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aldryv
Participant
April 19, 2017
Answered

Photoshop CC 2017 can't open anything with dual monitors

  • April 19, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 2867 views

I've been having this weird bug where Photoshop CC 2017 can't actually open any PSDs or images if I'm using dual monitors. First I had this problem when I was using Windows 10 and I thought it might've been a Windows problem, so I came back to Windows 8.1 but it still persisted.

When I unplugged my second monitor which is currently in iGPU, I could open any kind of PSD or images in Photoshop. I plugged my second monitor again and the problem came back.

One thing to notice is that upon first install while using dual monitors, it says that "3D features require a minimum of 512MB of vRAM. Photoshop has detected less than that on your system.", even though my graphics card has 1GB vRAM. When I unplugged my iGPU second monitor, the warning didn't show. When I plugged it back, it did.

What could be causing this? I tried reinstalling it several times and CC 2015 worked just fine with my setup. Besides, this only happens with Photoshop since Illustrator and Lightroom seems to work just fine.

My rig:

Intel Core i3 4170 3.7GHz

Asus H81M-A/BR Motherboard

AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB VRAM

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer D Fosse

Photoshop doesn't like dual GPUs. Disable the integrated graphics and connect both monitors to the AMD card.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

"Multiple graphics cards with conflicting drivers can cause problems with graphics processor accelerated features in Photoshop.

For best results, connect two (or more) monitors into one graphics card.

If you have to use more than one graphics card, make sure that they are the same make and model. Otherwise, crashes and other problems can occur in Photoshop"

2 replies

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
April 20, 2017

Photoshop doesn't like dual GPUs. Disable the integrated graphics and connect both monitors to the AMD card.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

"Multiple graphics cards with conflicting drivers can cause problems with graphics processor accelerated features in Photoshop.

For best results, connect two (or more) monitors into one graphics card.

If you have to use more than one graphics card, make sure that they are the same make and model. Otherwise, crashes and other problems can occur in Photoshop"

aldryv
aldryvAuthor
Participant
April 20, 2017

Oh, I see, now. Thanks. And yeah, I've been using iGPU since both my monitors have VGA and DVI display but I only have 2 VGA cables. I'll be sure to buy a DVI cable. Any reasons as to why this only happened with CC 2017, though? Or is it just bad luck?

aldryv
aldryvAuthor
Participant
April 19, 2017

Update: it seems like Photoshop doesn't actually recognize my graphics processor if I have a second monitor running in iGPU. I went to Edit > Preferences > Performance with both monitors up and everything is grayed out/no graphics processor is recognized. If I disable my second monitor, it actually recognizes my graphics card and I'm able to fiddle with the Advanced Settings. If I disable my graphics processor in the menu and plug my second monitor again, I'm able to open any file with Photoshop, although it crashes if I try to access the Performance menu.

Although it might be a workaround, it's not viable since the iGPU runs only with 64MB of video memory since it's shared with my RAM.

jbm007
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 19, 2017

Probably not.

You have the latest AMD video driver installed?

aldryv
aldryvAuthor
Participant
April 19, 2017

Probably not viable?

And yeah, I have it installed, although it's from 2015. I'm using the standard drivers and not the crimson suite but I could try that one when I get home. Funny that 2015 worked so well and Illustrator is just fine...