P: CS6 Slow compared to CS5.1 with large files

Funny thing... My goal is the same - help Adobe determine what their problems are so that they can develop fixes. I just don't go about accusing other people of subversion in the process of doing it. Instead I try to catalyze the information flow.

In case you hadn't noticed, Adobe seems to gravitate toward considering this a performance issue, and where there are performance issues I've shown that they've been around for multiple versions.

That you think there is just one issue here ("this issue" - your words, singular) shows that you really don't understand the complexity of the process running state of the art graphics software. It's pretty clear from the thread above that there's something Mac-specific going on, among other things. And much confusion.

You have to accept that a certain level of hardware-software integration responsibility lies on your shoulders. This is the price we all pay for being able to buy software that cost millions of dollars to develop for only a few hundred bucks.

I've shown that the software can actually work well; apparently all the parts of my PC system (GPU, drivers, etc.) all happen to support Photoshop CS6 perfectly. That's your clue to look for integration problems on your own system, and seek specific fixes (e.g., driver updates). Waiting for someone else to fix your problems is going to be frustrating.

What video card do you have, and what driver version have you installed?

What, specifically, seems to be slow on your system?

-Noel

My problem is nothing like as serious as others - I am a photographer and my work involves very few, if any, layers - it's just that, compared to CS5, a folder of thumbnails are very slow to draw in Bridge.
I'd have thought that as you cannot duplicate the problem others are having it could be a good idea to have a site visit where you might gather all the info you need to resolve the problem?

If you'd been in this thread from the beginning you'd have seen I've been active from the start - it's very convenient for Adobe that suddenly you can only see the most recent replies, not the rest of the 270 comments that form the main bulk of the discussion.

If you could see the rest of the comments, you'd see that this issue is happening on PC and Mac. You'd also see that peoples main issue is that they have gone from a perfectly functional CS5 Photoshop to a CS6 Photoshop that has massive slowdown in some circumstances.

What's my agenda? Getting the software fixed, pure and simple. I'm tired of being told that it's my problem that Photoshop has regressed and your "it's fine for me" comment is of no help whatsoever.

>Hello "Noel CarbonI"
>why exactly are you in this thread if you aren't having any issues with CS6 Photoshop?
>You may not be a complete Sock Puppet
>it's hard to believe...

Hello David, do you insult everyone you meet? Frankly I don't give a rat's behind what you believe. But I'll tell you:

I'm here because I was led here by a link on the Adobe Photoshop General Discussion forum, on which I am a contributor.

I'm here because I like to help try to get to the bottom of Photoshop issues.

As a graphics software developer who sells into the Photoshop market I find knowing the product and market very well are advantages.

In this particular case I'm trying to reinforce or dispel a growing feeling I am getting that Mac users in general are less happy with Photoshop CS6 because they're generally having more problems than PC users - for some reason.

My best guess at the moment is that Photoshop CS6, with a higher reliance on advanced GPU support, isn't able to use the GPUs in Macs as effectively as those on PCs because the existing drivers don't give the solid support needed, and Mac users simply don't have the flexibility to mix and match driver releases with their OS updates that PC users have.

I also am starting to wonder whether there is more PC development talent at Adobe than Mac, though I know well that some of the very brightest people there do work on both systems.

What's your agenda, David, with your first post in this thread? Alienating people you don't know? At least my posts are on-topic.

-Noel

Hello "Noel CarbonI" - why exactly are you in this thread if you aren't having any issues with CS6 Photoshop?

You may not be a complete Sock Puppet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpupp... ) but it's hard to believe that someone who hasn't got a problem would just randomly start commenting on a thread where there's a real issue.

I am also having problems with cs6 on a macbook pro. I mainly paint and use large files with many layers. Opening up a large file I am already working in, it begins fine, then starts to slow and suddenly photoshop will become seriously slow to a point were just one brush stroke will require waiting for the spinning wheel, attempting to zoom in will cause it to freeze like its using the scratch instead of ram (I have 8gig installed). This same file works absolutely fine in CS5, which indicates that it is not my system, but when CS6 slows it also effects my entire system. I played around with the optimization setting trying various combinations which made no difference with 100% efficiency. However, what I did discover, which may be important and people should check, is when it suddenly becomes slow, the CPU usage will spike and max out both cores. Is it possible that under certain conditions, there is a problem with how CS6 handles CPU usage?

Yes, I think there is something else going on that is Macintosh specific, but we haven't been able to reproduce the problems and are only guessing at causes (though I may have found some smoking guns, we can't find any casings, slugs, or victims).

Ah. I had that turned off just now too.

Doesn't seem like an option that should be too bad for people to turn off by default for now.

But I sense there must be something else going on that's causing (primarily Mac?) users to decry Photoshop CS6 as "unusable" and "EPIC FAIL".

The "snap to layer" option in CS6 is slower (I profiled it more than a few times figuring out why). CS5 and earlier should be about the same.
And I missed it on the first test because I had that snap option turned off.

In fact, I just tested with Photoshop CS4 64 bit as well. Same speed.