Back in September, the Photoshop team provided advanced notice that Photoshop CS6 (13.0) will be the last major version of Photoshop to support Windows XP.
In addition, all subsequent Photoshop feature updates specifically for Creative Cloud members will also require 512 MB of vRAM in order to use the 3D features found in Photoshop CS6 Extended.
Please note: The system requirements for Photoshop CS6 Extended have always indicated that you need 512 MB of vRAM, but this wasn’t a hard enforcement.
Users who do not have 512 MB of vRAM will see the following dialog if they try to access a 3D feature in future Photoshop updates for Creative Cloud:
We hope that by providing this information early it will help you understand our current decisions around operating system support and where we we’re headed with future releases of Photoshop. We encourage all customers who are currently using the 3D features in Photoshop CS6 Extended to begin upgrading their video card/hardware now so they can fully take advantage of future Photoshop innovations as soon as they are available.
Additional Information
Comments
I’m respectfully disappointed. This leaves out the computer I use at work (8 core, 16GB ram Mac Pro) and our home computer (6 month old mac).
Hugh,
Which video card do you have and how much vRAM does it have?
Are you a Creative Cloud Member or a traditional boxed product/perpetual license user?
Hi Jeffrey,
Does the Intel HD 4000 with its 512MB of shared memory on the 8GB configuration qualify?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3246#intel4000
Thanks
I’d have to double-check with the 3D engineers, but I think it requires dedicated vRAM.
Especially as the HD4000 is used on the new Mac Mini, which with 16 GB RAM would have 512 MB for graphics and otherwise is a decent workhorse.
In fact the HD3000 used in the previous rev of the Mac Mini should have 512 MB when the system ram is 8 or 16 GB.
Looking forward to clarification Jeffrey, thanks!
Hi Pedro,
That card should work with shared memory, but we don’t have an exact system with the same card, yet. We’ll be getting one soon for further testing.
this really is going to be a blow to a lot of 3d rendering and digital video companies who have windows based systems. very disappointed.
In which way? The XP part or the card requirement part?
Iam dissapointed too, that means that my 2011 macbook pro won’t make it happen? I have a Radeon HD 6490M
How much VRAM does the 6490M have? Looking on the AMD site, it looks like it has 1GB.
Yeah, have a late 2011 MBP with the premium, extra video card with 256MB VRAM, and it works very competently with 3d processing in CS6.
This is a perfect example of software manufacturers developing their software in a bubble of screaming fast test machines with bleeding edge hardware, completely ignoring the fact that they have real users in the real world with real hardware… especially for mac users, where updating means investing a couple thousand dollars.
Supremely lame.
AMD Radeon HD 6490M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6490M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x8
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6760
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170H-521
gMux Version: 1.9.23
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.521
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Both my macbook pro, and mac mini have only 256mb vram NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. I’ve had no trouble working with the 3d element of photoshop. Now I’ll be made to weigh up what else is in any future updates, with keeping using the 3d part. I find this a hard blow to the mac users who don’t have an option to just upgrade the graphics card but would have to buy a whole new computer. Is there no way the mac version can keep 256mb as it’s minimum?
Hi LauraKay,
I find myself in the same quagmire. Any clues yet?
Is there a check tool to test if a machine is compliant?
You can choose, Help>System Info…
You will see video card memory listed in the information in the dialog (this is on my Macbook Air):
Adobe Photoshop Version: 13.0.1 (13.0.1 20120808.r.519 2012/08/08:21:00:00) x64
Operating System: Mac OS 10.7.5
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:42, Stepping:7 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 2
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 1800 MHz
Built-in memory: 4096 MB
Free memory: 1749 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 3184 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 68 %
Image tile size: 128K
Image cache levels: 4
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
OpenGL Drawing Mode: Advanced
OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.
OpenGL Version: 2.1 APPLE-7.32.12
OpenCL Unavailable
Video Card Vendor: Intel Inc.
Video Card Renderer: Intel HD Graphics 3000 OpenGL Engine
Display: 1
Main Display
Display Depth:= 32
Display Bounds:= top: 0, left: 0, bottom: 900, right: 1440
Video Renderer ID: 16925441
Video Card Memory: 384 MB
I’ve been considering buying a MacBook Air myself, and was going to buy the latest CS Design/Web bundle to go with it, primarily for Dreamweaver and Photoshop; does this inadequate video memory mean the whole suite will be flaky, or just that 3d imaging will be disabled?
Just the 3D features.
HD 4000 should max out in 1720 mb shared memory which should be sufficient for the 512 mb memory limit
Hey Jeff!
Question for you, I’m looking at the new iMac… they will come with 1GB vRAM… obviously for future proofing it’s best to get more vRAM but for a non-3D user, is there any benefit to going with additional vRAM beyond the stock 1GB or should I go for 2GB (or more if available)? Are there non 3D things where I’ll benefit from the additional now?
Thanks!
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Currently, you’ll only see real benefit of going more than 1BG with 3D. So, if you’re not doing any, or a lot, of 3D you will be happy with 1GB.
You’d probably get more bang out of faster processor, faster drives and more RAM: http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/10/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs6-for-peak-performance.html
I am using a 2011 MacBook Air with 384 MB of VRAM, Intel HD 3000 chip. I am not a Creative Cloud user, I purchased the Production Premium bundle. Is this change going to affect my 3D capabilities? This is a brand new rig I put together for portable 3D and video work. I am concerned this is going to break my workflow…
The new maxed out Mac Mini 2012 @2.6Ghz quad core has HD4000 with 768mb vRam Versus 512mb @2.3 GHz Mac Mini.
I have a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz, Dual-Core Intel Xeon with only 256 VRAM. Are these older computers upgradeable?
In general, Mac Pro’s are more upgradable than laptops and iMacs. You’ll have to check with Apple for video card upgrade options.
When an update like this takes away features that used to work on that user’s machine, I think the updater should warn them in advance. That way they could choose whether they want to install it or not. As it is now, after upgrading users get a “surprise” they did not expect.
After applying the update I never saw the warning dialog you show above, it just seemed like Photoshop’s 3D features were broken. It was only after I trashed my prefs that this dialog appeared. And still the 3D features are there, just not working. I choose Type > Extrude to 3D (which used to work on my machine) and now nothing happens. No warning dialog, just nothing. That sure seems like a bug to me.
If you’re going to disable a feature via a simple software update (especially a feature that I’ve used on this machine in the past), at least remove that feature visually, or visually disable it so I can be sure that what I do see should work. If I see that menu item and can choose it, it should work. As it stands right now, it just seems like a buggy app. I’ve never used an Adobe product before that lets me choose a menu item that doesn’t work… where choosing it results in nothing happening. I should at least getting some error or feedback of some sort after choosing it. I hope you learn from this and can better handle these types of updates in the future.
This really stinks! My girlfriend and I have been using Creative Cloud since launch with no problems, and now after updating her 2011 MacBook Air (Intel HD3000/384MB shared VRAM) is unable to load files THAT SHE CREATED IN THE APP ON THE SAME MACHINE LAST WEEK!
We’re kind of in a difficult spot here, in order to upgrade the machine we’d need to not only buy a new machine, but step up from the MacBook Air to the much bigger (and more costly) MacBook Pro. All to do work that she has had no trouble doing with Photoshop CS6 Extended via Creative Cloud for the last several months.
Is there a way for Creative Cloud users to downgrade their Photoshop installation to a version that works for her?
I was using the 3d functions just fine on my Mac Book Pro until I did the updates yesterday and now I am left with a half finished project due to the “strengthened” requirements. This is a massive let down and a huge black mark on the creative cloud…The only warning I got was “New Features”…and I fail to see how posting a note in “Jeff Tranberry’s Digital Imaging Crawlspace” is fair warning. I only found this thread trying to solve my problem because the above message did almost nothing to help after the damage was done. I don’t have time to get a new MBPro to finish this project…is there any workaround or way I can roll back the upgrades?
You can uninstall and reinstall to install an earlier version.
This error started showing up for me a few weeks ago and I have a MacBook Pro with 1 GB of VRAM. Need to google a solution, I should be supported. I bought extra VRAM just for the 3D features of Photoshop.
Can you post more details, including your system info here:
http://phtshp.us/report_a_problem
Directions for sharing your system info from Photoshop:
http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop_how_do_i_share_my_system_information
For those with less than 512mb vRAM that lost 3D capabilities. Easy work around for PHOTOSHOP CS6 3D for required 512mb vRAM. Uninstall Photoshop and re-install and don’t update. I am a creative cloud user and i updated photoshop and i lost all my 3D capabilities, since i only have a a macbook pro with 384mb vRAM. Now all my 3D is working good!
was able to download 13.0 again
I also had 3d and now do not. My system info says:
Dedicated video memory 1024MB
System video memory of 0MB
Are either of those my vRAM?
If so, any ideas why it would work before and not now.
I have windows 7 and an nvidia card listed as compatible(geo 220?)
When I update the drivers for my card to the latest I have system crash with blue screen.
When I leave my old drivers in things work fine, but now with no 3D.
Thanks for any help.
Hi Cary,
Can you post more details, including your system info here:
http://phtshp.us/report_a_problem
Directions for sharing your system info from Photoshop (this will provide a lot richer information for us to help):
http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop_how_do_i_share_my_system_information
I have mac pro i7. Will the ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5780 graphics card work with Photoshop CS6?
Thanks
It looks like they both have more than 1GB of VRAM. If I’m looking at the right thing (and they have more than 512MB of VRAM) they should work fine with Photoshop CS6.
I have an iMac (2007), with 3Gb ram, and 128mb of VRAM (OS: Mountain Lion). I signed up for the Creative cloud explicitly for Photoshop’s 3D features, which by the way worked fine until the last CC update.
Adobe recommends upgrading the computer’s graphics card, something not possible on a lot of Macs (including mine). So here I am paying for something I’m no longer getting, and customer service refuses to cancel my subscription of even downgrade it to Photoshop C6 alone.
Thank-you Adobe, I think that move alienated a lot of Mac users, which I’m sure constitutes a good portion of your customer base. Congratulations for behaving like a monopoly and not listening to customers (remember what happened to AT&T??). Will i renew my subscription? Probably not. Will i recommend it to anyone? Definitely not!
A disgruntled customer…
Dan
Hi Dan,
Photoshop has required a minimum 256MB of VRAM going back to CS5.
We’ve been recommending 512mb of VRAM for several years, especially for 3D features: http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/05/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance.html#gpu
If you plan on doing a lot of 3D work I’d recommend upgrading your hardware to have the best performance.
I meet the minimum requirements for 3D and then some (e.g. 2048 mbtyes vram, 6 gbytes ram, Windows 7 Ps 6), but 3D photoshop still seems flaky. I When I am using 3D, Photoshop frequently crashes. Also, the contents of 3D layers will just disappear. Perhaps the problem is with the 3D software. Has Adobe checked this?
David Webster
Hi David, which card do you have specifically? Have you made sure you have the latest driver available fro the manufacturer? http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/07/photoshop-basic-troubleshooting-steps-to-fix-most-issues.html#UpdateDriver
Are there Any Plans that Users with less than 512MB can reactive 3D features?
I use Maya an rendering 3D Models and this works fine … so why 3D not for those configuration?
Hope there will be an Solution!!!
No. This system change is a new ongoing requirement.
I would of liked it adobe would have been conscious of the fact that designers do use macbook pros and the Vram can’t be upgraded and this move was inconsiderate to the small design agencies as well as adobe CC overall, meaning that the grand i spent on a laptop not too long ago now can’t handle this feature and im limited to the software updates even though I’m paying for them just like now my software that I might not wanted to update yearly meaning I could of spent just 600 pounds over 2 years im now going to pay roughly 900 pounds for access to this software for 2 years which if i miss a payment can be taken away from me at any time.
I think small businesses and freelancers could possibly fail because of these changes you have made and it’s a shame you have a monopoly over the industry, If a competitor does come along and treat it’s customers better, i’ll be jumping ship and recommend everyone follow.
Hi Adam, we’ve been recommending 512mb of VRAM for several years, especially for 3D features: http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/05/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance.html#gpu
Guess I’m late to the party but wow, this sucks. Upgraded to CC and now my 2011 MacBook Air can no longer use 3D features.
It would’ve been nice if you guys let us use the old 3D features… I needed basic 3D features today at work for a project but looks like I can no longer do that.
I was just looking for a solution and found this blog. Seriously, why place restrictions that require us to uninstall photoshop? I’m on a MacBook Pro and I was able to do 3D until I upgraded to the cloud. I just installed a new Solid State Drive and 8 Gigs of ram. Along with many other people using Photoshop at work, I’m more then frustrated about this…. Please fix this!
Unfortunately, the 3D feature requires new API that require 512MB of VRAM.
Hi, i have :
Adobe Photoshop Version: 14.0 (14.0 20130423.r.221 2013/04/23:23:00:00) x32
Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit
Version: 6.2
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:10, Stepping:9 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 4
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2395 MHz
Built-in memory: 8077 MB
Free memory: 5663 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 3255 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 60 %
Image tile size: 128K
Image cache levels: 4
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
OpenGL Drawing Mode: Advanced
OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.
OpenCL Unavailable
OpenGL Version: 3.0
Video Rect Texture Size: 16384
OpenGL Memory: 2048 MB
Video Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Video Card Renderer: GeForce GT 650M/PCIe/SSE2
Display: 1
Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=1080, right=1920
Video Card Number: 2
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
Driver Version: 9.18.13.697
Driver Date: 20121002000000.000000-000
Video Card Driver: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Video Mode:
Video Card Caption: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
Video Card Memory: 2048 MB
Video Card Number: 1
Video Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
Driver Version: 9.17.10.2875
Driver Date: 20121017000000.000000-000
Video Card Driver: igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumd32,igd10umd32,igd10umd32
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 x 4294967296 colors
Video Card Caption: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
Video Card Memory: 2112 MB
But 3D option still greyed-out
Your video driver is really old, go directly to the nVidia site and get the latest drivers: http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/07/photoshop-basic-troubleshooting-steps-to-fix-most-issues.html#UpdateDriver
I bought a new MacBook Air w/ Intel HD Graphics 5000. The 3D option is no available but my System Info shows 1024 MB Video Card Memory. Why I don’t see it?
I believe this is because the Air uses shared memory and doesn’t have dedicated VRAM like higher end cards.
Just bought the CC Photoshop today , and I am very disappointed: it does not run on my MacBook Pro.
I get the Meassage “at least 512 MB vRAM needed”
Must i update my hardware?
The Message also says I can look for a new driver. Where can I get it? I would prefer that!!!!
I use Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. , with GPU Intel HD Graphics 3000
THX!
Regards from germany
If your card only has 256MB of VRAM, then updating the driver will not help. 512MB of VRAM is required for 3D and some other advanced functions: http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/system-requirements-photoshop.html
I am not sure, but I thought my computer had enough RAM but the 3D option is still greyed out.
here is my system info, please advise…
Toshiba
Toshiba
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU P6200 @ 2.13GHz 2.13GHz
Installed Memory: 4.0 GB (3.80 usable)
64x bit operating system, x64 based processor
What is your video card VRAM? If you’re using an integrated Intel card, you’re sharing RAM with the CPU – in which case 3D isn’t supported. You need at least 1 GB of dedicated VRAM on the video card.
Hi, do we have a clarification on whether photoshop cc requires a dedicated card with more than 512mb to use the 3D parts of the program. I have read all of this page and see two opposite answers. I am on the verge of being a Mac mini 2014 with Intel iris which has shared v ram upto 1.5gb. Will the Mac mini work with 3D ? Thanks.
Current versions of Photoshop require 512MB of dedicated VRAM for 3D. I would not recommend that configuration for 3D.
I was looking to purchase creative cloud – all apps. I’m not looking for 3D. I’d like to know what I can expect to work on my system (if anything) before I purchase. Will Photoshop work at all? I’m not ready to purchase a new system.
21.5-inch (1920 x 1080) (Built-in display, Apple and service providers say they can’t upgrade)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i3
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.64f5
Serial Number (system): W80506X1DAS
Hardware UUID: 7F444ACB-5673-5C73-9161-030A472C1161
Looks like a pretty old system. Many of the features that require a graphics processor won’t work on that system.
What OS/version are you running?
Hello Jeff,
Will Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC work with my system?
MacBook Pro
2.5 GHz Intel Cor i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
I need these two programs for a college class and have no clue if the software will work with my computer, I don’t want to purchase if I cannot use it.
Thank you! Margaret
What version of OS X are you running? If it’s 10.9 or later, you should be good.