PC begins to lag after prolonged use of Photoshop.
PC begins to lag after prolonged use of Photoshop.
Hello,
I’m experiencing a rather unusual problem where my PC becomes sluggish or stutters after using Photoshop for roughly an hour. The symptoms become clear when I move the mouse; the movement feels smooth and normal as long as I’m not interacting with any clickable elements in any application or dragging the cursor across the boundaries of any window. Additionally, the audio tends to behave oddly—slowing down slightly before speeding up again. This pattern reminds me of memory-related issues seen in games.
The core problem persists even after closing Photoshop and ending all processes linked to my tablet and Adobe software. Restarting the PC helps temporarily, but it returns once I resume using Photoshop for a while. This behavior hasn’t occurred with any other program I’ve tested, and I frequently use this computer.
Just yesterday I reinstalled Windows onto a new SSD, leaving my old HDD untouched (they mainly hold media files). The issue started recently, and despite checking drivers and software updates, no clear signs of strain appear. I’ve monitored processes and hardware activity during the problem, but no indicators show anything is struggling. There’s no spike in usage, and everything seems to be functioning normally otherwise.
Someone mentioned a corrupt brushset, which aligns with my timeframe, but I’m not convinced it’s the cause since the issue continues even after terminating all processes. I’ll try removing those brushes tomorrow to see if it helps.
I’m posting this now because I need a solution quickly—this is part of my job—and I hope someone has faced a similar situation before.
Thank you for your assistance. I’ll update once I’ve tried further adjustments.
SPECS:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700X - NZXT X63 Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VI Hero x370
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2060
RAM: Corsair Vengeance PRO SL 32GB (16GB x 2)
Case: Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB / Tempered Glass
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750G2
Drives:
- Corsair Force MP510B SSD 480GB M.2 NVMe
- Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
- Seagate Barracuda Compute 2TB / 256MB / 7200 RPM / ST2000DM008
- Seagate Barracuda Compute 4TB / 256MB / 5400 RPM / ST4000DM004
Monitors: Svive Gaming Cygni
- 2x Benq GW2450HM
Graphics Tablet: HUION Kamvas 22
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 21H1
You forgot to mention the make and model of the PSU in your build. Include the age of the unit as well. What BIOS version are you currently on for your motherboard? What OS version(not edition) are you on for Windows 10? Mind sharing where you sourced the installer for your OS? In the interim period pertaining to (all)your drives, turn off Disk Defragmentation, then disable Drive Indexing and see if the issue persists.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I'll keep an eye on whether turning off Indexing and Defrag impacts things.
The PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750, which I've been using since July 2015.
BIOS version is 7704, and I recently updated it to 8101—no immediate effects noticed yet.
Operating system is W10 Pro, 21H1 build 19043.1348.
I downloaded the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft at the provided link.
Likely the issue stems from corruption in .NET, a C++ redistributable, or another essential Windows function that was replaced during the update.
It seems the system kept reporting missing DLL files MSVCP140 and VSRUNTIME140 multiple times before the upgrade. I resolved the issue by fixing the C++ redistributable and reinstalling Creative Cloud. Have you tried removing all C++ redistributables again and readding them from Microsoft’s site? Any further suggestions?
.NET needs to be reinstalled, but you can still add the optional versions of .NET 2.0 and 3.5. It's also possible to reinstall .NET via the Add/Remove Windows Features option.
Hey I cant be much help here because i also have this same issue, but just wanna add my 2 cents. Started back when I updated from 2019 cc. Pc lags alot with any version after that with all resources being under 20%, even with photoshop being closed, have to restart pc to fix lag. I have had issues with every photoshop update since 2019 Im curious if any of these things will work so ill try them as well. If we can't figure the issue out I highly recommend installing 2019 cc. And if posting specs will help, I can do so.
They mentioned speaking with Adobe support who advised installing NIVIA drivers directly from the site rather than using the GeForce app. Even though the driver version stayed the same, it resolved the problem. I don’t know why, but I hope this also works for you.
Sorry for the lack of activity, thank you for your feedback. That's quite an unusual problem—did you also uninstall the GeForce app? I usually use it for capturing highlights, but if this resolves the issue, it would be a big help. It might take a few hours to confirm, so I'll keep you updated tomorrow.