Anyone else has this problem?
Yes, it’s one of the recurrent symptoms of OpenGL problems related to your graphics card. There are a few things you can try:
1 Get the very latest driver for your graphics card. Quite a few bugs have been fixed lately by both ATI and nVidia. If it’s a laptop, you may have to get the laptop manufacturer’s driver.
2 Remove all third party plugins for Photoshop and reinstall them one by one. Check each.
3 If you happen to have something called Gamers OSD installed (if so it probably came bundled with your card) – uninstall it.
4 If you’re on XP, update DirectX. Do it if you’re on Vista as well.
5 Update .NET if you have an ATI card.
6 Disable OpenGL altogether from Preferences > performance, or go into advanced options and disable selectively.
7 Go to add/remove programs and uninstall everything you don’t need. Run a registry cleaner (eg CCleaner), but backup registry when prompted, or set a restore point first.
That’s about it so far, other things may turn up so keep an open eye on the other threads here.
Thanks a lot Freeagent,
My system is
Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q9450
Vista Ultimate 64 bit Service Pack 1
8GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 with the latest driver
I’m using Photoshop CS4 64 bit which is very slow comparing to Photoshop CS3 on the same computer.
To your suggestions:
1. I’m using the latest driver
2-5. Not valid – I don’t use these.
6. I tried that, restarting Photoshop after each combination of options following these suggestions from Adobe:
<
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb 404898#tshooting> Unfortunately it made no difference and the slow performance remains
7. That sounds very radical. I don’t install programs that I don’t need may be except the programs like accessories that get installed by default by Vista. I’ve never run Registry cleaner before and I’m not sure what this can fix. My Vista installation is about 2 months old and I reinstall system software only when I suspect system corruption. So far I have problem only with slow performance in Photoshop CS4 everything else works perfectly fine. I’m very skeptical about the system being the problem.
Any other ideas?
So far it appears to me that this is a Photoshop bug. But then there will be more people reporting this and Adobe would have been aware and I wonder if this is so. Anyone knows if this is the case?
Before I report this to Adobe I want to make sure that it is not something with my setup but I’m running out of ideas.
Emil, yes there are other people with your same problem. See the thread titled "CS4 is a disaster" for more information.
Thanks Nick, I’ll check it out.
I just tried out CS4 last night on my PC… and this morning uninstalled it and went back to CS3.
I realize I don’t have an amazing PC, but it’s a decent one… Athlon 3500+ (2.2 GHz) CPU, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon x1950Pro vid card (512MB), newest Catalyst vid card drivers … runs CS3 great.
But with CS4 everything was slow, slow, slow.
With the OpenGL support enabled, or disabled, seemed to make no difference.
From what I’ve read in other places, my GPU was actually being used ‘properly’, as the flick scroll, etc, was working fine when I had the OpenGL features enabled.
But, every action had a slight delay… not an enormous wait… but a good second or two to wait for my actions to apply.
Moving the image pane… dragging sliders… using tools… etc. About the only thing that was snappy was zooming and panning.
I also found that, for some reason, when I moved the image window (floating) around, there would be a very slight delay before it would actually start moving, and then when I released it, the image would flicker momentarily. That didn’t impact my work at all, but was just another sign that something isn’t quite right.
The most annoying, and the one that made me uninstall, was that even simple brush strokes had a delay… trying to paint across an image with anything other than a very small brush size resulted in the applied brush stroke lagging a second or two behind my actual movements…
It’s unfortunate, as I was keen on trying out some of the new features of the program, but I just can’t see myself putting up with how much CS4 slowed down my activity.
🙁
It’s excruciatingly slow on my machine too. No matter what I do to performance in the prefs, it drags it’s sorry posterior. I’m on a trial version, but it shouldn’t make any dif, should it?
Did the suggestions above, no dif. Read the other thread, no help (took me over 2 hours to get through the entire thread).
Vista 64 bit (just reformatted the drive before loading CS4) Intel Core2 Quad 2.66GHz
8GB RAM
512MB Nvidia 8800 GT (with the latest driver, just had it installed)
Tried using CS3 on a brand new document (US paper preset). Ran a few strokes with a 100px hard brush @ 25% spacing, back and forth across the document, and no matter how fast, the brush responds real-time. CS4 takes up to 6 seconds to catch up with the same kind of a stroke.
Not impressed with the folks at Adobe. Short of building one from scratch I can’t get a faster computer in stores, so what the heck?
Did you install PS in the default location (system drive C:\)?
Exactly the same thing here!
PS CS4 is extreeemly sluggish and choppy with redraws and various inputs. Even small documents handle like they we´re 10 x 10 feet large. It´s beyond ridiculous.
I´m testing the trial version atm, but boxed version is on the way…
I´ve tried every possible checking and unchecking of what preferences have to offer but to no avail.
My GeForce drivers are the very, very, latest and Vista home is automatically up to date.
I keep my system neat and tidy with registry aids, defrags etc. Needles to say that PS CS 1 ran smoothly.
