Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

Most of these problems really are driver issues (though some seem to be card firmware) -- please make sure that your video card manufacturer is aware of the problems, including the specifics of your system.

Another offer to those experiencing CS4 performance problems...

If you're located anywhere near the S.F. bay area, please let me know. Having a system to debug on that's actually showing this problem is essential for us to be able to get a better understanding of why this is happening.

thanks,
-Adam

>Russell Proulx:C R Henderson Wrote:
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on an Intel DG965WH motherboard, 8GB RAM
I'm surprised that system is working properly.

It didn't for quite some time. Intel had a problem in the BIOS that caused any 64 bit system with over 4GB RAM to run about as well as a TRS-80. If an old version of the BIOS was installed all worked OK. After about 2 years they finally came out with a BIOS version in June that fixed all the x64 problems for the 965 series of boards when used with a 64 bit OS and >4GB RAM.

The problem was discussed here:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/showpost.aspx?postid=4018443&siteid=17

====================
>John Joslin:It's beginning to look as if CS4 is not a laptop application.

Not necessarily. It works fine on my laptop--almost as fast as my desktop and certainly more than usable. My laptop:

>Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit
Version: 6.0 Service Pack 1
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:7, Stepping:6 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2
Physical processor count: 2
Processor speed: 2494 MHz
Video Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Video Card Renderer: GeForce 8400M GS/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 x 4294967296 colors
Video Card Driver: nvd3dum,nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2um, nvwgf2umx.dll
Driver Version: 7.15.11.7432
Built-in memory: 4093 MB
Free memory: 1965 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 3469 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 60 %
Image cache levels: 4
Serial number: make a guess!
Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\
Temporary file path: C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\
Photoshop scratch has async I/O enabled
Scratch volume(s):
C:\, 284.7G, 147.0G free

It is good that the drivers worked, for as others have experienced I cannot get updated drivers from nVidia, only from HP, and my guess is that new drivers from HP aren't likely to happen all that quickly.

JJ just got fired. Ouch. ;)

It's beginning to look as if CS4 is not a laptop application.

Hey everyone,

I'm hoping to get some help as well. I feel exactly like ProArtist - I feel like CS4 is an absolute disaster (because I am experiencing this ridiculous slowness). That said, for fear of being counter-productive and negative, I'm just hoping that Adobe and NVidia can get this problem worked about sooner than later. I am running a brand new Dell Latitude D830 on Vista 32 with 4GB of RAM. CS3 works amazing, but CS4 is a major bog (with or without GPU). The card (that is built into my laptop) is a Quadro NVS 140M. Any help from other users that have solved this on a Dell laptop would be appreciated. (Regarding the AMD comment noted by Robert - my system is running Intel Core2.)

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ray

Russell,

It's odd that your 975 chipset didn't support memory remapping. I had an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, also based upon the 975 chipset, which DID support memory remap. In fact, I only learned what that was about after finding my PC was only indicated slightly over 3GB of RAM during the POST. This sounds more like the Intel BIOS simply didn't support that option; similarly, I do not see it in the AWARD BIOS of my Gigabyte P45-based motherboard, yet it still detects the 8GB of memory I'm running with now.

I miss my ASUS board...seems it actually outperforms this newer Gigabyte board with my Core 2 Extreme processor, but the ASUS decided to throw up a puff of smoke when I plugged in my headset microphone recently...after years of using an Audigy 2 sound card but troubleshooting an audio issue and thus reverting to the on-board sound. I still need to contact ASUS about a possible RMA under warranty, given I've got 1 year left on it. Oddly too, the ASUS would boot fine with external USB drives plugged in, whereas the Gigabyte does not.

Regards,

Daryl

C R Henderson Wrote:
> Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on an Intel DG965WH motherboard, 8GB RAM

I'm surprised that system is working properly. I had an Intel 975BX2 motherboard that could not use any brand of 8GB RAM with Vista64 let alone CS4. Intel even RMA'd me a newer revision of the board and it also could not run stable. So I replaced it with an Asus P5E WS-PRO which works fine. I was left with the impression that only x38 and newer chipsets that support "Memory Remappng" will work. The 975 chipset did not so I'm very surprised the 965 chipset does.

see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

Russell

>One word of advice. If you get stable drivers don't update unless you have to.

amen!

>and applicable to updates of ANY kind

not so. os and other app updates are usually for fixing security flaws. these shouldn't be ignored in today's wild west interweb.

>I NEVER let anything update automatically if I can find a way to turn of that feature in the app, utility, whatever...

that's true.

Runs like it was custom designed for my system. I've never been more amazed with a piece of software. It may be that higher end systems are happier with this release (if you can even call it that - it's more like a brand new application).

For once, hardware has to catch up to the software. It's elegant and if I could I'd marry it. I'd give it anything it wants and even take out the garbage without being asked.

Asus Maximus II Formula
8GB OCZ Reaper 1066 ram
Intel Q9550 OC'd
Vista Ultimate x64