CS4 error and observations

I’ve been running Vista 64 reasonably well with CS4 – no real problems. My system has an onboard NVIDIA Geforce 8300, which is not top of the line by any means.

CS4 has had serious video compatibility, and other, problems, but Adobe will straighten things out eventually. Meantime, if the eval version does what you want, I think it’s an upgrade well worth making. —
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

You are on the right track.
Your motherboard based graphics chip cannot support the GPU accelerated functions, limited though they be, of CS4.
CS4 runs significantly faster on a multi-core CPU. Some Photoshop processes are multi-threaded but the vast majority are not. The main reason a multi-core CPU is significantly faster is that it will off-load some operating system background processes to the other cores. However most Photoshop processes will have to steamroll all that image data through one core at a time.
If you are going to upgrade to optimize CS4 I would recommend the fastest dual or quad-core CPU you can afford. If you are an AMD aficionado then you will find the new Phenom II quads more than adequate; however Intel quad cores are still faster. CPU speed and efficiency are the most important factors for CS4 performance.
I would also recommend you get Vista 64 and 4 gbs of RAM. The 64 bit OS frees up an extra GB of RAM for programs like CS4 without having to resort to command line switches. However not all programs are compatible with Vista 64 and there may not be drivers for your peripherals.
The 64 bit version of CS4 installs with the the 32 bit version on Vista 64. However many third party filters do not run on CS4–they will run on CS4 32 installed in Vista 64.
Lastly in order to take what advantage there is of the GPU accelerated functions in CS4 you need a relatively recent AMD or NVidia graphics card. Direct X 10 cards with at least 128 gbs of RAM can now be had for less than $100. You would not want to play the latest 3d games on these but they are orders of magnitude better than motherboard based graphics and are more than adequate for CS4.
Vista 64 runs well enough if your computer hardware and peripheral drivers support it. The Win7 public beta was faster than Vista, although it is clear that Win7 is nothing more than a Vista service pack, but in my experience the 64 bit version suffered from crippling driver incompatibilities. I recently had to work on a Mac: not having done so in a while and having to relearn different ways of doing the same thing makes it clear to me what a bunch of horse excrement people eat who swallow the hype that the Mac is better despite having more expensive, slower hardware and operational rules that are just as arbitrary as those that run Vista.

Thank you for your informative advice…it’s very much appreciated.

Paul

"whinee" wrote in message

You are on the right track.
Your motherboard based graphics chip cannot support the GPU accelerated functions, limited though they be, of CS4.
CS4 runs significantly faster on a multi-core CPU. Some Photoshop processes are multi-threaded but the vast majority are not. The main reason a multi-core CPU is significantly faster is that it will off-load some operating system background processes to the other cores. However most Photoshop processes will have to steamroll all that image data through one core at a time.
If you are going to upgrade to optimize CS4 I would recommend the fastest dual or quad-core CPU you can afford. If you are an AMD aficionado then you will find the new Phenom II quads more than adequate; however Intel quad cores are still faster. CPU speed and efficiency are the most important factors for CS4 performance.
I would also recommend you get Vista 64 and 4 gbs of RAM. The 64 bit OS frees up an extra GB of RAM for programs like CS4 without having to resort to command line switches. However not all programs are compatible with Vista 64 and there may not be drivers for your peripherals. The 64 bit version of CS4 installs with the the 32 bit version on Vista 64. However many third party filters do not run on CS4–they will run on CS4 32 installed in Vista 64.
Lastly in order to take what advantage there is of the GPU accelerated functions in CS4 you need a relatively recent AMD or NVidia graphics card. Direct X 10 cards with at least 128 gbs of RAM can now be had for less than $100. You would not want to play the latest 3d games on these but they are orders of magnitude better than motherboard based graphics and are more than adequate for CS4.
Vista 64 runs well enough if your computer hardware and peripheral drivers support it. The Win7 public beta was faster than Vista, although it is clear that Win7 is nothing more than a Vista service pack, but in my experience the 64 bit version suffered from crippling driver incompatibilities.
I recently had to work on a Mac: not having done so in a while and having to relearn different ways of doing the same thing makes it clear to me what a bunch of horse excrement people eat who swallow the hype that the Mac is better despite having more expensive, slower hardware and operational rules that are just as arbitrary as those that run Vista.

On Sat, 9 May 2009 14:23:22 -0700, whinee wrote:

You are on the right track.
Your motherboard based graphics chip cannot support the GPU accelerated functions, limited though they be, of CS4.

This is not the case. My mobo gpu, a GF 8300, supports GPU functionality.

CS4 runs significantly faster on a multi-core CPU. Some Photoshop processes are multi-threaded but the vast majority are not. The main reason a multi-core CPU is significantly faster is that it will off-load some operating system background processes to the other cores. However most Photoshop processes will have to steamroll all that image data through one core at a time.

This is largely true, in my tests, which were very brief and informal, I found almost no Photoshop operations that would use more than two cores.

