Why is Photoshop CS4 so slow? [2009]

[kims02]

Hi,

I know there's probably a lot of talk on this - there is doing google searches.

I recently upgraded to CS4. All other programs are great (ID, DW, etc.) but Photoshop... I'm ready to go back to Photoshop CS3.

When I turn the guides on and off it looks like some sort of animation effect they take so long to turn on and off. Moving the artboard around and zooming in and out is horrible.All over slow!

I have all the latest drivers of everything. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks.

(Year added to subject)

[Guest]

Did you try everything in the link at the top of the forum page?

Solutions to Common Problems

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/433020?tstart=0

[kims02]

Now I did - Photoshop is still super slow. Is there anything else I can do?

thanks.

[Guest]

Is your video card up to the job?

Tell us:

Operating System/version
Processor
Photoshop version number
Amount of RAM installed
Hard drive(s) capacity
Video card make and model

[Chris Cox]

Sounds like classic symptoms of a bad video card driver.

[-_AXS_-]

Adobe started a bad Company politic after having vampirized Macromedia.

What happened to those times when the only needed hardware was a card able to show MILLIONS of colors?

Isn't that the ONLY thing Photographers and Photoeditors NEED truly?

I saw the same problems on 95% of my customers - Even with pretty good VideoCards from Nvidia like 9800 Series.

It's SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWW in a way that makes you feel Ashamed of having bought the program.

It makes you NERVOUS because of the slow response and the weird compatibility of some of the Alienskin filters.

I followed this:

Optimize Photoshop performance

and this:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/433020?tstart=0

and still customers have problems and some decided to downgrade .

CS4 is expensive for the upgrade, now that Adobe ate the opposite faction the prices and the customer service got worse.

In Italy we have even a worse situation if you compare the price with the rest of the world. There are absurd upgrades options with absurd prices and methods.

I am really disappointed from the new Adobe line. And often using the CS2/CS3 solution instead of the new one.

[Chris Cox]

Photoshop has always required a WORKING video card.

Photoshop CS4 just places more demands on the video card if you use the OpenGL features.

Remember that all applications are at the mercy of the OS and drivers -- if they don't work, the application won't work correctly.

And every time we release an application, someone has problems with it being slow -- usually tracked to a third party application, driver, bad OS installs, etc.  When we find problems in our appliation, we try to get them fixed.  But we cannot control your system outside of our application.

[-_AXS_-]

I totally agree, obviously, with your point Chris, but this is the first time in my Photoshop user experience (since version2 and a buyer since version 4) that I have SO MUCH trouble to make it run properly.

I don't want it lightning fast, but reasonably usable. And it is not.

And everything seems to be chained to a worsening situation in Customer Support and Marketing systems.

So I guess that since the acquisition of Macromedia and the elimination of Adobe A-series competitors they took for granted that they can take their time to experiment new technologies (that is a wonderful thing if not dropped into the market too early) and sell whatever they want without really worring about their customers to look for an alternative.

The old Photoshop releases never ever gave me or my customers trouble. This one instead is hell.

I dont know if it is because now Photoshop tries to do things that usually has been done with other 3D apps or other gizmos or else. But there's a trend here to try to make Jolly apps that do everything instead of specializing in their job. Is like when you want a phone with a camera or able to edit the mp3 instead of simply being able to call someone with the best signal ever.

In Italy we say "mettere troppa carne al fuoco" (to put too much meat on the barbecue) risking to ruin the basic essence of the application: editing Photographs.

All the other apps in CS4 ( to be sincere i didn't try ALL of them deeply) looks fine and seems quite solid. I guess there's a wrong tendency with Acrobat 9 but that 's off topic in here So I will skip the "flame"

But sincerely I would love to see Photoshop going back at the monumental untouchable fantastic Photo application it was some time ago.

Pier

[Chris Cox]

SOMEBODY has trouble with every Photoshop release.  There is no pattern, just a lot of bad chips, bad drivers, disk corruption, bad third party software, etc.  Every new release will tickle some part of the system differently from a previous release and expose those problems.

