buying an Apple MacBook AIR. with M2 chip

[louistog]

Does anybody know if Photoshop Elements works NATIVELY on Apple M-2 Chip sets?      If so, what version?

[Jeff Arola · Accepted solution]

No photoshop elements versions at present runs Native on Apple Silicon (M1/M2), however, photoshop elements 2022 is an Intel application that uses Rosetta 2 on M1/M2 Macs and should work fairly well on M1M2 processors.

Best thing to do is download the 30 day trial version of 2022 and see if your satisfied with how it runs before buying.

Perhaps photoshop 2023 due this fall will be Apple Silicon Native.

update

As of the release of photoshop elements 2023 it is a Native Silicon application.

[louistog]

Thanks.  I might use Rosetta, but fear that it might slow down the MAC just when my editing of pictures makes processor speed most important.  Might wait till Photoshop Elements 2023 is released to see if it is Compatible with M-2 apple chipsets.

[Monte307]

I just now installed Photoshop Elements 2023.  It too requires Rosetta.

[louistog]

I did buy the macAir with M2 chipset.  I installed Photoshop 2023 and it did not say anything about using Rosetta.  I did not install Rosetta separately.  Elsewhere Adobe claimed that 2023 did NOT require Rosetta and ran natively

[Monte307]

I have a Mac mini with the M2 chip.  According to this guy: "The mini didn't have Rosetta and Air is pre-installed."   

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/669486

[louistog]

NOTE that Photoshop Essentials 2023 system requirements SAYS NOTHING about the MAC needing Rosetta. :  macOS

• Intel 6th Generation or newer processor; Apple silicon M1 or newer
• macOS 11, macOS 12 (12.4 or later)
• 8GB of RAM
• 6GB of available hard-disk space to install application; additional space required for downloading online content; up to 20GB additional space required for temporary files during product installation and usage (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)
• 1280x800 display resolution (at 100% scale factor)
• Internet connection required for product activation and download of features and online content*

Here is extract from Adobe 2023 Elements  own web page:

Apple silicon Native Support

With full support for Apple M1 chip systems or newer, you’ll enjoy up to 45% faster performance on latest generation of Mac/Apple computers.

[louistog]

Adobe claims full NATIVE support.  I never had to download Rosetta. 

[Monte307]

I congratulate you on your extremely rare achievement.  I can find only one other poster who claims successful installation of PE2023 without Rosetta.   This other poster says some guy at Adobe tech support provided him an unlisted download link that achieved this.  When somebody asked him what the link was, no response:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/photoshop-elements-2023-asks-to-instal... 

Now why on earth would there be a secret link that bypasses Rosetta whilst their public link requires it?

Please NOTE the fact that Photoshop Essentials 2023 system requirements SAYS NOTHING about the MAC needing Rosetta MEANS NOTHING: Rosetta is a bundled component of MacOS Big Sur and higher, which Photoshop Essentials 2023 system requirements does list as a requirement. 

Adobe’s own installer will not proceed without Rosetta.  Why do you suppose that is?   If Adobe’s latest download from their official website will not install without Rosetta, I’ll take a wild guess it needs Rosetta, marketing hype notwithstanding.

Another poster claims MacAir comes with Rosetta pre-installed, while Mac mini does not.  I don't know if that's true either, but if that is/was the case, that would explain how you were able to do an install without being prompted for Rosetta.  Would you mind checking your machine to see if Rosetta somehow got installed even though you didn't do it?  In Teminal the command is:  pgrep oahd

thanks!

[louistog]

Did Terminal and entered exactly what you gave as terminal command.   Nothing about Rosetta comes up.   The MAC Air is running the Ventura OS- current version. BUT it came with Big Sur  and was updated,  (on the original machine Nothing was said about Rosetta.)  I never downloaded Rosetta either.  Adobe claims that Photoshop Essentials 2023 runs NATIVELY on M1 and M2 machines.  Perhaps that is why Rosetta was not used.  I downloaded Photoshop Essentials directly from Adobe.

Will try  searching for Rosetta. Just did on “this MAC”. And on “Applications”. Rosetta does NOT come up.

Did you enter the correct Terminal Command?

[Monte307]

Thanks for checking.  If the command returns a number, Rosetta is installed.  If it returns nothing, it isn't.  Here's where I got this test:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/427970/how-to-tell-if-m1-mac-has-rosetta-installed

[louistog]

it did return a number so Roseta must be installed.  ( I was looking for the word Rosetta).  However Adobe claims that Photoshop essentials runs natively in Apple Silicone so I assume it does.  I doubt that they would say that is Essentials 2023 required Rosetta to run.   In any event before I got the Mac Air, I did test (trial) Essentials 2023 on an intel Mac Pro with 16 Gigs of ram ( newer model) and it ran much slower that the Mac Air with only 8 Gigs of Ram with a fresh download of Essentials 2023 after Adobe claimed that it ran natively.  

I don't know if the Essentials i downloaded used Rosetta for just the install or not.  

[Monte307]

In another post somebody said it was just the installer that needs Rosetta.  But the catch-22 is Rosetta cannot be uninstalled -crazy!  Thanks for your feedback.  I'm finding Organizer 2023 on my new M2 is really fast, but crashes a lot.  Hopefully there'll be some patches or something soon.