If you are going to upgrade to optimize CS4 I would recommend the fastest dual or quad-core CPU you can afford. If you are an AMD aficionado then you will find the new Phenom II quads more than adequate; however Intel quad cores are still faster. CPU speed and efficiency are the most important factors for CS4 performance.

I’d say memory takes a front seat, ahead of CPU.

I would also recommend you get Vista 64 and 4 gbs of RAM. The 64 bit OS frees up an extra GB of RAM for programs like CS4 without having to resort to command line switches. However not all programs are compatible with Vista 64 and there may not be drivers for your peripherals.

There is nothing special about the 4 gig limit, provided you are using CS4 or later. I use Vista 64 with 8 gigs of ram, and there is a significant improvement when handling very large images.

The 64 bit version of CS4 installs with the the 32 bit version on Vista 64. However many third party filters do not run on CS4–they will run on CS4 32 installed in Vista 64.

100 percent accurate.

Lastly in order to take what advantage there is of the GPU accelerated functions in CS4 you need a relatively recent AMD or NVidia graphics card. Direct X 10 cards with at least 128 gbs of RAM can now be had for less than $100. You would not want to play the latest 3d games on these but they are orders of magnitude better than motherboard based graphics and are more than adequate for CS4.

This is overly conservative, and places way too much emphasis on video performance, which is not of significance for the majority of Photoshop operations.

Vista 64 runs well enough if your computer hardware and peripheral drivers support it. The Win7 public beta was faster than Vista, although it is clear that Win7 is nothing more than a Vista service pack, but in my experience the 64 bit version suffered from crippling driver incompatibilities.

Yep, figure on buying a whole new system when you go 64 bits.

I recently had to work on a Mac: not having done so in a while and having to relearn different ways of doing the same thing makes it clear to me what a bunch of horse excrement people eat who swallow the hype that the Mac is better despite having more expensive, slower hardware and operational rules that are just as arbitrary as those that run Vista.

LOL – I thought that the unicorns poop butterflies on the Mac side of the fence.
—
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com

Thanks all…I appreciate the feedback:)

Paul

"Mike Russell" wrote in message

On Sat, 9 May 2009 14:23:22 -0700, whinee wrote:

You are on the right track.
Your motherboard based graphics chip cannot support the GPU accelerated functions, limited though they be, of CS4.

This is not the case. My mobo gpu, a GF 8300, supports GPU functionality.

CS4 runs significantly faster on a multi-core CPU. Some Photoshop processes
are multi-threaded but the vast majority are not. The main reason a multi-core CPU is significantly faster is that it will off-load some operating system background processes to the other cores. However most Photoshop processes will have to steamroll all that image data through one
core at a time.

This is largely true, in my tests, which were very brief and informal, I found almost no Photoshop operations that would use more than two cores.

If you are going to upgrade to optimize CS4 I would recommend the fastest dual or quad-core CPU you can afford. If you are an AMD aficionado then you
will find the new Phenom II quads more than adequate; however Intel quad cores are still faster. CPU speed and efficiency are the most important factors for CS4 performance.

I’d say memory takes a front seat, ahead of CPU.

I would also recommend you get Vista 64 and 4 gbs of RAM. The 64 bit OS frees up an extra GB of RAM for programs like CS4 without having to resort
to command line switches. However not all programs are compatible with Vista
64 and there may not be drivers for your peripherals.

There is nothing special about the 4 gig limit, provided you are using CS4 or later. I use Vista 64 with 8 gigs of ram, and there is a significant improvement when handling very large images.

The 64 bit version of CS4 installs with the the 32 bit version on Vista 64.
However many third party filters do not run on CS4–they will run on CS4 32
installed in Vista 64.

100 percent accurate.

Lastly in order to take what advantage there is of the GPU accelerated functions in CS4 you need a relatively recent AMD or NVidia graphics card.
Direct X 10 cards with at least 128 gbs of RAM can now be had for less than
$100. You would not want to play the latest 3d games on these but they are
orders of magnitude better than motherboard based graphics and are more than
adequate for CS4.

This is overly conservative, and places way too much emphasis on video performance, which is not of significance for the majority of Photoshop operations.

Vista 64 runs well enough if your computer hardware and peripheral drivers
support it. The Win7 public beta was faster than Vista, although it is clear
that Win7 is nothing more than a Vista service pack, but in my experience the 64 bit version suffered from crippling driver incompatibilities.

Yep, figure on buying a whole new system when you go 64 bits.

I recently had to work on a Mac: not having done so in a while and having to
relearn different ways of doing the same thing makes it clear to me what a
bunch of horse excrement people eat who swallow the hype that the Mac is better despite having more expensive, slower hardware and operational rules
that are just as arbitrary as those that run Vista.

LOL – I thought that the unicorns poop butterflies on the Mac side of the fence.
—
Mike Russell – http://www.curvemeister.com