Even I sometimes find that one of my machines has trouble with new releases of software (Photoshop, After Effects, and Visual Studio seem to expose the most essoteric problems).

And other users find that Photoshop works just fine, but some other app in the suite is having problems due to something strange on their system.

It's all sort of random -- depending on the exact condition of your system and the demands each app places on the components in your system.

Unfortunately, Photoshop CS4 tickled every video driver and marginal video card out there.  I wish we hadn't encountered so many problems - but we did.  Fortunately, the video card vendors have fixed most of the problems identified.

And yes, our Customer Support is, um, in a troubled state of transition.  (we recently switched vendors for tier 1)

[laurence100]

I assume that Chris Cox works for Adobe, so I can understand his defense of the company's programs.  However, I run Photoshop CS4 on a fast Dell desktop that's about a year old and a fast one-month-old Dell laptop.  Except for Word, I have installed nothing but Photoshop on those two computers. I have had nothing but problems with Photoshop CS4.  I'm originally an engineer and am good at solving technical problems with computers.  I manage a network of 5 computers at my office and have to fix problems regularly.  But I have to say that CS4 has been a headache from day one, everything from installation problems, to freezes, to inconsistent color, to crashes on both computers.  I would never have upgraded to it if I had not bought the Canon 5D Mark II.  Adobe refused to make a plug-in for that camera for CS3, so I was extorted into upgrading to CS4.  I've regretted it ever since.  I look at CS4 like I look at Windows Vista--a beta program that causes far more problems than it solves.  Even Mr. Cox admits that Photoshop exposes the most esoteric problems.

[Guest]

You are not alone, but on the other hand there are a lot more people like me for whom CS4 worked perfectly out of the box from day 1.

I have been following the tales of woe on these forums with sympathy but the sufferers really are in the minority.

The main problems nowadays seem to be from people who haven't updated to PS 11.0.1 or have video cards/drivers which do not support the demands of CS4 and OpenGL.

Also don't forget nVidia is not always nVidia – there are different manufacturers producing cards under the nVidia banner.

However, I have repeatedly said that I think CS4 was rushed out to an arbitrary timescale set by marketing and not by engineers.

[Mazarilla]

Well I went back to PS CS3 to get actual work down .. 8800gtx 768mb .. latest drivers.. doesn't anyone get sick of reading that you need the latest drivers..Seems Adobe just blame other parties for its own imcompetance. Nvidia, Microsoft... etc never Adobe who release crap...  its PS CS4 that was a poor effort. Drag lag on detached windows.. various issues with performance and brushes or the worst it just stops using the acceleration.

tbh even the design was rubbish.. default tab layout without anyway of moving layers to another document tab! no you have to change to some other rubbish split view or detach a window and use CS4 crap speeds just to be able drag drop layers. I could go on..and on the piss poor design... CS4 is rubbish and having to have that Bridge crap installed on my pc because there is no way of not having it put on doesn't exist in the installation or uninstallation setup.

I'm just wonder why a patch still hasn't be released to fix these issues. Or will that be CS5 and some more rubbish underdeveloped features and the continuation of poor improvements.

[Guest]

Although CS4 has certainly got new features which are disliked by many, your illiterate rant only goes to show that you have not bothered to to learn how to adapt the new interface to your method of working.

Spend some time with the help files and tutorials and then come back with genuine problems.

[Mazarilla]

I don't need help files or tutorials<removed>.. being able to drag and drop layers/groups onto another tab document is a workflow technique that should have been implemented already..  Having to fag about changing the ui layout just to get that functionality between 2 documents (at least) is stupid.. and considering that using the detached document window layout in CS4 now is not only SLOWER and full of LAG in window movement delays.. but the actual grey crap UI .. I mean couldn't they have cleaned up the corner edges ffs.. just plain sloppy crap effort all round really.

[Guest]

You just disqualified yourself from any further help Sunshine.

Still, you are such a know-it all I don't know why you came here, except to rant in an uneducated manner.

