Photoshop CS6—many problems. Slow.

[ladri-bici]

I'm hoping someone at Adobe can address the numberous bugs and general slowness in Photoshop CS6.

Before installing (MacBok Pro 2010 Intel i7, 8GB Ram) I whiped my drive and installed OS Lion. So CS6 went on clean.

What I'm finding:

1. General slugishness all around.

Layered PSD files I was using just fine in CS5 are now extremely slow. An examle is a small (20mb) web design file. So it has many layers (maybe 200, not 2,000) mostly comprised of typographic elements—not many layered effects to speak of. Not many image layers, either. Layer folders are slow to move, folders can't be moved using the shift + arrow key consecutive times, making it difficult to move a range of folders xxx pixels to the left, for example.

Things that were pretty snappy before, are now slow. This is very similar to the problems I and many others saw with the initial relase of CS5—in the next version (12.0.1 I think?) Adobe fixed the issue.

2. Problems with type, example keybaord arrow keys stop working many times when toye is selected. Frustrating.

More of a general rant here, but insted of (at least in addition to) a lot of other 'features' like video in PS extended (why not use Premiere?), 3d, etc., it would be really smart for Adobe to make core elements work better: A big complaint among interactive desigers is that type renders so poorly compared to CSS html. Maybe this could be addressed, as photoshop is used for the design of most all websites.

[Chris Cox]

1) try turning off the layer thumbnail in the layers palette and see if it helps

2) toye ?

Photoshop type does not render the same as all OSes and browsers - but they don't render the same way either.

CS6 type should be much closer to the OS and browsers, but can't match them bug for bug.

[ladri-bici]

type. sorry, autocorrect. command arrow works when you want to skip between words, but just left or right arrow does not. much of the time.

[ladri-bici]

thanks for the tips. i do appreciate it. turning off thumbnail previews immediately helped the issue of not being able to move a folder set with cmd + arrow. previously, i would get the nudge tool filter dialog, and after a 3-4 second pause, the layer set would only move 10px, regradless of how many times I keyed the arrow key.

my tile size was set to the default of 128k.

looking forward to 13.0.1 soon.

[vikki_w]

Hi Chris,

Again, I have ONLY been experiencing sluggishness in CS6 and nothing has changed in my system setup between CS4 and CS6.

I have to most up to date video card driver for my computer (NVIDIA GeForce 320M). There is no further update available for this card from NVDIA. It never caused a problem on CS4.

I do not run any anti-virus programs, being on a mac, which nixes the bad anti-virus software (Norton) option.

I have no third party plugins installed in photoshop that I know of (though how can I be absoultey sure of this?)

And it's interesting you mention corrupt fonts:

     1) The files I am opening that are causing the beachballing don't have font layers on them

     2) merely clicking on the type tool in CS4 would immediatley throw down the "Cannot complete your request due to program error" window and I would have to force quit photoshop, though in CS6, the type tool actually works. I manage my fonts with Font Agent Pro and only have ~40 fonts      activated at any time. None of those fonts are corrupt.

Any other ideas? What could I be missing here? I'm still in spinning beachball land....beginning day 3 now....

[Chris Cox]

Comparing to CS4 doesn't tell us anything -- too many API changes (Cocoa), too many added features (OpenGL, OpenCL, etc.).

Font Agent Pro could be part of the problem, and has caused slowdowns in the past.

And it could still be a corrupt font, see http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-photoshop-cs5.html  for tips on troubleshooting the fonts.

[vikki_w]

Ok, I will look into this and get back to you guys, though for the record, upgrading to CS6 seems to have been a bad idea for my system. CS4 worked better than CS6 , I feel a little bit like I wasted my money right now.

[Noel Carboni]

Keep the faith, Vikki.  It can work every bit as well as its predecessors, and does on most systems.  When it DOES work well, you'll really appreciate the new stuff.

-Noel

[@MarketerAziz]

Dear All Adobe Employees,

Thank you for replies, but PLEASE

Think twice before putting all the load on customers' side

As a client I can't accept any excuse from adobe while i do have two versions of the same product, the old version works smoothly and the latest needs a lot of procedures, steps, requirements and more to give me the chance to test if it will be better a little bit or not

All what you need to do is Appologizing And telling us about estimated date for updates release

[Chris Cox]

Many factors outside of Photoshop could cause a slowdown or problems in a new version but leave older versions running just fine.  Things like antivirus software, driver hacks, third party plugins, etc.  And those are not things that Adobe can address.  We see this with every release of Photoshop -- and we have to track down all the external factors that need to be removed, updated, etc.

You have a problem on your system. That does not mean that there is a bug in Photoshop, or that other people are seeing the same problem. It just means that there is a problem on your system.  Since we do not see the problem, and do not have your system to diagnose, you will need to do some troubleshooting on your system to identify the cause.  We've listed known problems -- now you need to rule out those known causes, see if there is something new going wrong with your system, then figure out what that might be.

