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Participating Frequently
November 5, 2008
Question

Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

  • November 5, 2008
  • 770 replies
  • 57067 views
I'm am just at a loss of words.

What a mess. It could not be any slower. What were you thinking Adobe?

You ripped apart the code just to add GPU support for what? To provide worse performance?

Make sure you DL the demo first... CS4 is a disaster.

The latest hardware cant even run it smoothly... Dont tell me its graphic drivers.
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    770 replies

    Rob_Keijzer
    Known Participant
    November 5, 2008
    What helped me (XP pro SP3, Q6600, NVIDEA 8400GT+512 MB) was turn on GPU in preferences, but then click on Advanced, and switch off everything there.

    Result: smooth canvas rotation, smooth panning (swithed off flick panning, don't like that kind of ballistics) and smooth odd zoom factor image.

    One negative result: Smooting in the Brushes Panel doesn't work any more (after these settings, that is) but I still use an ancient wacom graphire with old driver.

    I ordered a wacom Intuos, and when it arrives I'll dive into that.

    All in all I'm satisfied with CS4.

    Rob
    Farrellart
    Known Participant
    November 5, 2008
    like stefan states - up the cache. mine is set on 8 and CS4 is smoooooth.
    Known Participant
    November 5, 2008
    > "If you get stable drivers don't update unless you have
    to."


    I think this is excellent advice, and applicable to updates of ANY kindOS, drivers, apps, or anything else.

    I ALWAYS read the tech-news sites and look for early-adopter feedback when new versions of things are released.

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

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    No problems here.

    Robert
    November 5, 2008
    >Dont tell me its graphic drivers.

    ok then.
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    ProArtist,
    just a little thing you can try:
    Set up the cache level to 6-8.
    On my system when the cache level is at 1 for example, Photoshop gets extremely slow! Even turning a layer on or off takes 2 seconds.
    CR Henderson
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    ProArtist, I do not doubt your word that you are having problems and I've read threads from others who are having problems, too. However, there are many who are not having problems or have only minor problems. I am one of those not having major problems. My system:

    Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on an Intel DG965WH motherboard, 8GB RAM, 1TB+ free diskspace, nVidia 9800 GTX+ video card, Wacom Intuos3 6x8 tablet. All of my PS CS3 plugins work fine in Photoshop CS4 Extended 32 bit. I've almost forgotten what the PS CS3 interface looks like for I never use it.
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    I want to add that even on that system i mentioned... In software mode, CS4 is only using 35% of the CPU and its STILL SLOW.

    That certainly suggests that CS4 is programmed poorly. CS3 is a hell of a lot faster.
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    I'm running a QX7600 Vista 64 system, 8GB ram, Nvidia 8800GTX. Its not my system.

    I've tried all of the drivers etc etc. There are too many complaints for it to be user error. The problem is with the hack job Adobe did on the PS code. I'm sure it wasnt pretty. You dont get GPU support into a mature code base such as photoshop without ripping it apart hard.

    Its just not right. CS3 ran a lot better. The GPU is not supposed to bottleneck or hurt performance. Its supposed to ADD performance. It does not in photoshops case.

    I like the new features, but something is seriously messy with the CS4 code.

    The sad thing is... they added all of this 3D object painting support and in the end... its worthless. Its not feature rich to support texture map painting on a professional level, nor is it fast enough. So why bother Adobe? WHY?

    Body Paint 3D is still far superior and CS4 inst production ready for Interactive 3D Object texture mapping.

    Hell right now, its not even production ready for 2D painting.
    Participating Frequently
    November 5, 2008
    It is interesting that looking at the people having problems I see two
    reoccuring themes here.

    1. AMD processors.
    2. Nvidia graphics cards.

    Having been burnt by AMD once before I now always go Intel. As for video I
    used to be a diehard Matrox user, but they haven't kept up with the
    technology so now it is ATI and I have had my share of problems with them.
    But, finally have stable drivers.

    One word of advice. If you get stable drivers don't update unless you have
    to. On several ocassions I have done this only for the drivers to break
    things that worked fine before the update. The trick is getting a stable set
    of drivers.

    Good luck to all,

    Robert
    November 5, 2008
    > Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

    No it's not!

    Loads and runs fast; wonderful new features. A photographer's dream!

    (No affiliation with Adobe other than as a satisfied user.)