Slow Saving 16bit images M1 Max

[davids4508507]

I have a new Mac Studio M1 Max base model with 64g ram and 2 TB HD. Monterey 12.4

I also have a 2019 Macbook Pro 16 2.3ghz 8 core intel i9 with 32g ram and 1 TB HD. Catalina 10.15.7

When doing some tests in photoshop 23.3 saving a 16bit PSD with a couple of layers and around 15 adjustment layers, the image takes over a minute to save on the Mac Studio and exactly the same time on the MBP 16. 

I also did a smart blur test at full quality and the M1 Max took 34 secs with the MBP at 31secs.

I was expecting the M1 Max to be much quicker than the intel MBP, has anyone else had this experience?

I've done these tests with rosetta on and off, plus purged all the presets and a clean install. I've also tried older versions of PS and the Beta ones.

[D Fosse]

Ran a few more tests, and I can really just repeat what I said before: v22 and v23 behave identically. Timings and file sizes are identical. I don't see a trace of the anomalies Dave reports above.

Without compression, this all works splendidly. With compression it's an exercise in divine patience, and if you ask me this is a no brainer. If you work with big files, turn compression off, end of discussion.

[Earth Oliver]

Unfortunately, compression on is the default and most people don't know the pref exists to turn it off.

[davescm]

@D Fosse 

Thanks for testing and interesting that you did not see a difference. So to check, I went to an older PC where I also have some older versions of Photoshop installed.

This was the result for the 8GB file on my current PC:

This is the result on the older PC:

The overall save times are slower on the old PC (as I would expect) but it also shows exactly the same impact on file size and the increased timing with compression disabled in V23.3.2 compared to the range of older versions.

So this definitely looks like something in Photoshop and not my particular installation as the two PCs are completely separate and save was to a local drive in the PC.

Dave

[D Fosse]

Your documentation seems quite overwhelming there, leading me to believe I must have made some procedural error somewhere. I just can't think of what. I'll try again when I have some free time.

[davescm]

If you can't get it to happen let me know and I'll PM you a link to one of the files, just in case there is something in the file content that affects this new behaviour.

Dave

[D Fosse]

@davescm 

Oh, I got it to happen this time...don't know what I did wrong last time. Confirmation bias, maybe 😉

Anyway, here goes:

This is crazy. 9 GB vs 15? That's crazy.

Then I timed them (the supposedly uncompressed ones). V22 clocked in at 23 seconds, nice and fast. V23 came gasping in at 34 seconds!

Clearly, they've sneaked in some kind of compression hoping we didn't notice...this has to go to Bugs. We need to know what they did here. I don't care how big the files are. My priority is fast saving, and I want it back.

[davescm]

Thanks Dag - I've raised a bug report here :https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/version-23-has-introduced-file-compression-o...

You may wish to comment / upvote.

Dave

[D Fosse]

Done.

It might be interesting to compare uncompressed PSD with uncompressed TIFF (and I'll try that later). Although it wouldn't have that much practical significance there, since TIFF can't handle these big file sizes anyway.

[Earth Oliver]

Testing on my M1 Max today and my numbers are nowhere near similar:

v 23.3.2: 6GB saved, 8bit, not-compressed, 2 layer, rbg, .psb:

with background save OFF: 29 secs

with background save ON: 51 secs

and for those who don't know, disabling Background Save makes a huge difference in speed, but for some reason the Ps default pref = slowest save times. Even though most of the cores are available during a save, Ps throttles down when background saving. Ugh.

File dims are 45000 x 30000px

[davescm]

@Earth Oliver Do you see a difference between v22 and v23 in terms of speed and file size saving uncompressed, i.e are you also seeing the additional compression on an m1?

All figures above were background saves.

Dave

[D Fosse]

I've always had background save off, precisely for that reason. I save manually at my own intervals.

But as Dave says, the really interesting thing here isn't the time as such - it's the difference between the versions. 

[davescm]

'I save manually at my own intervals'

For clarity of other readers, 'Save in Background' is not auto save, it just makes saving a background process so that you can carry on with other processes on your PC during a large save.

Dave

[D Fosse]

Whatever, all off. This is how I've had it ever since background save/autosave was introduced:

[D Fosse]

But we still don't have any feedback from Mac users about file sizes in v22 vs v23?

[davescm]

I've updated the table to add in the timing with background save off. The problem of longer save time and additional compression in v23 remains

Dave

[Conrad_C]

---

@davescm wrote:

For clarity of other readers, 'Save in Background' is not auto save, it just makes saving a background process so that you can carry on with other processes on your PC during a large save.

---

To clarify further, it isn’t just so other applications and system processes can run in the background during a Photoshop save (they already do anyway). Save in Background specifically means a save does not block Photoshop, so you can keep editing in Photoshop while it saves.

That’s why I’ve enabled Save in Background probably since Adobe added it. Because on a large file, if I hit Save, it is no longer like the old days where you must stop all Photoshop work and make coffee or maybe go run some errands while it saves. Instead, you can continue working immediately. The big clue is that instead of the Save progress bar being a blocking modal dialog box, it becomes a non-modal progress indicator in the status bar at the bottom of the window. So if you want to use a tool while it’s saving, you can go ahead and do that.

As a side effect it’s why I kind of stopped caring about how long it takes Photoshop to save and haven’t measured it much. Because the setting means Save lets me continue to work in Photoshop.

Wiht Save in Background, save time is a problem only is when I need to exit Photoshop, or update the link to the Photoshop file from another application, because then, I really do want the save to finish faster.

That said…I do support any effort Adobe can make to dramatically shorten save times by more fully using the powerful resources we paid for in today’s computers.

[D Fosse]

When a 15 GB file can be saved in 23 seconds, as it does here in v22, I prefer to just save and be done with it.

[davescm]

It gets worse. I opened each of the saved files into v23 (no other files open). Not only was the save from v22 faster to save it is also faster to open. The unannounced compression is hitting both save and re-open times.

Bring back v22 saving!

Dave

[Earth Oliver]

Are you posting this stuff to the other forums, Dave? Maybe time to tag Noel... he seems to be the only one i've been able spark interest in this issue.

[davescm]

I have raised it in that place 🙂

Dave

[Earth Oliver]

@davescm any chance to update the chart for v25? 

[davescm]

@Earth Oliver The issue raised was fixed in 23.5 : https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-bugs/p-version-23-has-introduced-file-compression...

Just checked with v25.0 - still just under 6 seconds for that same 8.2GB file - no additional compression or loss of speed.

Dave