Other Photoshop CS6 running slow...

[Dawelio]

Hello everyone,

So a family member of mine has ran into some isses for some time now and this is a bit out of my own area of knowledge.

We have an old version of Photoshop, CS6 Extended, which we are still using due to it's already paid for, it's enough for our needs and the newer version requires an subscription which is too expensive for 2 computers.

Their computer is also rather outdated by todays standards, it's an old i7 2600K and an ASUS ITX motherboard (can't remember the name of it, if it's required, I'll dig this information up) and 16GB RAM.

Now the issue at hand is that the program is lagging at times. Whenever they are trying to use the eraser and erase something in the project, it takes a few seconds before the action is actually taking place. Which is rather annoying, as you can even select another layer during this, as you need to wait for it to finish and then do it. It's like it's freezing up momentarily.

They are on an older mSATA SSD still. I'm not sure how much it would help to maybe upgrade in a few months time to my current 3700X, an M.2 SSD and potentially an RTX 2080?... They are using an MSI GTX 980 as well. Yes, I'm aware, totally overkill for their needs. But this PC is my former one, that I gave to them when I got a new one.

I have tried Googling this a bit, although it feels like a dead end to me. Since I have literally no idea what it is I'm actually searching for/after and hence feeling like I'm searching after a needle in a haystack, blindfolded. Hence turning to the community now for some assistance.

Does anyone know why this is happening and how to potentially fix it? Could an 2080 help out, hardware wise? As in being kinda like a GPU accelerator and take some of the workload on it's own?

Any and all help is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Dawelio

 

[Analogue Blacksheep]

While I've since moved to the Serif Affinity suite I would focus on the CPU and RAM for Photoshop. GPU unless it's the 3D stuff does not make a great deal of impact. I'm currently running a 3600, a GTX 1650 and 64GB of RAM.

 

[Dawelio]

Oh okay, well the the CPU is an i7 2600K (4/8) and 16GB RAM, I looked today and they are using roughly 44% of the total RAM. So don't think that's an issue, due to not even utilising half of the current memory.

 

[tinyitx]

So, this slowness happens only recently? All of a sudden or it happens gradually over time since they received this PC?

Since this is a 'repeat-able' issue, it should be easy to find out why.

Have they followed Adobe's basic troubleshooting guidelines? (eg Reset the Eraser tool, turn off Smoothing...etc)

Optimize performance Photoshop

Tweak your operating system, hardware, and application settings to help your computer run Photoshop stably at the optimum speed. If Photoshop is running slower than expected on your computer, or if you're experiencing system freezes, lags, or delays while using Photoshop, try the tips and...

helpx.adobe.com

Photoshop lags, freezes, or runs slowly

Try the suggested solutions on this page if Photoshop lags, freezes, stutters, or runs slower than expected on your computer.

helpx.adobe.com

 

[Dawelio]

So, this slowness happens only recently? All of a sudden or it happens gradually over time since they received this PC?

Since this is a 'repeat-able' issue, it should be easy to find out why.

Have they followed Adobe's basic troubleshooting guidelines? (eg Reset the Eraser tool, turn off Smoothing...etc)

Optimize performance Photoshop

Tweak your operating system, hardware, and application settings to help your computer run Photoshop stably at the optimum speed. If Photoshop is running slower than expected on your computer, or if you're experiencing system freezes, lags, or delays while using Photoshop, try the tips and...

helpx.adobe.com

Photoshop lags, freezes, or runs slowly

Try the suggested solutions on this page if Photoshop lags, freezes, stutters, or runs slower than expected on your computer.

helpx.adobe.com

This is my mom actually and she has zero knowledge and experience with this level when it comes to PC. I am the one who built and helps her troubleshoot and maintenance on it. As much as I can.

To your first question, it's both. It has started to happen more and more lately, but not since she got the PC. That was a few years ago now.

