Photoshop CS4 is a disaster

[_ProArtist_]

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.

[_Q_Photo_]

Lawrence,
Hang in there pal. This is a new version and changes have been made. Some good, some not so good. In the last thirty days this old dog has needed to learn a lot of new tricks. Got a Vista 64 system and had to learn that. Got Office 2007 had to learn that. PsCS4, had to learn that. In all cases "had to learn" means "am now learning". At times I feel like Kelly Bundy. By that I mean my brain can only absorb so much and then it has to throw out older information. Only so much room up there...

PsCS4 really does have some great features. Again, hang in there.
Q

[John Mensinger]

>"...slicker than deer guts on a door knob..."

>"...rarer than lipstick on a bear's butt..."

>"...so ridiculously slow I'd rather eat my own face..."

Apparently CS4's Metaphor Tool isn't exhibiting any lag.

[_Kay_R_Richardson_]

David- i have XP 32bit, i reformatted because i got a new computer and hate the bloatware it comes with. directx was updated from microsofts website and scratch disk? what's that?

[Hudechrome-sd9sPI]

Q Photo, I agree that there are some good features, but the improvements so far to my work has come down to one set Auto tune and sometimes the other auto features. It gives me a quick comparison to a really different way to present the image, which I like. The bigger changes for me came with CS3, particularly B%W conversion. It not only gives damn good control to the conversion, by choosing Luminosity instead of normal, you now have a set of adjustments to fine tune your color. Couple that with the color controls in RAW and you have an unbeatable combination. My druthers would be to see those controls refined, not a bunch of 3D features which mess up the rest of PS by virtue of the need for Open GL.

JJ, I suspected that there would be a way to customize the menu choices as you can customize hot keys but until now, I saw no need. Further, at times when I am messing with an image, I do get curious about menu choices I haven't used, and seeing them all with one click is an incentive.

What I am saying is nowhere should a program like this encourage dis- incentives by way of increased complexity at those fundamental levels.

I've referred to National Instruments before. I follow their upgrades as they are released,and every time I open an upgrade, it's like an old friend, with increased talent.

[Guest]

Kay,

When your ram is used up photoshop cs4 puts your files in a scratch disk. Scratch disk is the like virtual memory. It is recommended, if you have 2 hard drives, to put the scratch disk on a different drive then your operating system and virtual memory. This will keep your main hard drive from thrashing around and speed things up.

[_Kay_R_Richardson_]

oh no i only have one HD. i heard read somewhere someone saying that adobe told pple to ugprade their video (ati/nvidia) card drivers and that a fix would be included for cs4...guess that was a negative

[Guest]

Kay,

It is true that we were told to update our drivers. Lots of people don't update drivers. It helped some but not all issues were fixed. Lots of people on these boards have written ATI/Nvidia/intel with their issues. So we just sit and wait while Adobe and the card companies iron things out.

[Guest]

Kay,

The only reason I used a second hard drive was that it was just sitting around, not used, from a re-build. To be honest: I have seen no performance difference.

[Guest]

Although this does not help, I would like to point out that I have a Xerox Phaser 8550 network printer as my default and this does not affect the speed of PSCS4. The only point I can make is that sometimes it is driver issues, the print drivers from Xerox are obviously of a better cut.

By the way, I have the CS4 Master collection installed, if you want slow, start up Premiere, AfterEffects or InDesign, they are definetely slower starting up, but still perform quite well once up and running.

[Guest]

I just have ps cs4 ext. When I click the icon it takes only 3 seconds to be up and running. Pretty darn fast in my opinion. I have a Artisan 800 on USB. Works perfect. No driver conflicts. I am happy.

[Guest]

i'd like go off topic for a second to clear something up... sorry.

>When your ram is used up photoshop cs4 puts your files in a scratch disk.

typically that's the definition, however in photoshop, the scratch is used more like "main memory" and real physical RAM is used like we would normally think of as "cache memory", to speed up operations. so everything really goes through the scratch disc, which is why you get that huge scratch file whenever you open ps and start to do any work.

