iMac running Ventura crashes while using Affinity Photo V2

[EricInTX]

I'm using a trial version of Photo 2 before deciding to replace Photoshop on my iMac, and I'm concerned by the fact that it's periodically crashing my computer without any warning or consistency. (FWIW, I have the same problem with Photoshop, which seems to indicate that it might be related to my computer or OS rather than the application.)

Here are the specs for my computer: 2020 27" Retina 5K iMac running iOS 13.3.1 (latest version of Ventura); 3.6 GHz 10 Core Intel Core i9 processor; 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 RAM; AMD Radeon Pro 5500XT w/8 GB.

Photo settings: Hardware acceleration checked; use only integrated GPU unchecked; undo limit: 1025; RAM usage limit: 65GB; no Photoshop plugins; Retina rendering: automatic

I don't have a crash report to share but if you need it, I'll update this topic the next time it happens. Any insights as to why this might be happening will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[MikeTO]

Hi @EricInTX and welcome to the forums.

Try turning off Metal acceleration.

1. Uncheck Enable Metal compute acceleration
2. Change Display from Metal to OpenGL

You have to change them in this order even though they're not listed in that order.

You shouldn't need to turn off Metal but there are some crash bugs related to Metal so Serif recommends disabling it if you experience issues.

[EricInTX]

Thanks so much for the suggestions (and for the welcome!). I've implemented them and will update this topic once I can feel comfortable with the outcome.

[EricInTX]

As promised, I'm updating the results of the recommended fix...and it's all good news.

I've had Affinity Photo 2 open more or less continuously for the past four days, editing photos in my normal workflow, and the app hasn't crashed -- nor has it crashed my computer -- a single time. I'm encouraged enough that I'll go ahead and purchase a license as soon as the trial ends.

[MikeTO]

That's great. Welcome to Affinity!