We haven't, I'll take a closer look at those links tomorow, when I'm not as tired as I am now in the middle of the night

 

[She loved E]

Nothing stands out as a red flag in terms of specs, although the computer is getting a little old for this type of work imo. It sounds like it will need some troubleshooting. Good on you for helping your mom ?

I'd try to replicate the issue with a hardware monitor running. Chances are CPU or RAM are maxing out momentarily. It may also be latency in the mouse if its wireless.

There are quite a few preferences you can tune to optimize performance. Setting up scratch discs, gpu optimization, allocating resources to Adobe apps, those types of things are also worth a look.

Just a quick note about upgrading to Adobe CC... one license can be used for two computers simultaneously. That said CC is probably even more resource intensive than CS6.

Good luck!

 

[AlexTSG]

If Photoshop has been running okay on that PC in the past, and is only starting to slow down recently, then there's a good change that a Windows update, or updated driver may be causing an issue.

I recently had problems after an update to my Logitech G HUB software, and we've had issues with a PC at the office which is running an older application (from 2009) after one of the Windows updates.

If it's a problem effecting the older version of Photoshop specifically, and not causing lag in other applications, then it may be worth trying the trial for the new version of Photoshop CC just to see if the issue still exists with the current version.

As @She loved E mentioned, you can use a single license on 2 PCs. We run an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription at the office, and its installed on 2 PCs without any issues. Recently it was installed on a third PC as we needed to use something more powerful than the regular laptops that run it, and that just prompted us to deactivate one of the laptop copies.

The Photography Plan is not too bad at $9.99 for Lightroom and Photoshop since you would probably get a years subscription for the less than most hardware upgrades would cost. Also, with Black Friday approaching there may be some kind of promotion making it even cheaper (These deals normally apply only to new subscriptions).

Compare pricing & plans | Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan

Discover the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plans. Compare pricing and features to determine the plan that’s right for you.

www.adobe.com

 

[Dawelio]

Just a quick note about upgrading to Adobe CC... one license can be used for two computers simultaneously. That said CC is probably even more resource intensive than CS6.

As @She loved E mentioned, you can use a single license on 2 PCs. We run an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription at the office, and its installed on 2 PCs without any issues. Recently it was installed on a third PC as we needed to use something more powerful than the regular laptops that run it, and that just prompted us to deactivate one of the laptop copies.

The Photography Plan is not too bad at $9.99 for Lightroom and Photoshop since you would probably get a years subscription for the less than most hardware upgrades would cost. Also, with Black Friday approaching there may be some kind of promotion making it even cheaper (These deals normally apply only to new subscriptions).

Compare pricing & plans | Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan

Discover the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plans. Compare pricing and features to determine the plan that’s right for you.

www.adobe.com

As far as my understanding goes after doing some research on this, is that you’re both correct. You can use an license on 2 PCs, but you can’t use them at the same time apparently...

 

[AlexTSG]

As far as my understanding goes after doing some research on this, is that you’re both correct. You can use an license on 2 PCs, but you can’t use them at the same time apparently...

I’m fairly sure I’ve used both copies at the same time, but probably not in the same app. I think I was using Illustrator on my laptop while a video was rendering in Premiere Pro on the other PC.

I’ll be in the office tomorrow, so I’ll try opening the same app on both machines to see if it complains.

 

[AlexTSG]

I tested Creative Cloud today, and had Illustrator open on both laptops at the same time, with different projects open and it worked just fine.

 

[fedder]

Im not sure if you ever found an answer, but my 2 cents is her canvas or image shes working on is very large and because of that she might have her eraser at a large size as well and that could be causing the lag as the brush/eraser has to change a lot of pixels all at once.

 

[Dawelio]

Im not sure if you ever found an answer, but my 2 cents is her canvas or image shes working on is very large and because of that she might have her eraser at a large size as well and that could be causing the lag as the brush/eraser has to change a lot of pixels all at once.

Umm, we did a fresh reinstall of Photoshop and it seems to have sort of worked. Haven't asked since, but your reply seems logical though. Kinda like a 3D object, where it has to render in real time and lagging often.