[@MarketerAziz]

Thank you !

[Noel Carboni]

Scorwolf wrote:

Think twice before putting all the load on customers' side

Some things need to be stated, I think.

1.   You're not dealing with some smooth talking marketing department here.  Chris Cox and the other engineers who help here are substantially the ones that arrange the 1s and 0s in the code itself.  They speak plainly, and while most folks who know them realize they get directly to the point, folks who don't realize the special level of communication we have here might think the Adobe folks are abrupt or evasive.  Let me assure you they're neither.  It is uncommon to have this level of access to engineers at a big corporation, and encouraging them to be here is one of the things Adobe does right.  Very right.

2.  Adobe's software uses and stresses your computer like no other software - not even the previous version of Adobe's software.  They have provided you with cutting-edge graphics technology in the latest release, and the state of the art is that your computer system is both extremely complex and the operating system and driver software on it does not all work perfectly (not even a Mac).  We see again and again, for example, that display drivers are hard put to work perfectly...  There are certain "golden" releases of drivers that work well - and others that just plain suck.

What you may not realize is that there are already multiple levels of fallback inside the Adobe software.  Some of them are automatic, and some you have to choose via preferences.  Adobe really can do no more to try to ensure their software works around the glitches on your particular system.

-Noel

[rezun8]

I do appreciate that Chris is answering and helping to identify issues that may pop up with this new release. I can't begin to imagine the complexity of programming a major software title such as PS.

I think for many people like myself who are working on Laptops (MBPro) we really cannot upgrade to a new Video Card to fully appreciate the new features.

With this said, I have had to return to using Photoshop CS5 do to the slowness of the program. Simple things such as editting text, turning on/off layers ( which I have tried keeping on only the layer being used when possible ) saving files, and many other daily tasks have become so time consuming waiting for PS to process the command that I will not even try using PS CS6 until an update is released which hopefully will address some of these items.

Keep in mind I use PS for web design so many of the files I am working with aren't very large in my mind.

I have been trying to use the other CS Suite programs and they as thus far do not have any of these issues, save Illustrator which seems to be a tad slower but not enough to degrade to CS5.

I can't say I'm disappointed, but it is unfortunate I have to return to a previous build to get the same work done.

What  I don't like as I've seen on many other PS Forum postings is the tone of some responses from Adobe reps saying "it's your system" or " you need to turn this, this and that off to make it run better". It should run just fine out of the box so to speak without having to go in and make edits and tweaks, many many users do not have this capacity either due to Company IT security or just plain software knowledge.

-Just my thoughts and I will say I look forward to the next release of updates.

[rob_ashcroft]

Just for a bit of balance here... I upgraded from 64bit CS5 to 64bit CS6 this week, and it's flying along on my desktop PC - Windows 7 with a Radeon HD5570 (I GB RAM). The PC has 12GB of RAM. I'd say CS6 is about 20% faster and smoother than CS5 on my machine.

Under preferences in CS6 I have 7gb allocated for Photoshop (which is a lot). I don't really understand how the RAM between video card and PC RAM works, but last year I upgraded my card to the current one which has larger capacity. It's not cheap to do that, but it did give me better performance. Prior to upgrading it I also had problems with the Silver Efex Pro plugin - which also does a lot of graphics work. It too is OK now.

My System Information

------------------

Time of this report: 6/27/2012, 17:44:57

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)

System Manufacturer: Acer

System Model: Aspire M5811

BIOS: Default System BIOS

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU         650  @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz

Memory: 12288MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 12216MB RAM

---------------

Display Devices

---------------

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5570

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68D9)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68D9&SUBSYS_E142174B&REV_00

Display Memory: 2761 MB

Dedicated Memory: 1006 MB

Shared Memory: 1755 MB

Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor Name: SyncMaster P2450H(Digital)

Monitor Model: SyncMaster

[Chris Cox]

With this said, I have had to return to using Photoshop CS5 do to the slowness of the program. Simple things such as editting text, turning on/off layers ( which I have tried keeping on only the layer being used when possible ) saving files, and many other daily tasks have become so time consuming waiting for PS to process the command that I will not even try using PS CS6 until an update is released which hopefully will address some of these items.

OK, something is really wrong on your system.

A few people are seeing big slowdowns across the app -- most have been traced to video driver bugs, third party software (like anti-virus), permissions errors, and sometimes older third party plugins.

But most people are not seeing this.  So, waiting for an update won't help.

We need to figure out what on your system is causing a slowdown that others are not seeing.

Are you running other software at the same time as Photoshohp?  Try closing the other applications to see if one of them might be interfering. 

Are you running third party plugins?  Try disabling them.

Do you have third party fonts installed?  Have you tried troubleshooting the fonts?  http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-photoshop-cs5.html

Do you have any utilitiy software installed that might interfere?  Have you tried disabling it?

