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Adobe Photoshop CC lags on Macbook Pro when moving layer content around

Community Beginner ,
Nov 11, 2013 Nov 11, 2013

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Hi,

We just bought new Macbook Pro laptops last Friday and also got Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Illustrator CC. Everything works pretty fine, except moving layer content eg. images or fonts around is a bit behind, slow/laggy, without any apparent reason.

This happens despite external screen connected or not. It also happens with or without power adapter connected. We have brand new Mac OS Mavericks and 16GB RAM so performance should not be a problem.

I hope you can help out, we are a digital agency and do a lot of graphical work. Thanks in advance.

Some information (translated from Finnish system info):

Model name:          MacBook Pro

Model:          MacBookPro11,1

Processor:          Intel Core i5

Processor speed:          2,4 GHz

Processor amount:          1

Core amount:          2

L2-memory per core:          256 kt

L3-memory:          3 Mt

RAM:          16 GB

Graphics/Screens:

Intel Iris:

  Chip model: Intel Iris

  Type:          GPU

  Internal

  VRAM (total):          1024 Mt

  Intel (0x8086)

  0x0a2e

  0x0009

Color-LCD:

  Retina-LCD

  2560 x 1600

  Retina:          Yes

  32-bit color (ARGB8888)

  Mirroring: Off

  Online:          Yes

  Internal:          Yes

Acer V243PWL:

  1920 x 1200 @ 59 Hz

  32-bit color (ARGB8888)

  DisplayPort

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Adobe
Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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I'm having the same issues. Same spec machine. Photoshop CC.

The slowdown and lags are driving me crazy. I got better performance from my 7 year old iMac.

The MacBook is pretty much out-of-the-box. Hardly any other installs apart from a suite of CC apps.

Glad to know I'm not the only one. Any tips to improve performance gratefully received!

Thanks

Christina

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Guest
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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Most likely it is the video card/driver.  If you have same setup looks like an onboard Intel Iris. Do not know anything about this chip.   Discrete cards are far superior generally.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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Thanks for your response. It's frustrating because I invested a lot of money into a system I thought would be more than adequate for print and web design work. I've run photoshop on non-pro macbooks over the years and not experienced this kind of slowdown. It's the highest spec machine I can afford bit it seems it's not enough for the demands of Photoshop CC?

Other apps seem to fly on this machine. Photoshop chugs. I guess I'll just struggle on until either Adobe or Apple come up with a solution.

Is there an effective way to raise this issue with Adobe devlopers? Or am I doing it? (newbie question - i know!)

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Guest
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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Starting with CS6 Adobe put a lot more reliance into doing things with the GPU.  I have heard that Apple is kind of a one shot unit, but is there a way to add a discrete video card.

Don't think there will be a solution to this problem as Adobe is moving to heavier use of GPU and Apple is moving to simplier OS.

If you have CS5 try it and see if it moves faster.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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Here's what Apple says about graphics processor switching under Mavericks:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4152

I think there is probably a fix for this. Let me at least hope!

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New Here ,
Sep 03, 2015 Sep 03, 2015

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Umm.... that's a little ridiculous. #facepalm. Do you have any sources to back any this up?

The reality of the situation is that Adobe is moving to do more GPU stuff because the underline OS is allowing them to do so. E.g. Windows graphics compositing engine or OS X CoreGraphics/Metal. Both Operating systems have and will continue to expand on their heavy GPU API offerings. This has nothing to do with the operating system and everything to do with whatever shoddy code is being produced by Adobe these days. Remember this problem was non-existent in Photoshop before CC 2015. I think it is safe to say that someone introduced a regression error somewhere.

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 17, 2013 Nov 17, 2013

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Thanks for the follow up Christina. This is indeed bizarre issue, because I have over 5 years older PCs and the same latest Photoshop CC in them (Windows version though) and no lag whatsoever. The latest Macbook Pro is a brand new and it's just insane, there should not be ANY question about the power sufficiency. My first thought was that it has to be something with the video driver/card, new processor or retina screen compatibility with new Photoshop CC - not tested properly, maybe?


It should be rather easy to troubleshoot this with the dev team, because this specific lag occurs only when for example moving large elements or layers/layer groups around and so far it's only on Photoshop. Illustrator and others seem to work just fine.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 09, 2013 Dec 09, 2013

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Any news about this issue? It's still bugging us in the Office. I once again have to point out that working with latest Adobe Photoshop CC on Windows on over 5 years old PC works just fine.

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New Here ,
Feb 28, 2014 Feb 28, 2014

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Hi, I bought the latest Mac Book Pro retina 15" (the most powerful available) and I had got the same problems: layer lagging.

I found the bug (for me): Photoshop move layer slowly and lagging layer folders. I tried moving the same objects selecting every layer (not subfolders) inside the folder and they move quickly!

So... is the bug in photoshop layer folders?

