Photoshop CS4 Runs SLUGGISHLY on AMD Ryzen Windows 10 desktop

[TELiebe]

I'm still using PhotoShop CS4 because, well, I paid for it and money's too tight to pay for $20.90/mo. subscription just for a product that's become mainly for personal use as I near retirement age. On my older PC which I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10, PS CS 4 ran fine (a bit slow on huge files as I only had 8 GB RAM, but that's no surprise!) -- so why does my State-of-the-Art as of Last Year Ryzen 1700 8-core PC with 16 GB RAM, an AMD Radeon RX 580, and a Samsung SSD grind like my old 486/66 whenever I try and do anything?

Before you say it -- I've used alternatives like GIMP and Affinity, and either the interfaces are so different I'm utterly lost, or they just lack features PS has had for years, like Paste Into and Intuitively Working in Layers. I'd give PS Elements a try, except when I used a trial of an earlier version it...worked closer to My First Photo Editor than anything I can comfortably use.

So -- is there some way I can make PS CS4 work with my current Win10 AMD system, or is there some alternative that's in the $100 (give or take) range I can use?

[Derek Cross]

If you can afford a "state-of-the-art" computer you might consider getting state-of-the-art software to run on it, rather than trying to manage with a ten-year-old end-of-life application.

The Photography Plan, which includes the latest version of Photoshop plus upgrades as they become available, plus Lightroom and cloud storage costs just $10 a month. 

You can try the trial version free for seven days to try out the latest features and see how the software peforms on your system.

[TELiebe]

Nothing like being insulted while not getting a constructive answer...

If I can't afford $251.88/year for one app, and asked for something with a $100 one-time charge, what makes you think I can afford $120/year?

If this is the quality of answer I can expect, then maybe I shouldn't bother with Adobe "support"...

[c.pfaffenbichler]

This is a user Forum, so you are not really addressing Adobe here, even though some Adobe employees thankfully have been dropping by.

And official Adobe support would, as far as I understand, not provide any advice on this anymore. 

As for the issue of Photoshop CS4 and your current OS: According to the documented System Requirements it isn’t intended to run on Windows 10 at all, so that it does, though sluggishly, may be a testament to the inherent compatibility advantages Windows appears to offer compared to Mac for example. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements-old-versions.html

As for using Photoshop (non-commercially) in one’s »old age« you might want to add your support to an existing Feature Request: 

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/do-disable-or-senior-citizen-gets-any-discoun...

[TELiebe]

Thank you -- I would have, except every time I try to vote or add something, it tells me to sign in. I do so, it says I'm already signed in -- then asks me to sign in again(!).

[TELiebe · Accepted solution]

I appreciate the help -- I wrote Adobe directly and they offered me to solutions (an upgrade with a one-time $199 cost, which is a bit rich for blood), or the latest version of PS Elements, which I've been using the trial version of.

It's close enough to Full-on PS for my needs these days, so I think I'll purchase that when the trial period ends -- now, I just need to use Premiere Elements to see if I want to pay for the whole suite, or just PS Elements? All in all, a good problem to have -- so thank you all for your assistance,

Tim Liebe

Who STILL Can't Log Into the Feedback Page!

[Derek Cross]

Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, I just wanted to give it to you straight – you seemed unhappy with your present software and so I told you the issue. I think the quality of my answer was pretty good – I told you why you were having problems, I corrected your misconception about pricing and gave a solution to try without risk. The rest is your choice.

Please feel able to return to this friendly forum with further questions in due course.

[TELiebe]

Thank you for clarifying.

[sPretzel]

Hi Tim,

Have you managed to improve the performance of CS4 on your AMD Ryzen system?

If anybody else has experience with running CS4, CS5, CS6 (Photoshop or other applications within CS) on AMD Ryzen processors, it would be interesting to hear their feedback. In particular, is it comparable in terms of performance to running on Intel CPU, or, as the OP mentioned, is it noticeably slower or with other issues on AMD Ryzen?

Thanks.

[jane-e]

@sPretzel 

CS4 can no longer be activated. The aging servers have been shut down. Please start a new thread for your question.

Jane