The Oil Paint filter doesn't work in Photoshop CC
Is the Oil Paint filter grayed out? (to check, open an RGB photo in Photoshop CC and select Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint )
Do you get the error that "The Oil Paint filter is not available" when you try to use the "Cartoons and Pop Art" add-on?
The above issues indicate that Photoshop CC and your graphics card do not work well together. When this happens, not only the Oil Paint filter but a range of Photoshop CC features become unavailable:
- Oil Paint
- Perspective Warp
- Scrubby zoom
- These 3 filters: Flame, Picture Frame, Tree
- Birds Eye View
- Flick Panning
- Smooth Brush Resizing
Let's review the possible causes and try to fix the problem:
1. OpenCL has been de-activated after the latest Photoshop update.
This is easy to fix:
Press Control + K (PC) or cmd + K (Mac) to open the Preferences window.
Click the Performance tab on the left. Make sure the Use Graphics Processor button is checked:
Then click on Advanced Settings. Make sure the "Use OpenCL" option is checked:
Hit OK to close the preferences window and restart Photoshop. If the issue persists, proceed to the next step:
2. The preferences file has been corrupted.
Follow these instructions to reset the preferences. If the issue persists, proceed to the next step:
3. The issue is on your graphics card.
Outdated drivers, or a very old graphics card (or a non-dedicated graphics card), can cause this issue.
- If your graphics card drivers are outdated (more than 6 months old), you must update them to the latest available version.
- If your graphics card is very old then it is probably not supported anymore in the latest Photoshop version. The same applies if your system doesn't have a dedicated graphics card (the GPU is integrated in the same chip with the CPU).
How to check if any of these two issues apply in your case:
If you have Photoshop 24.0 (CC 2023) or newer:
Select Help > GPU Compatibility from the main menu, to check if your card is supported and / or if the drivers need be updated:
To find out the driver version of your GPU and update it if needed, follow these steps:
- If you have Windows 10:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager and click the Performance tab.
- Your GPU model is listed on the left column. Click on it to find out the driver version. Then visit the site of your card's manufacturer to check if you use the latest version.
- If you have a Mac, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen and select the first option: About this Mac. Click on Software Update and download the latest driver version (if available).
If you have an older Photoshop CC version:
You can check the list of unsupported cards here.
To find out the model of your GPU and update the drivers, follow these steps:
- If you have Windows 10:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager and click the Performance tab.
- Your GPU model is listed on the left column. Click on it to find out more information about the card, the driver version, etc. Visit the site of your card's manufacturer to check if you use the latest version.
- If you have a Mac, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen and select the first option: About this Mac. Your graphics card model is listed there. Click on Software Update and download the latest driver version (if available).
If the issue persists, then your graphics card is not compatible with Photoshop CC. In this case you should consider replacing it, to be able to use the latest advanced Photoshop features.
If you own the "Cartoons and Pop Art" Photoshop actions, you can use the second "Cartoonizer" action, until you replace your graphics card with a contemporary one.
