Photoshop lags, freezes, or runs slowly

Slowness or lags while using certain tools or features like Scrubby Zoom, Animated Zoom, Panorama, HDR, Filters, Brushes, Select And Mask, etc

• Ensure that your computer meets the system requirements.
• Ensure that special requirements for the feature you're using, such as GPU or OpenCL, are met.
• Tweak your Photoshop performance preferences.
• If you're using a gaming mouse (Logitech G700S or similar) with a custom driver, set the polling rate to 125 Hz in the device driver.
• If the issue persists, try the steps listed in Optimize Photoshop performance.

Slowness at launch

• If Photoshop was running well earlier, but has recently become slow, reset preferences.
• Skip loading third-party plug-ins. To do so, close Photoshop and then launch it again while pressing down the Shift key.
• Disconnect any external peripherals or drives.
• Disable any antivirus software installed on your computer.

Slowness while accessing assets on network drives

Note: Adobe Technical Support only supports using Photoshop and Adobe Bridge on a local hard disk. It's difficult to re-create or accurately identify network- and peripheral-configuration problems. 

Copy the asset to a local drive, edit in Photoshop, and then upload again to the network drive.

Slowness/crashes when Photoshop is used together with peripherals like specific printers, Wacom tablet/Cintiq, etc

• Follow the suggestions in Photoshop crashing due to libcef.dll.
• Update to the latest version of your peripheral’s driver.
• Try using Photoshop with a different peripheral unit.
• Contact the manufacturer of your peripheral for additional support.

Issues with untested/uncertified hardware (GPU, etc). Using Photoshop with uncertified hardware is not recommended.

• Disable GPU use. Deselect Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor.
• Ensure that the driver for your device is updated. If the problem began after you updated a driver, roll back to a previous version of the driver.

Photoshop consumes all of the customer’s system resources, such as CPU

• Try the solutions proposed in High CPU usage due to CEPHTMLEngine.
• Ensure that your computer/OS is optimized in general. For example, use the MSConfig utility on Windows computers.
• Kill unnecessary processes running in the background on your computer.
• If necessary, upgrade your computer, so that it has more resources.

Slowness or lags while working with heavy-sized assets or assets with multiple layers/files/artboards

• Increase memory allocation for Photoshop to 80-85%.
• Flatten any heavy layers which may be causing problems.
• Adjust cache size. Ensure that you choose the right cache preset for the type of document you're working with.
• Improve your computer’s hardware configuration. For example, add more RAM. Having a modern processor—for example, multi-core i3 5^th generation or later processor with clock-speed 2.6 GHz or higher—may help.

Slowness while saving files or exporting assets

• At the OS level, tweak system virtual memory/page size. Consult the documentation for your operating system (Windows or macOS).
• Ensure that your computer has adequate free hard disk space.
• Ensure that you have write permissions to the location to which you’re saving the file.
• Ensure that you’re not saving the file to a network drive. That use case is unsupported.
• Add scratch disks for Photoshop’s use (Preferences > Scratch Disks).

Issues when Photoshop is used on high-resolution monitors

At the OS level, try switching to a lower-resolution display mode. Consult the documentation for your operating system (Windows or macOS).

General slowness/crashes while using Photoshop

• Ensure that your computer meets the system requirements for Photoshop.
• Ensure that Photoshop and your operating system are up-to-date.
  
• If your computer has multiple graphics cards, ensure that the high-performance graphics card is assigned to Photoshop instead of the Integrated Graphics or Power-Saving graphics card.
• Skip loading third-party plug-ins. To do so, close Photoshop and then launch it again while pressing down the Shift key.
• Disable back-up software (Acronis, etc)
• Disable anti-virus and/or white-list Adobe applications in your anti-virus software.
• Increase the memory allocation for Photoshop to 80-85%.
• Adjust cache size. Ensure that you choose the right cache preset for the type of document you're working with.
• Disable GPU use. Deselect Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor.
• If Photoshop was running well earlier, but has recently become slow, reset preferences.
• Add scratch disks for Photoshop’s use (Preferences > Scratch Disks).
• Under Preferences > 3D, lower the value of the Available VRAM For 3D setting to 80%.
• If you're running Photoshop on a macOS computer, disable Automatic Graphic Switching from the Energy Saver System Preferences.
• If the issue persists, try the steps listed in Optimize Photoshop performance.