Troubleshoot Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) and graphics driver issues

Update your graphics driver.

Updating your graphics driver can fix many issues, such as crashing, incorrectly rendered images, and performance problems. Get driver updates directly from the video card manufacturer:

macOS: Graphics drivers are updated via operating system updates.

• See Keep your Mac up to date.
  

Windows: Windows Update won't always give you the latest and greatest drivers. You must go directly to your card manufacturer’s website to check for driver updates:

• NVIDIA drivers: Nvidia provides a choice between Studio and Game-ready drivers. Preferably, you should use Studio drivers.
  
• AMD drivers
• Intel drivers

Check your Cache Levels setting.

If you've set your Cache Levels to 1 in Photoshop preferences, you may experience performance issues with features that take advantage of the graphics processor.

Reset the Cache Levels to the default setting, which is 4:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (macOS).
2. Set Cache Levels to 4.
3. Quit and relaunch Photoshop.

After relaunching Photoshop, retry the steps that caused the problem.

Reset your preferences.

Resetting preferences returns Graphics Processor settings to their default status.

See Restore preference files to default.

After resetting your preferences, launch Photoshop and retry the steps that caused the problem.

Change your Advanced Settings for Open CL.

a. Choose Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (macOS).

b. In the Performance panel, click Advanced Settings.

c. Disable Open CL.

d. Quit and relaunch Photoshop.

If you’re changing Performance preferences to troubleshoot a problem, relaunch Photoshop after each change. 

(Optional) For Windows users only: Select Older GPU mode (pre-2016) from the Preferences > Technology Previews section to force Photoshop to fall back to an alternate rendering engine. You must restart for changes to take effect. While this is recommended for older GPUs, sometimes newer GPUs could become more stable with this option selected.

Configuring computers with multiple graphics cards.

Ultralight laptops and low end desktops, often use an integrated graphics card that uses less power to preserve battery and shares memory with your CPU.

Higher end computers often have a discrete, dedicated graphics card that uses its own memory (VRAM), has greater processing power, and doesn't eat up RAM.

Higher end laptops ofter use two graphics cards, an integrated one when you're using the battery, and a discrete graphics card when you're plugged into an outlet.

Windows

macOS

Choose System Preferences > Energy Saver, and then deselect Automatic Graphics Switching.

Disable the less powerful graphics card.

If the above step does not resolve issues when using more than one graphics card, consider disabling one of the graphics cards. Before disabling the onboard graphics card, please ensure you have the video output of your monitor connected to the dedicated graphics card.

To disable a graphics card, use the Device Manager on Windows. In the Device Manager, right-click the card's name and choose Disable.

Do not use Photoshop on a virtual machine (VM). 

Running Photoshop under virtual machines (VMs) is not tested extensively nor officially supported because of known issues with features that rely on the graphics processor in VM environments.