[S_D_A_]

These people usually haven't paid for their copy of photoshop; Anyone

spending $$ on an application, usually does their research before hand. Why

he/she upgraded if they don't like it so much is a mystery.

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 12:43:42AM -0600, John Joslin uttered:

You just disqualified yourself from any further help Sunshine.

Still, you are such a know-it all I don't know why you came here, except to rant in an uneducated manner.

>

[Guest]

Bridge is crap?  Really?   I did not know that.  I've been using that crap EVERY DAY for the last six months.  Thanks for setting us straight. 

[laurence100]

Okay, Kodzilla is ranting, but let's not get hostile.  He's not ranting at you guys, he ranting at Adobe.  And I can understand it.  There are major flaws and problems with Photoshop CS4.  I've experienced many of them.  I've paid for every upgrade.  I had no choice but to upgrade when I bought the Canon 5D Mark II because Adobe refused to make an ACR update that would open its RAW files in CS3.  It's a popular camera and Adobe wanted the revenue from forcing everyone to upgrade.  I make my living from photography.  All the hours I've had to spend dealing with CS4 problems are hours that I'm not making money.  I've found that the people most tolerant of the flaws in the program are those that are not making a living from photography.  I'm an engineer originally and manage five networked computers in my office.  I can eventually solve just about any computer problem, but it eats up a lot of time.  Let's say that 80% of the people who buy CS4 are lucky and it works perfectly.  That still leaves 20% with problems.  Can you imagine the uproar if 20% of new car buyers had their new car break down two blocks from the dealership?  The reality is, people are far too tolerant of computer and software problems.  We've been trained to buy products that are unreliable and of poor quality from Microsoft, other software makers, computer manufacturers, and now Adobe.  A good friend of mine has a business teaching companies how to install and use Adobe products.  She feels that the quality of Adobe's products has fallen immensely--and it's her business.

The people on this forum have been great in helping me solve some of my CS4 programs.  People get frustrated with computers, understandably.  Let's not take it out on each other.

[Guest]

The ranter's personal abuse was removed; maybe you didn't see it.

And no, I didn't report it – I'm a big boy now. 

[laurence100]

No, I didn't see the personal abuse.  There's no excuse for that.  I'm irritated at Adobe about their software quality, but I greatly appreciate the help that people have given me on this forum.

[Gyno-jiz]

I had no choice but to upgrade when I bought the Canon 5D Mark II because Adobe refused to make an ACR update that would open its RAW files in CS3.  It's a popular camera and Adobe wanted the revenue from forcing everyone to upgrade.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/311651

[Guest]

Yup. He only had to ask!

While I'm sure Adobe enjoys the extra income, there are technical reasons why the free ACR plug-in is not backwardly compatible.

[Mazarilla]

Actually if you're dismiss geniune issues with some lame response like check help files tutorials than you're just showing yourself up Joslin.. my workflow techniques and experience are probably above and beyond yours. And we have CS3 and CS4 workstations at work.. so that is why I dumped my PS CS4 usage.. no point wasting time with an app that hasn't exactly improved on areas I use daily.. besides when I work with an app a lot during the day I like it to fit in with my windows style.. not some grey crap. Photography in photoshop is made a lot of fuss about but I use PS a lot for heavy web/graphic design... I've pointed out a problem in CS4 that there is no better workflow technique of achieving efficiently without messing about changing the UI. Many areas of Photoshop need improving in terms of actual tool and feature improvements.. pisses me off just how much Adobe seem to suck at actually delivering actual improvements to the software and tools with some areas just complelty forgotten for years!, they been focusing on noob crap to showoff when even those areas are piss poor when you really get into using them..some things not even worth bothering with. And yes I don't mean to insult anyone personally but Adobe infuriates me, now onto bash the Flash teams incompetence.

[Gyno-jiz]

I'm sure jkost's workflow is a little below your level, Kod, but just in case you're open to sloppy workarounds:

http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2009/06/moving_layers_between_document.html

[Guest]

J Maloney wrote:

I'm sure jkost's workflow is a little below your level, Kod, but just in case you're open to sloppy workarounds: