A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Every time I open the latest version of Photoshop CC I get a message telling me my “Graphics Processor is incompatible”, and the “Driver is out of date” with “Insufficient VRAM: (1052 MB of 1500MB required)”. I can still use Photoshop but it has a tendency to crash when certain tools are used.
Looking on line I’m surprised at the vast difference in the price of GPU’s ranging from about £80 (around $100) to over £1000 (around $1300), I’m afraid my budget will be at the lower end of this scale. I would appreciate your thoughts and recommendations on this and would love to hear experiences from anyone who has recently purchased a GPU for use with the latest Photoshop.
Thank you.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

My guess is that if your machine is of a vintage that you are getting this message, there may be other components in your system that are already out of date or soon to be.

What is the configuration - CPU, RAM, VRAM, GPU version, OS, etc. ?

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

I would try to update the drivers from the card manufacturer. Next option is check the manufacture of the motherboard and see if they make video cards. I feel comfortable saying that you could stay in the $150 to $300 range. Might be silly but I like to use the same companies parts.
I have a Gigabyte Motherboard with AMD Radeon R7 200 Series graphic card 2 gig. They're both about 7-8 years old and have no trouble.
Also try using a malware program & virus program and manually run them. Once a week I use CCleaner & Glary tools (free Ver.) to clean Junk file & registry files. Then manually run Malware Bytes & Avast anti-virus (free Ver).

Hope this helps

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Thank you for your reply.
I have Windows 10
and the following
Drives
(C) Solid State Drive 166 GB
Scratch Drive (D) Solid State Drive 119 GB
Data (E) Hard Disc Drive 931 GB
System Reserved Solid State Drive

Processor
Intel9(R) Core(TM) i7
Installed RAM 16.0 GB
System Type 64 Bit Operating System

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

PS 2022 will give you this warning if your graphics card has less than 2GB DRAM or if it doesn’t support open GL and open CL. One option (and not a good one) is to revert to an earlier version of PS, but lacking that, you’ll need to find a graphics card with at least 1.5-2GB DRAM and supports open CL & GL. The problem is that cryptocurrency mining has driven GPU prices through the roof to the point that graphics cards are regularly selling for 2-3x list price. There are plenty of used graphics cards on EBay and Craigslist (look under computer parts), but you need to educate yourself of the relative performance of the various families/models of graphics cards, and that isn’t a trivial matter. In general, you might start looking at cards from NVidia and AMD with 2-4 GB of VRAM. You may luck out and find a deal, but you can respect to spend $200-250 for a decent used card. Three things to be aware of: 1st, does your computer have a full length slot with the appropriate PCIe connector available? (Look for a PCIe slot with a “divider” in the socket). 2nd, does the card you’re considering need an external power connector, and if so, how many pins, and does your power supply have an open matching connector? And finally, you need to check the power requirements of the card and the capacity of your power supply. Some of the faster cards require hundreds of watts (more than the CPU), and if your power supply is marginal, that may need to be replaced also.

After you search listings for awhile, you’ll begin to notice certain series of cards such as 1050, R390, 3060, etc. to get an idea of the relative performance of each, Google Graphics card benchmarks and use the table for mid to high end cards. Warning - there are hundreds of cards and it can be daunting. If all this seems a bit much (it’s actually harder than choosing a CPU and MB), you may want to seek professional assistance, and as Gene mentioned, this may be time to review the other components of your system. You may find it’s time for an upgrade if you want to run the latest SW. one positive - once you upgrade your GPU (assuming the rest of the system is up to snuff), you’ll be surprised how much faster graphic intensive applications such as Topaz products and stacking operations render. If you get down to several choices and you’ve evaluated the remIndef of your machine, come back and we can assist in evaluating your choice before you purchase

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Thanks for your reply.
The drivers have the latest update, and using am using the same AMD Radeon R7 200 series graphic card as you, but I think it is just only just over 1 gig. (Am I right? I got this figure from the GPU proporties panel where it states, Dedicated video memory is 1024 MB).

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

There should be a list of compatible GPU on the Adobe web site.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

There is: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/using/gpu-acceleration.html

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Here’s the benchmarking site I mentioned. It shows performance and often list price (which typically means nothing these days). “Hot” graphics cards are selling in the $600-$1500 range and may require 300 watts of power. They’re oriented to gaming and crypto mining. You don’t need that kind of performance - probably looking for something a few generations old. I found a used AMD FirePro 2GB professional graphics card for $100, but it was touch and go to get PS2022 to recognize the Open CL support. Adobe “support” was useless - I finally solved it myself “tuning” the card’s parameters using the AMD customizing ap. Not for the faint of heart… I would try to find one on Adobe’s supported list. https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I have a very powerful GPU and sometimes get this message. First check for driver updates. You can also get on tech chat with Adobe for a definitive answer about whether your GPU is compatible.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

I have an older NVIDIA 1050Ti which has 4 gig onboard it works fine quite sufficient. While AMD and NVIDIA both work for PS, NVIDIA has the edge and the programming is more universally compatible for some adjunct programs. I speak from the 1050Ti era and that may have changed, AMD may be more modern now, but the reference article below suggests NVIDIA still has the edge.

The antivirus and driver updates suggested are good suggestions.

Suggest that UHH "To Opine is Devine" but not always the best guide. Too often they throw money at the wall hoping it will solve problems when a minimalist approach may be slower by a fraction of a second and you will never notice. The NVIDIA 1050 TI is $200-250 and has 4 gigs of DDR5 onboard... Amazon.

Please read: https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Photoshop-139/Hardware-Recommendations

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

I have the same card. I am not doing production processing, so max speed isn’t a requirement for me. Works fine with LrC, Ps and Topaz AI products. Also low power requirement.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

I use an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB DDR5 RAM. It works very well with the latest ON1, which I believe is more demanding than PS. The cost, only a few months ago, was the equivalent of $260 in the Philippines, where all electronics is higher than in the US. It was the best balance of price and performance, being quite fast, but still not greatly overpriced – (and I couldn’t afford more). I have been told – by those in a position to know – that NVIDIA is the best GPU for photo processing.

Hope this helps,

Loren – in Beautiful Baguio City

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I watched a video last night about updating drivers. He recommended going to your manufacturer's website and downloading drivers. Unfortunately, graphics cards are ridiculously expensive and hard to find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjsK4URwljE&t=525s

This link might help - https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Thank you everyone for your very helpful advice, and links. Every reply has helped in some way.