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.

[Guest]

> Perhaps they should put a disclaimer on the software box that CS4 is not guaranteed to work in all situations?

You're kidding, right?

[Guest]

Return it. You have 30 days. Quit Whining! its getting tiresome.

[Kwan Parker]

] Quit Whining! its getting tiresome.

I learn from the complaints. I even learn from some of the righteous indignation.

But the whining! Oh, my! It do hurt my virtual ears! :-)

Maybe next week I get to try it all out on a brand new, uncluttered 32 bit Vista system with an unlisted card: SLI Dual GeForce GTX 280 1024 MB.

Works not too shabby now with my XP Pro and GeForce 7900GS. Let the adventure begin!

I may complain, but I'll never whine. (I hope.) :-)

[Guest]

Well on a happier note:

There is a windows update, KB957321, that came on my Vista auto update that addresses a Adobe XMP specification issue with windows. There were 2 other KB's but nothing to do with Adobe.

For XP and Vista 32 and 64 bit and some window servers and such.

[_Ray_Majoran_]

Freeagent,

Just a quick note - I would agree that Adobe usually exposes other people's problems, however, I believe in the case of CS4, it's also an Adobe issue. Consider these 2 factors:

1. Even if you uncheck the GPU option in CS4 (which is supposedly the cause of all of this), there are still a number of crash issues (which Adobe itself recognizes).

2. If you have a computer with dual video cards - one that supports GPU and one that doesn't, CS4 goes into convulsions (whether GPU is checked or unchecked).

There are some major code flaws that go beyond the OS and video card drivers. There were also some serious issues in Premiere Pro CS4 as well that Adobe has now solved (and released a 4.01 patch). Hopefully a 4.01 patch is around the corner for Photoshop as well, as I'm sure it is.

Regarding some of the "whining" comments by Buko, seriously, if you don't have anything valuable to contribute to this forum, then don't. Many of the people here are having valid issues. Just because you have a system that works doesn't mean that another person is "whining" when they show frustration. You are the only person in this forum that keeps telling people to stop whining. You have made 5 posts in this forum, not one of which is the least bit constructive or helpful. If you have something constructive to say, then say it. If not, then please refrain. (I'm sorry to center you out, but seriously, it's getting old.)

Regards,
Ray

[Guest]

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.

[_James_wasneuski_]

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

[_James_wasneuski_]

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

[Chris Cox]

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

[Walter Elias]

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.

[_emil_emil_]

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.

[Guest]

> 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.

[_Nikos_Bil_]

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.

[_Q_Photo_]

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

[_emil_emil_]

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.

[_James_wasneuski_]

Buko, if you dont have anything constructive to add, please dont say anything. People are trying to deal with real issues, your immature remarks are uncalled for.

[Kwan Parker]

emil emil;

To my surprise, my XPS 400, Windows Pro SP3, GeForce 7900GS 256 passed your test. From start to finish, the paint followed the brush by about 1 to 2 seconds but never slowed nor lagged.

Part of my surprise arises because there is always a mountain of junk running in the background. This particular system is rather . . . cluttered. And, this proprietary Dell/Nvidia 7900GS wasn't exactly designed for this sort of thing.

Think I'll try it again later under conditions which do tend to slow things down for me quite a bit at times. With the following applications launched simultaneously: Photoshop, Bridge, Indesign, Word 2003 and at least one MSIE browser window.

OpenGL settings turned on: Vertical Sync; 3D Interaction Acceleration; and Advanced Drawing. Cache set at 8.

Best
K.

[Guest]

emil: I only see a lag doing what you asked if I whip my cursor back & forth very quickly. If I just move it back and forth at a reasonable rate there is no lag whatsoever doing the whole page.

[_Q_Photo_]

emil,

I tried your test using the largest brush possible and smaller sizes. I saw no problems. I even doubled the size of the file and painted with six different colors, one over the other.

I often work with files that are a couple hundred megs. Occasionally the files are over 500 megs with 30 or more layers. I use a lot of filters and effects. Previously, this was on a Windows machine with 2 gigs of ram and CS1. It was slow, at times, but workable. Now with Vista 64 and PsCS4 I seldom need to wait long for any operation. Actually, saving a really large file is usually the longest wait I have to endure.

Again, I'm NOT bragging as I didn't build this machine. Just trying to give you some hope.

Q

[Kwan Parker]

>Kwan: Think I'll try it again later under conditions which do tend to slow things down for me quite a bit at times. With the following applications launched simultaneously: Photoshop, Bridge, Indesign, Word 2003 and at least one MSIE browser window.

Emil;

With (graphics or text or graphics and text) files loaded into each launched application, no difference from what I reported to you a few messages earlier.

This is of rather intense interest to me because next week I'll be installing CS4 Master Collection on a new Vista (32 bit) system.

Thanks much for posting.
K

[Guest]

Its a public forum James.

[_J_Maloney_]

On the constructive side, I'd recommend waiting 31 days before returning your purchase.

[Kwan Parker]

J Maloney:
>On the constructive side, I'd recommend waiting 31 days before returning your purchase.

Kool.

Why?

Must be some helpful reason you have to share with us . . .

[Guest]

if you're going to return it. adobe has a 30 day return policy. 31 days is too late...

[Guest]

>31 days is too late...

Don't I know it. At this point, my only hope of being able to actually use the features that I bought this upgrade for is that Adobe (and/or the video drivers that it depends on) will sort this sh!t out.