MBP slow running Photoshop

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Level 1

8 points

MBP slow running Photoshop

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone else is having a problem on a 2015 MBP where Photoshop runs very slow with a lot of lag, even when running older versions? The fan almost always heats up which isn't surprising, however the computer runs fine with everything else and isn't running slow despite its age. I have over 100GB free on the SSD so I was just wondering if anyone knew if this was just due to old age or something specific to my laptop? I've only started using Photoshop intensively on this computer in the last few months and I thought it was normal for it to be this slow but my friend's MBA from 2015, with a slower processor and the Intel HD Graphics seems to run faster with no lag.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 5:28 AM

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Answer 1

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ShadowDust99

Level 5

4,348 points

Apr 26, 2020 5:37 AM in response to joss16

I'd suggest opening up Activity Monitor and heading to the Memory tab to check which processes are using the most memory. Usually there will be essential system tasks which can take up a reasonable amount of memory, so use caution before ending and tasks in Activity Monitor.

Does your device meet the system requirements for Photoshop: https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/system-requirements.html

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Answer 2

Apr 26, 2020 5:30 AM in response to joss16

How much Memory/RAM does the device have? Photoshop usually needs a fair bit of free memory to run smoothly, so it could be possible that other apps are using a significant amount of memory on your device or you simply don't have enough memory to run Photoshop at it's highest capacity.

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Answer 3

joss16 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 26, 2020 5:33 AM in response to ShadowDust99

I have the standard 8GB but I've managed to run Photoshop smoothly on devices with less before? I have also tried increasing the amount of RAM that Photoshop can use to about 7GB but this doesn't seem to have much impact. With regard to other apps, I've tried closing anything like Safari, Spotify and Onedrive but this also doesn't seem to have an impact. Is there anything in the background that I should keep an eye out for??

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Answer 4

joss16 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 26, 2020 6:02 AM in response to ShadowDust99

It does seem to meet the device requirements however looking at the system requirements made me realise that I have my display resolution in my system settings set to 'More space' (1680x1050) and upon temporarily switching to 'default' (1280x800), Photoshop seems to run a lot smoother although the computer still heats up. Also, after looking at the memory tab in the Activity Monitor, it appears relatively normal with Photoshop consuming around 1GB of memory when idle and below that are what appear to be system processes ('WindowServer', 'kernel_task'). Assuming the main issue here is my screen resolution being set too high, is there any settings I could change to better equip Photoshop to run at a higher resolution??

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Answer 5

Apr 26, 2020 6:07 AM in response to joss16

There isn't anything specific I can think of, but the age of your device may be a factor.

Adobe also has a support article on how to optimise Photoshop's performance. Have a look at https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

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MBP slow running Photoshop

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