CS4 CPU usage at 66,66% magnification

SK
Posted By
Stefan_Klein
Nov 3, 2008
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564
Replies
7
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Closed
Whenever I look at a picture at 66,67% in CS4 (OpenGL on)my CPU works at about 60-70%! That`s on Vista32, Intel Q6600, Geforce 8600GT/512MB, 4G Ram, newest driver. That GPU stuff is really buggy, the forum`s full of it. Hope it will be updated soon, because I like that feature….as long as it works.
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RB
Robert_Barnett
Nov 3, 2008
wrote in message
Whenever I look at a picture at 66,67% in CS4 (OpenGL on)my CPU works at about 60-70%! That`s on Vista32, Intel Q6600, Geforce 8600GT/512MB, 4G Ram, newest driver. That GPU stuff is really buggy, the forum`s full of it. Hope it will be updated soon, because I like that feature….as long as it works.

GPU support isn’t all that buggy. The problem is of all the drivers video drivers seem to be the biggest piles of poo one has to deal with. For some reason ATI and most others seem to have some real problem doing good, stable bug free drivers for their video cards. This has nothing to do with Adobe. If your video card maker did their job right and your video card supports the needed features that GPU support will work fine in Photoshop. If you look at the vast majority of complaints with GPU it all comes down to either the wrong video card or more often poor drivers. For some reason the video card makers get the hardware done pretty well but can’t seem to make a stable, reliable, all feature supporting video driver to save their lives.

Robert
SK
Stefan_Klein
Nov 3, 2008
Robert,
it seems that Adobe is pointing at the graphics hardware makers while nvidia seems to point at Adobe (there were some forum messages about that):
<http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b6d78b/76> :
"NVIDIA Software Development is aware of this application performance problem and is working with Adobe to get the issue resolved in a Adobe point release.

Best Regards,
Troy
NVIDIA Customer Care"

Why do we need a "point-release", if it`s all about buggy drivers? Okay, whatever….I`m just a user and can`t judge where the problem is. Another question:
why is screen redraw with OpenGL OFF (!) so slow in CS4? I guess that can have nothing to do with drivers. In CS3 it`s so fast that I can hardly see it with the naked eye while in CS4 I can see the individual tiles as they get drawn. I takes about 0,5 sec (just guessing)for the screen to redraw while CS3 does it in nearly realtime.
The consequence is that everything that needs a screen redraw (for example turning layer visibility off or on, moving part of the image, brushing, typing etc.)is very slow in CS4. Turning on OpenGL doesn`t help here either, because the screen doesn`t seem to redraw faster then. It`s only faster as long as the image itself doesn`t change. So panning and zooming is fine (in most cases). But as soon as the content changes and tht screen redraws, everything gets slow (with Open GL ON or OFF).
RB
Robert_Barnett
Nov 3, 2008
I have no doubt that the companies are pointing at each other. My problem with laying this at Adobe’s feet is that the features required for GPU to work in Photoshop is really nothing special. It just calling documented technologies like OpenGL, Adobe isn’t really creating anything new here, they are just calling on features in OpenGL, etc. I find it hard to believe that Adobe couldn’t even get that much right. I find it much more likely that it is the poor quality of the video card drivers causing issues than anything Adobe has done. My reason for this feeling is that by and large video card drivers and their overall poor quality even for expensive higher end cards is very well documented in just about any user forum you can find that does with anything video card related. Gamers have no end of problems with video card drivers. We had a couple of reports of curors in Photoshop CS4 not displaying right that were fixed with updated drivers. Screen redraw issues fixed with updated drivers. Also, if drivers aren’t such a problem why are their so many driver updates released. If they did it right when the product lauched and assuming a very generous allowing of 2 updates to fix little things they missed then why are we seeing so many driver updates. The hardware isn’t changing, it can’t magically starting doing things it wasn’t designed for, so the drivers once released a couple of little things fixed with two update so be rock solid and done. But, that isn’t what happens. The fact that there are so many updates tells me a lot about the quality control of the video card drivers.

Now this isn’t to say that Adobe couldn’t have an issue or two. But, I would bet dollars to donuts that the vast majority of problems lies with the video card drivers and not Adobe. Until the video card makers stop trying to pass the blame they won’t get fixed.

Robert
SK
Stefan_Klein
Nov 3, 2008
Robert, I agree with you on driver quality. But what about the slow screen redraw when OpenGL is OFF? Don`t you see the slow redraw compared to CS3 on your own system (as described in my previous post)? The speed of screen redraw in CS3 was never depending on a specific driver version. So I guess it doesn`t change with the driver in CS4 either (as I said: when OGL is OFF).
Stefan
RB
Robert_Barnett
Nov 4, 2008
wrote in message
Robert, I agree with you on driver quality. But what about the slow screen redraw when OpenGL is OFF? Don`t you see the slow redraw compared to CS3 on your own system (as described in my previous post)? The speed of screen redraw in CS3 was never depending on a specific driver version. So I guess it doesn`t change with the driver in CS4 either (as I said: when OGL is OFF).
Stefan

No I don’t. For me that redraw is just as fast as CS3. I am running dual PCI-Express ATI Radeon 1650 Pro cards with 512MB of ram each. No, not for gamming but to handle three monitors.

Robert
CC
Chris_Cox
Nov 5, 2008
NVidia support knows about ONE minor problem in Photoshop and seems to think that is the answer to all of their performance issues. We are trying to solve the issue (so they get back to fixing bugs).
SK
Stefan_Klein
Nov 5, 2008
Chris, it`s good to hear something from the developers like you! Please also look into the screen redraw with OpenGL OFF. Sometimes it`s much slower than CS3. Especially with large files and many layers.
One special question: I`m on Vista 32bit and have Aero turned on (2 monitors at 1024/1200). How much graphics RAM is Vista itself using then? And does Vista itself still need that video RAM when Photoshop is open or can Photoshop use all the video RAM?
I`m asking because I want to know wether I could benefit from more then 512MB video Ram (which I have right now) even if I don`t do 3D.
Thanks in advance!

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