[Guest]

Glad you cleared that up dave it needed saying to avoid any misconceptions. There's plenty in the knowledge base for those that want to learn more.

[Kwan Parker]

I can "hardly" restrain myself.

My Dell XPS 730 H2C is overdue -- delayed twice. Apparently, there is a problem acquiring Nvidia's GTX 280 card.

By comparing present 730x . . . 730 H2C offerings by Dell cannot be found online anymore, except by virtue of Google cache preservation -- difference between what Dell offered to me as a "limited time only" offer to get rid of their 730-whatever inventory has everything to do with the newer 730x machines which uses the Intel® Core i7-965 Extreme processor. Good for me. Couldn't afford the new machine.

Mine will come with Vista Ultimate 32 and 4 GB DDR3 RAM. Maximum 8 GB DDR3. (Did not have a choice) The 730x bought by others will come with 6 GB Trichannel DDR3 running under Vista xxxxx 64.

The 730 H2C and the 730x H2C are Gamer's machines. I am not a gamer. I don't even own a game. Not one.

What the Dell offerings share in common is an option I've exercised: SLI Dual GTX 280 (total) 1 GB cards with supporting nvidia motherboard.

I'm presently running CS4 MASTER COLLECTION on an XPS 400 with minimum inconvenience . . . IMHO.

When my new machine arrives . . . anything you guys want me to try and report?

[_iVan_B__]

At least two people in this thread will be happy to hear that after close to 50 hours of testing I finally have a solution for the speed issue.

Erbs and Hugh smile! Youre it.

Trivia: I originally spelled that Herbs and Ugh before I corrected it (Im a bee dit wyslexic). No offence!

Full report here: http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b7373e

As for the chicken, why did it cross Ethiopia in a first place? We might never find out

iVan signing off!

[Guest]

Thanks Dave,

I also noticed that Adobe reader 9, saves a page of a pdf in a folder on my hard drive where my scratch disk is. I downloaded a pdf form, saved a copy to C drive documents, and printed a copy off the web to fill out and mail in. There was 6 pages to print and only the last page printed is in a file on the scratch disk.

Also what ever file I open in bridge it saves a thumbnail copy of each item in the whole content of the file on my scratch disk.

Also pdf files I have saved on a usb stick, that I left plugged in a usb port, is also on that scratch disk.

Weird how all this gets on the scratch disk used by photoshop.

[Guest]

I guess when you select the cache file for ps cs4, the same drive is auto selected for bridge. I never told bridge to use what drive. But I looked in bridge and it was set to the same drive. No biggie.

I am sure adobe 9 reader has the same reaction. I did not see any option in prefernces though.

Oh well, back to work!!

[Kwan Parker]

You know, dontcha,

That once I recieve my new machine and I work through all the complaints/flaws poted here, I might or might not share/post the results.

If there is no interest . . . I'll keep the results to myself.

[Kwan Parker]

Nothing ya'll might suggest when i get my new machine? How to test it and report back to the forum?

[Guest]

While we wait for Kwan's machine here is a link to ps cs4 tested on Intel i7 cores for your reading pleasure......

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2333764,00.asp

[Guest]

>Intel i7 cores

oh, momma! :)

my next boxen. i7 and windows 7! :)

[Hudechrome-sd9sPI]

Yep. One helluva core! :-)

[Guest]

have they eliminated the bus bottleneck?

[Hudechrome-sd9sPI]

Yep. No FSB.

[Guest]

From the testing I have read the only thing mentioned was that the video cards can't keep up with cpu demand. This is on serveral websites and different tests.

So maybe this puppy made by Nvidia can boost things up. Only $3,499 each. It does dishes too........ lol

http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailHome.asp?datePublish=2008/11/11&pages=PR&seq=201

[Guest]

i've got about a year to go. hopefully things will come together before then. when ms releases 7, i'll start thinking.

currently running core2duo e6600 (2.4) w/2 gig ram and a couple o'tb of hard drive. 7600gtx 256meg vid. dual display.