Adobe Says Photoshop on M1 Runs 50% Faster Than 2019 Intel-Based MacBook

This week, Adobe updated Photoshop with official support for Apple silicon, offering customers native support on Apple's latest M1-powered Mac computers. In an interview with Computerworld, Photoshop Product Manager Mark Dahm promoted official Apple silicon support, saying that Photoshop runs 50% faster on an M1 MacBook compared to last year's Intel-based MacBook.

photoshop m1 beta feature
Speaking to the team's challenges during the transition to Apple silicon, Dahm said that performance was of utmost priority. Adobe wanted to ensure that it matched Photoshop's performance on older architectures for customers running Apple silicon.

Photoshop has been fortunate enough to have been serving Mac customers for over 30 years and having lived through the transition from Power PC to Intel chips in the 2005/2006 timeframe, a few familiar considerations came to mind as the Apple silicon announcement was made.

For one, performance is top-of-mind for our creative professional customers, so we wondered how long it might take for us to match the years of performance-tuning that ensured smooth operation for Photoshop's sophisticated blending and rendering capabilities.

Apple is encouraging all developers to build and recompile their apps with official support for Apple silicon. Until apps get updated, they run on Apple silicon using Apple's Rosetta 2 technology, which enables apps built for Intel processors to run on the newer architecture. Dahm said that Photoshop ran sufficiently with Rosetta, in some cases even faster than it did natively on Intel Mac computers.

Fortunately, Apple's Rosetta mode allowed Photoshop to run reliably and fast on M1 devices on day one, without requiring significant changes to the code base. And many features were running as fast, or even faster than on the previous systems, so those earlier questions about performance were being resolved quite satisfactorily.

In its testing, Adobe found that Photoshop on an ‌M1‌ MacBook runs 50% faster compared to Photoshop on a 2019 Intel-based MacBook with similar configurations. Even with the significant jump in performance, Dahm claimed it's just the beginning.

We compared an M1 MacBook to a previous-generation MacBook similarly configured, and found that under native mode, Photoshop was running 50% faster than the older hardware. These great performance improvements are just the beginning, and we will continue to work together with Apple to further optimize performance over time.

The power of the new ‌M1‌ chip motivated the team to push features that have become a staple of Photoshop even further, said Dahm. Features such as Content Aware Fill, Auto Select Subject, Sky Replacement tools, and others were re-energized thanks to ‌M1‌.

We were eager to tap into the more specialized aspects of the M1 chip to see how they could re-energize some of the seemingly magical features that have since become staples of the Photoshop experience over the years; features like Content Aware Fill, the healing brush, specialized filters and even relative newcomers, like the machine-learning-based Auto Select Subject and Sky Replacement tools.

Moving forward, Dahm said Adobe is looking forward to "bringing even more performance gains and Photoshop magic to life" on future Apple silicon chips. Dahm also said that the continued evolution of the Apple silicon platform will enable Adobe to constantly tune and optimize Photoshop to run at peak performance without the need to rely on Rosetta.

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro ghost hand

5 Reasons to Skip This Year's iPhone 17 Pro

Thursday July 10, 2025 4:54 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 series in two months, and the iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to get a new design for the rear casing and the camera area. But more significant changes to the lineup are not expected until next year, when the iPhone 18 models arrive. If you're thinking of trading in your iPhone for this year's latest, consider the following features rumored to be coming...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says iPhone Driver's Licenses Will Expand to These 8 U.S. States

Tuesday July 8, 2025 11:26 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico,...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro to Reverse iPhone X Design Decision

Monday July 7, 2025 9:46 am PDT by
Since the iPhone X in 2017, all of Apple's highest-end iPhone models have featured either stainless steel or titanium frames, but it has now been rumored that this design decision will be coming to an end with the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, the account Instant Digital said that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have an aluminum...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

Leaker Reveals Amount of RAM in iPhone 17 Through iPhone 17 Pro Max

Wednesday July 9, 2025 8:08 am PDT by
Three out of four iPhone 17 models will feature more RAM than the equivalent iPhone 16 models, according to a new leak that aligns with previous rumors. The all-new iPhone 17 Air, the iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max will each be equipped with 12GB of RAM, according to Fixed Focus Digital, an account with more than two million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The...
apple account card feature

Apple Account Card Expanding to More Countries

Tuesday July 8, 2025 7:34 pm PDT by
Apple is expanding the ability to add an Apple Account Card to the Wallet app to more countries, according to backend Apple Pay changes. With iOS 15.5, Apple updated the Wallet app to allow users to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID. If you receive an Apple gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that is also...
macbook pro blue green

M5 MacBook Pro No Longer Coming in 2025

Thursday July 10, 2025 12:38 pm PDT by
Apple does not plan to refresh any Macs with updated M5 chips in 2025, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are now planned for the first half of 2026. Gurman previously said that Apple would debut the M5 MacBook Pro models in late 2025, but his newest report suggests that Apple is "considering" pushing them back to 2026. Apple is now said to be...
iOS 26 Feature

Everything New in iOS 26 Beta 3

Monday July 7, 2025 1:20 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to refine and update iOS 26, and beta three features smaller changes than we saw in beta 2, plus further tweaks to the Liquid Glass design. Apple is gearing up for the next phase of beta testing, and the company has promised that a public beta is set to come out in July. Transparency In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive These Five Perks

Wednesday July 9, 2025 9:20 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, did you know that Apple offers you five perks beyond the extra storage space, at no additional cost? Here are the perks included with all iCloud+ plans:Private Relay keeps your Safari browsing history entirely private from network providers, websites, and even Apple. Hide My Email generates unique, random email addresses whenever needed. Hom...

Top Rated Comments

cmaier Avatar
57 months ago

This can't make Intel very happy.
Intel doesn't care. As they correctly point out, if you want a collectable "intel inside" sticker you have to buy a PC with their processor in it. Everyone loves stickers.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Acidsplat Avatar
57 months ago
All of this being possible on the cheapest, low-end MacBook Air with no cooling fan makes M2 and beyond even more exciting.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
57 months ago

Source??
https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/11/m1-mac-ssd-wear/
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
57 months ago

Do you have a source for that? I thought I remember seeing that even with 16GB variants swap still occurs, prematurely wearing out the SSD.
Article came out yesterday saying the "premature wear out" thing is nonsense in any case.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
carl varley Avatar
57 months ago

Do you have a source for that? I thought I remember seeing that even with 16GB variants swap still occurs, prematurely wearing out the SSD.
Swap occurs on all major current operating systems and all macs regardless if M1 or intel and ram allocation. Some degree of swap will occur. For almost all users a modern SSD will last over a decade before critical wear will be a problem, even a base system. There have been the same handful of examples that have been cited over social media and forums without much other information to see if this a wide spread problem (1%+). If premature is 15 years for £699 then I'm ok with that.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CapnPhoton Avatar
57 months ago
Dahm, that's pretty impressive.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)