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Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020
Question

Photoshop Not Recognizing AMD Graphics Card When Sidecar Is Enabled (macOS)

  • July 21, 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 1559 views

When Sidecar is enabled and my iPad Pro is setup as a separate display Photoshop is not recognizing my internal AMD Radeon Pro 5500M graphics card, instead instead it defaults to my MBP's integrated graphics.  The effect of this is screen redraw artifacts. Or the screen won't redraw at all even though if you save the document and reopen it the layer did move.

 

When you disconnect Sidecar and restart Photoshop everything operates properly.

 

My configuration is:

 

16" Macbook Pro
2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64 GB Memory
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (Internal)
Radeon RX Vega 64 8 GB (eGPU)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 24" (connected via eGPU)
MacOS 10.15.5
PS 21.2

7 replies

Addison.
Participant
August 17, 2025

I have this same issue did you ever find a fix? I started getting lagging graphics, screen glitches, and eventually full computer crashes and I think I've narrowed it down to sidecar being the issue.


I got a new iPad and linked it through sidecar once and I think that's when the issues began. I have since disconnected it, but the crashes still continue. I have this problem while using Lightroom though, so it may be a different cause. I'm hoping there's a fix because I can't seem to find a way to signal to the application that there's no second display being rendered. 

Community Manager
August 20, 2025

Hi @Addison., welcome to the community!

Since this thread is a bit old, it might be best to start a new one with all the details of your issue. That way, your comments won't get lost and you'll get the help you need more quickly. Thanks a bunch!
Cheers, Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*
KShinabery212
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 23, 2020

I just ordered a PC Tower.  I heard that there were some issues with the AMD cards.  So.... I switched to nvidia. 

 

But I heard about issues in relation to Premiere Pro.  So glad, that I switched the order to nvidia.

 

Hopefully you can find a solution.

Let's connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshinabery/
Ussnorway7605025
Legend
July 23, 2020

the sad part is that it would be simple for Apple to route sidecar past the Gpu in the same way Microsoft does with dual Gpu laptop chips and just fake the Vram [again like Microsoft]... they just can't be assed

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 22, 2020

Photoshop has no problem with multiple monitors (I use three here) provided they are plugged into a single GPU. Running multiple GPUs with conflicting drivers is known to cause issues and is not recommended. See section 7 & 8 here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

 

Dave

yeeeowwAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 23, 2020

Agreed. I have 2 monitors at work and everything works great. Sidecar is a separate issue.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 23, 2020

My point was that sidecar is not running the second display through your single GPU but effectively emulating a second GPU which causes issues in Photoshop.

Dave

yeeeowwAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020

I should also probably point out that I'm not using the iPad area as the window area for Photoshop- I keep it on the main Macbook Pro screen. I like using the iPad for putting Mail and Slack in. But just having Sidecar on confuses Photoshop - maybe because Photoshop is getting false graphics card info from the OS?

Legend
July 21, 2020

A second display will be much cheaper and supported.

yeeeowwAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 22, 2020

-Only cheaper if you don't already have an iPad Pro. ...and having a 2 monitor set-up you can put in a bag and take with you... what's not to love? ...Other than Photoshop not functioning.

Kevin Stohlmeyer
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 21, 2020

Sidecar is really a Mac OS feature that fakes a second monitor. I've never had good results with using it with Photoshop. A future release may address this, but for now I would consider it unsupported in Photoshop.

yeeeowwAuthor
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020

I figured this is probably an Apple thing and I have posted it in Apple's forums also.

Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020

Almost the same here. Having iPad Pro in vicinity of my own Macbook Pro 16, even with Sidecar mode off, when starting Photoshop screen begins to blink, then PS reports about GPU not being available, and in Preferences/Performance there are no options to change Graphic Processor Settings. Also there is annoying bug/lag when using scrubby zoom when panning/zooming canvas using space bar and mouse. Thank god that build-up bug was removed in recent release....