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New Here ,
Jun 04, 2014 Jun 04, 2014

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I am getting this same issue - with a late 2013 15in with the top spec graphics chip and CPU.

I tend to run on the highest display setting (1920x1080).

I only get this lag when i am using the machine as a laptop. (Mind you I don't allow for graphics switching so i am always using the most powerful GPU)

I however i don't get this when i am driving an external screen (3 in fact)  30inc Apple display, 27in thunderbolt display and one little samsung with the laptop in clamshell mode.

I am guessing that the issue is related to CC when used with a retina display.

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New Here ,
Jan 22, 2015 Jan 22, 2015

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Any solutions??? Same problem with my Nvidia GTX980..

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Engaged ,
Jan 31, 2015 Jan 31, 2015

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i cant believe this problem is still happening. same exact issue here. photoshop cs6 and CC run poorly on my macbook but run smooth on windows 7 on the same exact hardware, macbook pro 2.5ghz core i5, 16gb ram and intel hd 4000. ive talked with applecare about this, adobe support (who hasn't called me back twice now) and no response on how to fix this. its absolutely ridiculous that we are having to go through this much trouble to get this problem fixed. ive brought it up over 5 times now and no solution except for the usual suggestions (turn off hardware acceleration, delete your preferences, yada yada). same hardware, mac osx photoshop cc lags, windows photoshop runs fine.. something is wrong with the mac version of photoshop cs6 and CC adobe please fix this as soon as possible.

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New Here ,
Feb 02, 2015 Feb 02, 2015

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I have W8.1 and same problem.. Its not only Mac version of PS..

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New Here ,
Mar 12, 2015 Mar 12, 2015

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Same problem here. Photoshop CC lags constantly in my 16gig  new Mac Book pro than the PS5 version in my 8gig iMac. Please let me know if there is any solution. Im thinking of moving back the PS5 versión in my Mac Book to see if it works better.

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Engaged ,
Mar 14, 2015 Mar 14, 2015

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i already tried going back to the trial version of CS5 and it had the same problem. not sure whats going on with it. the last version of OSX i tried before yosemite/mavericks was lion and i dont remember having these problems. maybe the video drivers got screwed up in mavericks or mountain lion and was never fixed even in the release of yosemite. i dont know if this is the correct term but i think its called "redraw" where when you drag layer content around, or if you use the hand tool and move around the window, its choppy and not smooth. its like it moves in little fragments versus a smooth gradient.

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New Here ,
May 11, 2015 May 11, 2015

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I have the same problem. Will CUDA driver provided by Nvidia resolve this issue by any chance?

NVIDIA DRIVERS Quadro & GeForce Mac OS X Driver Release 343.01.01

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Engaged ,
Jun 14, 2015 Jun 14, 2015

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still having the same issue, have contacted adobe support multiple times about it and no fix, im considering using other programs instead from now on

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2015 Aug 31, 2015

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Hi I have the same problem with my AMD R9 m320x Macbook pro 15 inc (2015)

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New Here ,
Nov 03, 2015 Nov 03, 2015

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Hi HardShock, I already ordered this MacBook with hope to never experience this lag problems again ...

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New Here ,
Sep 02, 2015 Sep 02, 2015

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Same extremely sloppy response problem here:

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

3,5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

OSX 10.10.5


Illustrator working fine but making Photoshop almost unusable!

😞

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New Here ,
Sep 03, 2015 Sep 03, 2015

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rMBP 2015 13" Base model + 16 GB RAM

Lightroom for me is fine but Photoshop, Muse, AE, Illustrator all have the same lag problem. Not sure if this is associated with the 6100 card or not. Finder icon scroll also lags too.

When I drag to pick color, lag.

My old PC works like a charm. Albeit the CC 2014.

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Engaged ,
Sep 04, 2015 Sep 04, 2015

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this bug actually started happening on windows too when they put in artboards for cc2015. they fixed the bug on windows but they haven't touched it on mac. i dont understand why

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New Here ,
Dec 07, 2015 Dec 07, 2015

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I'm sorry to say that but don't expect this to be solved quickly.

I have a 15" Macbook Pro with 2.3Ghz core i7 and Nvidia GT 750.

Adobe collection is laggy, hard to work with, it's been 2 years now it hasn't been solved.

I stopped drawing because of that.

I'm a designer and I have to work with fast tools so I switched and now i'm prototyping with Sketch. Sometimes I come back to PS and ID to see if something has evolved but... nothing has been fixed so far.

Seems that adobe is to big now to listen to customers problems. (I work with it since v5)

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New Here ,
Dec 08, 2015 Dec 08, 2015

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‌ Reading through the replies. The most obvious issue is that PS is swapping memory on the local drive. Not ram, but the same storage the Photoshop and folders are running from.  RAM isn't used for that in PS.

In my experience, setting PS preferences with a separate folder or drive partition just for SCRATCH files makes a huge difference.

Follow these setup tips to optimize and see if it helps:

Photoshop Basics: How to set up Photoshop

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