Photoshop using between 5-15% CPU when it isn't doing anything

[AbsolutZeroGI]

I recently ran into an issue with my Photoshop install (2024, latest update). I keep the app open all the time while I work since I may need to pop the occasional photo or image in there. However, in the last couple of days, I've noticed that Photoshop uses a consistent 5-15% CPU even when it's minimized and not doing anything.

I generally leave it open all day at work since I occasionally need to pop an image or photograph in there for something I'm working on. Usually with a blank 1920x1080 canvas so I can quickly make it the size I need.

That said, Photoshop eats 10% of my CPU cycles at all times, whether I have a canvas open or not, even when it's entirely idle and minimized in the background.

It's causing all sorts of secondary issues. For example, it's heating up my CPU to around 55C, where it stays consistent all day. This causes my fans to ramp up anytime I do anything, even if it's not in Photoshop.

This didn't used to happen, and I have no idea why Photoshop is eating 10% of my 12-core/24-thread CPU when it's sitting there doing literally nothing. Closing Photoshop immediately fixes my temps, CPU usage, and fans.

I have checked to ensure that "enable GPU" is checked in the performance settings.

I don't know what else to check, but leaving Photoshop open all day letting it eat that much resources, and heating my desktop that much when it's at complete idle isn't working for me. What can I do?

Specs
Ryzen 9 7900X

ASUS B650E-F

Radeon RX 7900 XT

32GB of DDR5 RAM

[Bojan Živković]

There might be something wrong with your copy of Photoshop. I often have an open document or multiple open documents for the same reasons as you do, and it shows 0% CPU usage on my side.

[AbsolutZeroGI]

That's what mine used to look like, but I can't get it to do that again. I even completely uninstalled Photoshop, Lightroom, and Creative Cloud, wiped it all off of my PC, and reinstalled. Same problem. I can't think of what else to even try to get it to stop.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@AbsolutZeroGI there have been numerous posts with issues regarding the Ryzen series of PCs including memory leaks, GPU issues, etc.

[AbsolutZeroGI]

@Kevin Stohlmeyer 

Has Adobe said anything about trying to fix it? None of the other apps I use do this, and I've been checking religiously since I first spotted the issue yesterday. I have Discord, Slack, Firefox, Foobar2000, AMD's Adrenalin, iCue, and, of course, Photoshop open right this very minute, and Photoshop is the only one eating up CPU cycles (8% currently).

Since Ryzen chips are "all or nothing", I only noticed the issue at all because my fans kept ramping up for seemingly no reason. Photoshop running in the background like that was keeping at least one or two of my cores spun up to 5.5 GHz or higher 100% of the time, causing my PC to sit at a balmy 55C all the time. My fans stay at base speed until 60C to account for how Ryzen chips work (big spikes for short periods), but with Photoshop keeping it at 55C all the time, any other task jacks it up to 65-70C, which spins up the fans. In typical use, I'm around 40-45C and activities will bounce me to around 60C. With fan smoothing/delay, they hardly ever spin up.

For now my solution is to turn boost clock off (Ryzen Master set to "Manual" and clock set to 4.7Ghz maximum, which is the Ryzen 9 7900X's base clock speed with no boost). It's cooled my CPU down by nearly 15C, but I'm also losing out on tons of performance this way. Hopefully, Adobe is at least aware of this and can do something to help.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@AbsolutZeroGI in the other posts users have also gone into the BIOS and adjusted settings including turning off hyperthreading/overclocking. Seems like the issue is related to the hardware not Photoshop.

[AbsolutZeroGI]

@Kevin Stohlmeyer 

Turning off Boost and using Ryzen Master to lower clock speeds does not fix the problem. Photoshop is still eating 5-15% of my CPU for no reason all day long.

We're turning off the boost to reduce temperature fluctuations caused by the problem. The problem is Photoshop is running constantly in the background and has for at least the last one or two updates because it didn't do this a month ago.

It might be hardware dependent (as in,Photoshop only acts up on Ryzen chips) but this is 100% Adobe Photoshop not acting as it's supposed to and not a hardware problem.

[Adorjan Zoltan]

Hello, I have a similar problem on a Dell Precision 5550 laptop with i7 10850H, 32Gb Ram, nVidia Quadro T1000.

All programs are licensed and updated.
In my case, in Task Manager you can see the System process that uses the processor. After I close Photoshop the process returns to normal (see attachment).

Sometimes it also happens that the problem appears only after I open the .psd file. As long as I don't open any file, the problem does not appear (Photoshop alone is working ok). But after opening the first file, I close it in vain, the processor remains at 15-16% only with Photoshop on!

The first time I reinstalled only Adobe products, then I ended up reinstalling the operating system, drivers, etc. .. but it still hasn't been solved and the sound of the fans is very annoying. The laptop heats up so much and since the processor is always busy, it is also a bit slower in other applications while Photoshop is running (even if it does not have any open files).
If I close photoshop, the fans stop after a few minutes, the processor returns to 1-2% as before.
The same happens with Adobe Illustrator.

[D Fosse]

Not happening here. This is with two images open, but I'm not doing anything: