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Photoshop cs6 screen flickering black, iMac 21" 4k Monitor

I have recently acquired one of the new iMac 21" with 4k monitor. When using Photoshop CS6 with a tablet connected the screen keeps flickering to black when using certain functions, such as pressing the alt key or space bar, among other commands. It's really upsetting the workflow. From what I have seen on other forums it appears to be a GPU issue!? I was wondering, since I have spent such a significant sum of money on this computer recently, whether or not there will be an update or workaround to solve this problem in the not to distant future, a more permanent fix than simply disabling the GPU settings in the Photoshop preferences? I was also wondering whether any one else has experienced this on the new monitors? And lastly if this is a problem that others have been experiencing with the CC iteration of Photoshop?


OS X El Capitan 10.11

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)

Processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536 MB


Thanks for any help or advice.

OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Nov 23, 2015 4:10 AM

Reply
4 replies

Jan 20, 2017 2:41 PM in response to MattBook101

I've started having this very frustrating problem too (January 2017). I just got my brand-new iMac 4K 21.5" (2015 model) last week and purchased Photoshop CC, running the latest 2017 update. My iMac is updated to Sierra 10.12.2 as of last night, and that's when the problems seemed to have started. I used Photoshop last weekend and it didn't flicker but last night it did... first once, then several times in succession. It is happening when holding the Alt key to select something like with the clone stamp, paintbrush, or healing brush. Sometimes it doesn't happen. It is really slowing down my workflow! This did not happen on my 2012 Macbook Pro. I was running an older OS (10.8... haha I know, never updated until a few days ago) and Photoshop CS5 with no issues. My iMac has all the best specs for photo editing, and it should certainly be able to handle the demands of the software. I unchecked the option in the Preferences of PS that says "use graphics processor" but that hasn't fixed it. It just slowed down some functions like Liquify.


Apple please fix this. I just spent $2000 on this new machine and it's supposed to speed up my photography business, not slow it down. It already takes long enough to edit photos. It seems it is not an Adobe problem as people report it to happen in other applications, though I haven't experienced it outside of Photoshop.


I will try the suggestion above about switching back and forth on the scale setting in the display preferences. Crossing my fingers that it will help.

Jan 20, 2017 3:40 PM in response to phoxyphotog

Apple does not read or participate in these forums. If the problem you are having is only with Adobe software then I'd venture to say the issue is with Adobe . If it is occurring across the board, you have a 1 year warranty and 90 days of complimentary AppleCare phone support. If you bought the computer directly from Apple then you also have 14 days to return the computer for any reason.

Oct 12, 2016 2:25 PM in response to MattBook101

I've had this problem ever since I bought mine, 3 months ago. Nothing that Apple Care suggested seemed to work. Then, while fiddling cluelessly with the System Settings, I may have fixed it.

Go to Displays, choose "Scaled", and then select some resolution other than "default". Then, where you chose "Scaled", change back to "Default". This did the trick for me. Immediately after that, the flashes stopped and it's been a couple of weeks now.

By the way, this bug is not exclusive to Photoshop. It happens whenever a custom cursor changes back to a default one. Even some websites (like zappos) can suffer from this.

Photoshop cs6 screen flickering black, iMac 21" 4k Monitor

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