Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

Dell workstations come without crap!

And have matched components that are tested together.

I'm beginning to notice that most of the problems occur on pre-builts and I was wondering whether some crap installed by the builders was causing the problems.

It might be a case where a complete re-install of the OS, sans the builder's crap, would solve most of these problems.

As per JRN who built his own system as I did and others who use pre-builts but reformat/re-install the OS before moving forward.

I presume you were responding to Jess Ting Phos!

(He must be Jess Ting!)

Blame marketing and bean counters.

I was getting apprehensive, reading threads like this, as I was re-building my system [Asus P5Q DeLuxe, Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0 GHz, Vista Business 64-bit, 4GB RAM, ATI Fire GL 3600] to handle the upgrade from CS2 to CS4, but so far, I have no complaints.

Everything really flies. All the GPU stuff works as advertized. I am quite happy with it all.

Just wanted to add my $2 cents to this discussion in case someone from Adobe is reading. I upgraded from CS3 to CS4 and have just requested a refund from Adobe. In my opinion, CS4 is not ready for release and should have stayed in beta. I've had numberous video card issues, random crashes and locks since installing CS4. It also runs slowly for me -- no advantage compared to CS3. I've upgraded the video card drivers, the Wacom drivers, and done every microsoft update to no avail. I used Photoshop for over a decade and this release has been the most troublesome so far.

Dell XPS 720
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz
Windows XP x64 SP2
Nvidia 6800 GTS
8 Gigs RAM

I have not checked back in a while. Has Adobe yet realized that they have a major malfunction on their hands and need to either recall CS4 or include a computer that will run the software in the shrinkwrapped box? I am a long time photoshop user and this is the first screw up of this magnitude that I have witnessed. Suggestion: pull out all of that malfunctioning GPU code and go back to depending on just having fast main processor chip(s). Tell the early CS4 adopters, heh, heh, just kidding, pull the software, get the thing right..... and then
re-release!!!!!!

I'll put in my opinion that it is Adobe's responsibility. This forum is not indicative of the general user base. I'd be curious how many bug reports Adobe has received from people who never come to this forum, or how many complaints people have made to the retailers where they bought the programs.

Adobe has a huge variety of users, from students, hobbyists and dabblers, to seasoned pros. Many people will buy the Web Premium suite, for example, because they are Dreamweaver or Flash users, but need Photoshop as a peripheral program for creating graphics. These are not power users. And when they experience the performance problems, they probably shrug and think that Photoshop simply sucks by default and thank God they don't need to use it often.

Video card drivers may be faulty, hardware may be slightly different in individual systems, but the general consensus among those reporting the problem (including me) is that these performance problems didn't exist in CS3 and earlier, using the same equipment. The code should be robust enough, and generic enough, to handle all current hardware and CURRENT drivers. I'll add that other graphics programs I use which have OpenGL options, do not experience any lag.

I frankly resent some of the smug comments from hardcore users here on this forum, the ones not experiencing problems, using terms like "whining" and implying that those of us who are disappointed with CS4 just don't have it together technically. Screw you. I eagerly bought the CS4 upgrade the moment it came out. I own a video card on Adobe's "approved" list. I have a clean system. I experienced significant problems with Photoshop. Some of the workarounds have helped me achieve mediocre rather than poor performance; an improvement, but still hugely disappointing. And if I complain, I'm whining?

I definitely don't blame Adobe engineers and programmers. It's clear that Adam and Chris are the tip of the iceberg of programmers trying to set things right. And I'm sure no one in the development team would have allowed this version to be released if they'd been aware of the GPU problem earlier. But management obviously rushed the entire CS4 suite release prematurely to meet a sales deadline (it ain't just Photoshop: Flash CS4 is so extremely buggy I wouldn't even rate it as beta). It was also a management decision to limit the Photoshop beta testers to a set group, all of whom are likely super-advanced users with high-end hardware. Same with Flash (that I know for sure, since I know some of the beta testers). As a result, huge numbers of bugs go undetected because this user group doesn't access those functions as part of their work.

Adobe placed Dreamweaver CS4 for public beta, by contrast. I tried it, it was a real MESS. But they got a large volume of feedback from every type of user, and the release version is, so far, pretty tight. Makes a big difference when you let more than just your friends noodle around and find bugs that the power users might not discover.

They certainly would have heard of this GPU issue months ago if they had a less exclusive beta tester list. And at this point I think it's Adobe's sole responsibility to engineer a solution. I believe that they are working on it. The anger in this post is directed to the "I'm all right Jack" forum regulars who are so bemused by people like me.

Your welcome Lauri

Good luck

No need to be sorry - ColdFusion was the best decision we ever made. (Let's save that for another post though so that we don't clutter the real issue here.)

Ray