[vikki_w]

Hi guys - I'm also back at it with trying to troublesoot my CS6. For the most part it's fine but intermittently (oh, yes, THAT troubleshooting nightmare) it takes minutes upon minutes to open a file or close a file, or sometimes execute a command. It's sort of to the point that I force quit, relaunch, and usually the file will open or close faster the next time.

- what is a third party plug in and how can I see if I have any installed?

- what kind of utility software are we talking about? how can I see if I have any installed?

I will troubleshoot fonts this afternoon. I really, truly appreciate all the help from Adobe staff, though I also chime in with the seniment that it's too bad PS CS6 doesn't just work right out of the box. I appreciate that there's lots of variables but this particular upgrade has been pretty painful for my working life. I also have a MacBook Pro and I can't just go and upgrade the video card, if that's what's suggested in the end.

Anyways, I'll get started on fonts, if someone can let me know about the two about Qs we'll see what can be done.

[Noel Carboni]

Help - System Info will tell you what plug-ins are installed.  As I recall the list of 3rd party plug-ins is at the bottom.

Photoshop CS6 works right out of the box for most folks (I know I haven't had any problems).  I know something of what's going on under the covers...  Between supporting two totally different platforms (Mac/PC), considering all the variations between systems (think "no two alike"), and considering the complexity of this state-of-the-art image manipulation software, it's kind of amazing it works as well as it does on as many systems as it does.

-Noel

[vikki_w]

Understood, Noel! It just sucks that my machine happens to be one that's cranky about upgrading!

SO, Help - System Info tells me: Optional and third party plug-ins: NONE

I have troubleshot my fonts, with no erroneous results. Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that the issue may actually lie with FontAgent Pro? How can that be, it's worked so well for years?

Also, what sorts of utility software should I be looking for?

Thx

vikki

[Noel Carboni]

vikki_w wrote:

Also, what sorts of utility software should I be looking for?

I think Chris is going to have to answer that, because it was he who asked.  I assume he means anything that you've installed on your system that isn't a pure "application" - e.g., desk accessories or other software designed to enhance your computing experience and which could be running at the same time as Photoshop.

-Noel

[julienlanoo]

Thanks Chris for awnsering so truely..
But google "photoshop CS6 slow" or photoshop CS6 sluggish..

There are more issues than you think
Also here on same machine, CS5 is way faster than the CS6...

[Noel Carboni]

Julienlanoo, you should know that's not true with every machine.  Something may be specifically amiss with yours, making it less compatible with Photoshop CS6 than CS5.  I find Photoshop CS6 slighly faster than CS5 on the same machine for most things myself.  Many things can contribute to problems, for example outdated drivers.  Photoshop has a number of fall-backs coded on the general principle of "if it can't work fast using all the latest goodies, it should at least work slowly".  So for example if it can't find a way to use the GPU on your video card, it uses the (slower) CPU instead.

-Noel

[julienlanoo]

Ok, and how can you know that - Test it ?  I mean,

I've turned off all the pluginns, i've turned off time machin, i've turned off all the plugins i've got, ..  It's a new computer, with mac os X 10.7, 2.7 ghz quad i7  16 GB of Ram, AMD Radeon HD 6630M ?..  What would you like me to have so it works fine ? ..?

" like i hadn't expected the "it's your computers fault" awnser..

When checking the requierments of PSCS6 i am well in...

P.S. -> The efficiancy tag , bellow the image gives 100% value ..

[Chris Cox]

Only a handful of people seem to be seeing CS6 run slow.  And we don't know why, and have not been able to reproduce that slowdown at Adobe (despite testing on thousands of configurations).

So, the obvious suspect is that there is something about your system configuration that causes or triggers the problem.

But we don't know what that might be because we don't have your system to know how it is different from the millions of systems running without a problem.

[Noel Carboni]

julienlanoo wrote:

Ok, and how can you know that - Test it ?  I mean,

I've turned off all the pluginns, i've turned off time machin, i've turned off all the plugins i've got, ..  It's a new computer, with mac os X 10.7, 2.7 ghz quad i7  16 GB of Ram, AMD Radeon HD 6630M ?..  What would you like me to have so it works fine ? ..?

" like i hadn't expected the "it's your computers fault" awnser..

When checking the requierments of PSCS6 i am well in...

P.S. -> The efficiancy tag , bellow the image gives 100% value ..

The fact that you have a new, powerful workstation says loudly that there's a bug somewhere.

If I were a betting man I'd say that the display driver that Apple has released for your particular hardware is lacking in function to allow Photoshop to fully accelerate all its functions.  There have been problems with AMD/ATI drivers on PCs up until VERY recently as well.

I'll go out on a limb and predict that an OS update will come out that will suddenly make your system more responsive.

-Noel

[julienlanoo]

mhm, so it might be the driver to the video card ? ( not actually the display ?)

greets

ju