Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

To Q Photo and other lucky users.
If I haven't used Photoshop CS3 before trying CS4 I would have not noticed a problem. I would have simply considered the problem as limits that I had to live with. I don't have problems with functionality, menus and palettes. I haven't used Photoshop CS4 much but so far the only problem I have is that painting with larger brushes is very very slow comparing Photoshop CS3 on the same computer.
It may be that some users who consider themselves lucky simply don't use Photoshop for processor intensive tasks.
Here is a test. Create a new document with the U.S. Paper preset. Take the Rough Round Bristle brush at its default size of 100. Paint quick continuous horizontal strokes along the entire width of the canvas covering it all from top to bottom without interrupting the stroke. When I do this with CS3 its all real time feedback and a slight (about 2 seconds) delay at the end of the page. When I do the same with SC4 the real time feedback stops at about the first few lines at the top of the page and the rest is a guessing game. When my hand is at the end of the page the brush redraw is still going on at the upper half and after I finish it takes about 10-15 seconds for the stroke to complete.
Larger the brush more obvious the problem and vice-versa.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I sympathize with everyone having problems with PsCS4. It's frustrating to spend so much money and time and not being able to run the program. That being said, I am one of the lucky ones that, to date, has been very happy with CS4. It runs great on my system. No delays with cursers, very fast screen rewrites, menus and pallets fine and all that. Bridge is cool.

My last two machines were custom built. No "off the shelf" junk for me. Last machine is six and a half years old and did well running CS1. Well, until recently when it starting corrupting jpg's.

I decided to go Vista 64 on a new system. However, I was unable to find a shop to do the build at a reasonable cost. So I did the unthinkable and purchased an HP. Bloat-ware and all. I was rather doubtful but I was saving $500.00 and getting a better video card.

The main specs are as follows:
HP Pavilion Elite m9450f.
Vista Home Premium 64.
Processor, Core 2 Quad Q9300.
Motherboard, Asus IPIBL-LB
Memory, 8 gigs.
Video, Nvidia 9800GT (512) (driver 7.15.11.7556 - not newest) two 19' CRTS.
Second hard-drive 500 gig, Photoshop scratch only.

CS4 runs great on this system and there's really nothing special about the machine. I posted this hoping it is of some help. I'm not connected, in any way, with HP. Scanner & printer = Epson...

Happy Turkey Day
Q

I hope this will help. Here is my story.........

The problem I have is, the screen does not refresh after making a change. If I zoom in or out the screen will refresh with the change. Also, when Photoshop first starts most of the menu options are grayed out until I make a selection to one of the menu items not grayed out. I'm running windows XP PRO 32 bit, with service pack 2 and all updates applied. Intel Core 2 duo at 2.8 ghz. I have 2 gig of top shelf memory and multiple 500 gig sata drives also GeForce 9800GT with latest drivers.

I have color Efex Pro 3.0, sharpener Pro, silver Efex, and viveza from Nik.
I removed all NIK plugins and CS4 works like a charm.

I have instal the updates from Nik Software programs and CS4 finaly works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If my story tells you anything try it.
Regards,
Nikos.

> common sense tells me that if one party works really hard they can compensate for the others

Only up to a point. This has been demonstrated time and time again where Adobe has identified a problem in some software they have to interact with and the responsible organisation fails to co-operate.

Before anyone jumps in and calls me an Adobe Apologist I will point out that over the years I have been one of their most vociferous critics.

I complain a lot, but I don't whine, nor do I ask for the impossible.

Chris Cox, "Photoshop CS4 is a disaster" #209, 25 Nov 2008 1:14 pm
Thanks for explaining the situation Chris. I understand.
Unfortunately I'm not one of the lucky Photoshop CS4 users. I build my computer with hardware components that are less than 2 months old and were carefully selected rather at a premium price to insure computability and take full advantage of the latest software. Unfortunately in my case that was not enough for Photoshop CS4. I also tried all suggestions and tips but that didn't help either.
After Photoshop CS3 to me CS4 feels like a big downgrade and I don't feel like buying a new computer just for taking another chance with Photoshop CS4. All other programs work just fine.
The Photoshop team took a great challenge with making full use of the GPU and understandably this is not an easy task. This also requires a strong collaboration with Microsoft and the GPU manufacturers. I don't know if there is a clear cut about who is responsible for what but common sense tells me that if one party works really hard they can compensate for the others and in situation like this the greatest effort I think has to come from the party who may loose most.
I already paid for the hardware and the operating system but I'm not buying Photoshop CS4 with this problem and there's nothing I can do about it.

I think James is referring to people like Buko who have nothing to contribute except to repeat over and over that he has no problems, and that anyone experiencing problems is whining. I doubt such comments help you very much in your efforts to isolate and fix the performance issues.

James - what do you think we've been doing since CS4 was released?
Nobody is making excuses, just explaining the situation.

Thats the problem, people who have nothing to contribute putting there two cents in and no constructive help.

Adobe needs to work with the people who are having problems,not ignore them, making excuses for Adobe don't help.

Hmmm. I was responding to someone who was whining and wanted to return his software. Not the people who are genuinely trying to solve their problems.