that's what is causing the conflict.

Keep in mind that applications aren't written to run on hardware. They are written to standardized APIs, Application Programming Interfaces. Photoshop can only use the available APIs, and it can only assume that what's on the other side of those APIs works as advertised.

The underlying problem is that Photoshop uses the GPU for actual data processing. It's not a simple one way downstream flow that can simply be redirected, like it used to be and still is in most consumer applications. Not saying those other apps you use are, but there may be special complications with Photoshop.

What I'm trying to say is this: dual GPUs is a problem with Photoshop. You may not like it, and you may think it shouldn't be, but it just is.

[NielsPr]

I have been using multiple GPUs for years. It never was an issue for Photoshop until now. 

[D Fosse]

There have been indications that there is a problem with the sniffer.exe in Photoshop 25, and there have been a couple of similar cases. There have also been indications that Microsoft issued an OpenCL component that can have contributed.

But having two GPUs doesn't help. Most users seeing this kind of problems lately have had dual GPUs - either similar to your configuration, or laptops which all come with dual GPUs these days.

Dual GPU systems will always be more prone to problems.

[J E L]

But it is now, for whatever reason Adobe can give you. The choices are to pick one card and dedicate it to Photoshop, or revert to a version where it was never an issue for you. I feel your frustration, don't get me wrong.

[NielsPr]

Adobe Suppor suggested to set GPUForce 1 in PSUserConfig.txt. This crashes Photoshop but I did notice the following output from sniffer which is odd sicne it works when I run it manually.

Number of Launches: 3
stdout:
[0 ms]
Launch GPUSnifferThread

[1 ms]
Start RunAllAPIs

[1 ms]
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024\sniffer.exe" -baseTimeMS=109318010 -comment=Photoshop Version: Adobe Photoshop 25.2.0 20231121.r.196 12a6c2a x64

[7237 ms]
Start GetSnifferResult

[19002 ms]
*** RunAllAPIs timeout

[19002 ms]
Start native

[19003 ms]
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024\sniffer.exe" -baseTimeMS=109318010 -comment=Photoshop Version: Adobe Photoshop 25.2.0 20231121.r.196 12a6c2a x64 -native

[27250 ms]
*** GetSnifferResult timeout

stderr:

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

 @NielsPr https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html#multiple-gpus

Follow the directions on here to disable the integrated Intel card on your machine. It will show after that.

[NielsPr]

Unforuntately or foruntately(?), my motherboard does not have an integrated Intel card. Also, sniffer.exe when run alone detects the graphics cards in the system correctly. When run by Photoshop, it times out.

[NielsPr]

Photoshop 24.7 works just fine. Still no solution for getting Photoshop 25 running.

[NielsPr]

Almost 9 months later and Adobe still hasn't fixed this problem. We have pointed out in this thread that the problem is with the sniffer.exe tool. Another poster here provided a temporary solution:

"Copy the "sniffer.exe" app from Photoshop 2023 folder to Photoshop 2024 folder."

You need to do that every time Photoshop updates. Professional applications like Nuke, Davinci Resolve, Redshift, etc have no problems operating with multi-GPU problems. A year ago, Photoshop had no problems with that either. I am very disappointed with Adobe and their poor customer support.

[jose332067593u1x]

yes can you please fix that, I have not been able to update to other versions above the 25.0 because it will not detect my 4090, all the past versions always did so this is something on Adobes's end, please fix

[PanBeep]

What [cursing removed] is going on in ADOBE? Muliple bugs which are not being solved like sticky hand issue and now this GPU issue.
My PC has two gpus and Photoshop v24 works fine while v25 refuses to use my GPU. Adobe, are you aware of your buggy software?

[PanBeep]

The temporary solution is to disable the other GPUs you have in system. This is quite ridiculous but it works.
I'm curious why PS works with multiple GPUs in older versions but not in 25.
ADOBE, fix your software! it's not usable on sytems with multiple GPUs.

[jose332067593u1x]

I disabled the intel integrated one but I CANNOT disable the 1070 that I use only for my displays, I am stuck in version 25.0

[PanBeep]

There is another solution that worked for me without disabling any hardware. 
Copy the "sniffer.exe" app from Photoshop 2023 folder to Photoshop 2024 folder.

[jose332067593u1x]

That works, it is unfortunate we have to find our workarounds in order for this software to properly work!

[annat17144432]

I went back to PS 2021

[annat17144432]

It wasnt detecting the 4090 when I went to create a Normal Map