Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

STFU, ehhhh?

I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.

:)

I attached Photoshop to the Visual Studio Debugger and once the brush starts to lag (Rough Round Bristle 100) I see hundreds of this error and it happens with or without OpenGL enabled:
First-chance exception at 0x7c812aeb in Photoshop.exe: Microsoft C++ exception: photoshop_error at memory location 0xXXXXXXXX.. (there are always two different memory locations but they change each time Photoshop is run).

WinXP SP3 x86
AMD X2 4800+ (939)
2GB RAM
7800GTX 512

i'm currently experiencing the photoshop cs4 vs. nvidia 8800gtx bug.

i'll be watching for a solution. in the meantime:

- if you aren't currently experiencing the problem, yet feel the need to post your "theories" ... please STFU.

- if you aren't currently writing code to fix the problem, yet feel the need to post your "theories" .. please STFU.

i come here to find answers. even if that means "right now, there is no answer." diatribes on how clean my system should be and how the development process is rolled out in a dynamic pc world are counterproductive, at best. thanks.

NOTE: Solution to Color Efex thing: Download the latest version off their website. Version 3.100 totally breaks CS4, causing greyed out menus, and any changes you make not to show up until you either resize the window or zoom in/out. Their version 3.101 fixes this moronic, insane behavior.

Update to previous post:

Disabling Open GL and Documents as TABs has dramatically improved performance and corrupted screen paints. Hope that provides some help.

I can now open as many documents as I regularly did in CS3 without the slow menu access issues. To test, I went back to a that was edited in CS3--->file processing seems identical. basically 15 200+Meg files in process at once. But that is the FC talking, could not do that single spindle.

Issues around memory management and interactions with LR remain.

Hugh

Update to previous post:

Disabling Open GL and Documents as TABs has dramatically improved performance and corrupted screen paints. Hope that provides some help.

I can now open as many documents as I regularly did in CS3 without the slow menu access issues. To test, I went back to a that was edited in CS3--->file processing seems identical. basically 15 200+Meg files in process at once. But that is the FC talking, could not do that single spindle.

Issues around memory management and interactions with LR remain.

Hugh

I have a HP DV9700 notebook with 3 GB RAM, Vista Home Premium 32, Nvidia Gforce 8600M GS GPU and an Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.00 GHz, 2.00 GHz. Not a particularly spectacular system, but ok for a laptop. It registers 4.8 on the Windows Experience Index. I bought it because it has two internal hard drives. I was experiencing quite a few of the performance lags detailed in this thread. I did two things on the same day and one or both solved my problems. I trashed the Preferences file (shift + ctrl + alt when starting Photoshop) and I installed the latest Microsoft updates. In Photoshop's Performance Preferences, I unchecked C: (the system drive) as a scratch disk and checked D: and moved it to the top of the list for good measure. No other changes from default preferences were made. Everything is now smooth and responsive. I hope this may be of help to some of you.

Did Emil's test... with document size 1271x1000 and round brush 100 size. Made long strokes horizontally and found the lag a 10th of second behind, quick but still noticeable. Also another test. If I do continuous swirls with round brush size 10ish I notice the stroke can't keep up with the cursor, it's 1cm behind my cursor until I stop. I think most people would be fine with this, but I recall never noticing this with CS3, hence why I am on this thread.

I run windows XP 32bit on a Boxx workstation running a dual quad core processor system, 4 gigs of ram and a NVidia quadro FX graphics card. This is a top spec VFX workstation, so I do not think there is a problem with what CS4 is running on.

I think I may go back to CS3, see if my sweet memories of no lag are not me dreaming...

System Config:
LR 2.1
PS CS4
XP Pro SP3
Dual dual-core 3.6Ghz (genuine Intel)
Intel chipset on HP motherboard with latest BIOS and Intel drivers
6GB Ram
Dedicated Scratch Disk: dual-channel FC array RAID 0 (4GB/sec) 1.0TB
Data: (images) separate dual-channel FC array RAID 3 (4GB/sec) 2.0TB
Dedicated program spindle (SATA 7200)
Dedicated page spindle (SCSI 320 15K RPM) fixed page size
All Drives less then 50% full
Quadro FX Pro 1.0GB
Dual 30 displays native resolution 2560 x 1600
All drivers verified as latest
Average image size: 120Meg

CS3 ran flawlessly --- I could have up to 15 images active and little to no performance issues.

De-installed CS3, then clean install on CS4

Issue1: screen repaints as reported in the thread. Slow repaints, and corrupt repaints. Disabling GL support did reduce the corrupt repaints and general repainting is quicker, but not as fast as CS3 cache level 4. Switching GL on/off is 100% repeatable.

General Note: It is not acceptable to blame nVidia. I have over 10 apps that use the GL Accelerator (including AE CS4), and they run fine. Some of this must be the way Adobe is making the system calls.

Another General Note: The test cycle for PS must not have included enough higher-end nVidia cards (Quadro FX series), or this issue would have revealed itself quickly.

Issue2: long delays when accessing file menu. I can no-longer open more then 3 large documents at a time and not experience 10-15 second delays when accessing the file menu. The program completely freezes. Then the menu opens, if I select save-as, then another freeze. If I save as a layered TIFF, then another freeze until the tiff options come-up. The save is completed, and PS returns to normal. This is 100% repeatable. I could open 15 of these same documents easily in CS3.

Issue3: Memory management. As you open files in PS, PS starts allocating memory up to the limit set in properties (in my case 1.5G). Now as you close the files, this memory is not released back to the free page pool. This has a dramatic (and very negative) effect on all other applications running on the system. Apps should release resources when done. This allows the garbage collection daemon and resource allocation routines to properly load balance. Clearly PS does not do this, the only way to release the memory is to exit PS. If garbage collection can not collect enough free pages, then virtual memory thrashing is the result. Newer 64bit will help, but how much physical RAM will you need? Applications must be disciplined enough to only allocate what they need and release when done. This is just good coding.

Issue4: Interaction with LR. Clearly Adobe feels that the future for PS is a LR centric workflow. Unfortunately, PS is hording memory so badly, that LR performance starts to degrade even after a short session. There is a long thread on this in the LR forum.

Hugh

Yes, I was going to mention that but at least it would get them off this forum. ;)