Problems with PS CC 2017 and Mac Sierra

[HaikuLeopard]

I had prior Mac Pro with El Capitan and used Photoshop.  Also use Lightroom and some third party plug-ins.  Computer was replaced and preloaded with Mac Sierra.  No problems with Lightroom (still using 5.7.1) but problems with PS from the beginning.  Downloaded PS CC 2017.  Once in awhile I can use 3rd party plug-ins but usually I can't.  PS itself is almost not operational.  If I put a type layer on, words are not visible until I go over to the layers pane and click on the type layer.  Letters go on very, very slowly (can take several seconds for 3 letters to appear).  Whole program crashes frequently.  If I click "Print," get flickering and quitting.  Is painfully, painfully slow.  Read Adobe forums on troubleshooting whether 3rd party plug-ins were problem and ran the test it described.  Same problems occurred without the 3rd party plug-ins loaded so I don't think they're the problem.  I'm a professional photographer so this has seriously impaired my ability to work.  How do I fix this?  Help!

P.S.  Mac OS Sierra 10.12.3. and very little on hard drive; 1 T flash drive, 16 GB installed memory

[Brad Lawryk]

We will see if others agree but to me it sounds more like a video card issue more than anything.

[HaikuLeopard]

Wow.  The prior Mac Pro noted above was just shy of a year old when one day it flickered, flickered, froze entirely and would not unfreeze for me no matter how many times I tried the magic 4 key combination.  Apple said it had a defective graphics card and replaced with this computer.  Initially, when I did system transfer, I had same problems and Apple did the diagnostic that checks every component and it came up "clean" -- hence, their decision that it was a software problem.  If it is video card/graphics card problem, it should still occur on other programs if PS is uninstalled, yes?  Is this the first step I should take?

[Brad Lawryk · Accepted solution]

It may or may not happen with other programs depending on how the other programs are utilizing the graphics card features and memory. I have the same issue on my MacBook Pro (brand new two weeks ago) with Adobe Fuse. System by far exceeds the requirements but simply won't run. Yet my MacBook Air that is 4 years old and nowhere near the same power as my MacBook Pro runs it just fine.

But from my experience anytime any program at all is not displaying properly it is the video card issue. Doesn't mean it's a bad or faulty video card - just that the part of the card memory being used does not support what it needs to. Try adjusting your monitors resolution to something lower just to test.