Specs are:
Acer Aspire 9920 (20" screen monster), 4GB RAM, 500 GB Drive, GeForce 8600M GT w. 512 MB
Lost.
Erbs
Spamming every thread you can find isn’t going to get the problem fixed any faster.
Bob
I appreciate your help, Bob. Keep up the good work.
Bob DID a good work. He advised you in a very short sentence that your methods are contrary to the forum posting guidelines. Since that obviously didn’t work for you I’ll give you the full entry. It is the very first "Don’t" in the posting guidelines:
Don’t cross-post or double-post. Posting a message to more than one forum (i.e "cross-posting" is unnecessary, and creates extra traffic for you and others to read through. If you’ve already posted a question, please don’t repeat your posts in order to get more attention- this makes it very difficult for others to see if and/or where your question was answered.
Add me to the list of disgruntled CS4 users. The ONLY reason I upgraded was because I bought the new Canon 5D Mark II, and Adobe forced me to upgrade from CS3 to CS4 just to read the RAW file format. I have a fast-enough computer that I use only for Photoshop – quad core processor with 4GB RAM, 1TB hard disk, WinXP. CS3 runs like a dream. CS4 has me wanting to put my fist through my screen. I agree with the fellow above that it isn’t really a system setup related issue. I’m a photographer, not a gamer, so I don’t have a lot of crap on my computer.. like I mentioned – only Photoshop (it’s the only software I really have any use for besides Firefox). I am severely disappointed with this "improved" product from Adobe… which is a first.
Adobe forced me to upgrade from CS3 to CS4 just to read the RAW file format.
Come come, nobody forced you. Adobe provide a free raw converter and so does Canon.
If you wanted ACR 5.2 that’s different.
Which video card?
John,
I wouldn’t consider DNG a raw converter. The end product is an altered supposed generic "raw" file. For my money, ACR is a plug-In and it should be offered as such, as a for sale item. My reason for purchasing CS4 was the same as Justin’s and I know it’s the same reason that a number of other photographers will switch to CS4, not because of features in Photoshop. Adobe knows it, and uses it as a "marketing tool." But it’s Adobe’s product and they can do what they want.
Paul
My reason for purchasing CS4 was the same as Justin’s and I know it’s the same reason that a number of other photographers will switch to CS4, not because of features in Photoshop.
Well then you have a very poor reason for upgrading. It’s well known that any past, current, and future cameras with a raw format will be supported by Adobe’s DNG Converter. If you are married to your camera’s raw format and insist on using ACR to process the raw file then, yes, you will be "forced" to upgrade to future releases of Ps for future cameras.
It’s your money – spend it any way you like.
Well, with regard to anything in life that requires a set of steps or a workflow, there is an easy way and a clunky way. Personally, I prefer the easy way.. especially when there are particular benefits to processing photos in their RAW format before exporting directly to Photoshop. As Paul indicated, Adobe knows exactly what they are doing in this regard. Sure, I could convert photos from RAW to TIFF, then open in Photoshop. But, as any other experienced photographer will concur, something gets lost. And when my workflow deals with hundreds upon hundreds of photos, of course I’m going to seek out the most streamlined workflow. If Adobe simply offered an ACR5.2 update to CS3, then life could go on as usual. But to continue on with the workflow that I am used to, then yes.. I HAD to upgrade to CS4. Yes, you’re right… there are other ways to get to the same end… if I want to complicate my workflow!
OK, all that is understood and, while I believe in Adobe’s philosophy of avoiding the extra work involved in keeping the ACR plug-in compatible with obsolete versions of the parent program, I do think Adobe made a mistake in this case by linking the ACR camera updates to a radically altered and (as it turned out) unproven version of Photoshop.
I’m just "lucky" I guess!
Consider this my final rant on this topic. I’m quite busy and don’t have a lot of time to waste in dead-end forums. If someone from Adobe gets this and wants to call me directly, then simply call or email with the contact info associated with my forum account. After reading other suggestion forums on how to handle the display speed issue, I went through all of the checklist to make sure my system is as up-to-date as possible… updated video drivers, updated DirectX, defragged hard drive, closed all other processes other than Photoshop, etc. None of these things has made a lick of difference. There is still plenty of lag from the time I click the mouse to when the change happens on the screen (for example, making selection with patch tool is painfully slow and choppy at best). Here are my system stats:
PC with quad 2.4GHz processors
4GB RAM
1TB HD (500GB free space)
WindowsXP latest service pack
NVidia GeForce 7600 GS video card with latest driver
Somehow CS3 is able to look beyond any of my system’s "shortcomings" and processes very large files like butter. CS4 is dog slow. Who’s idea was it to tie video performance to OpenGL functions of the system? It seems like the old days of getting a stupid game to run. All I want to do is open the RAW files from my 5D Mark II camera and push friggin pixels around. Is that too much to ask???
I know some people out there are going to say, "Dude, just buy a Mac." I’ve heard this before.. but a Mac is just a PC with a different OS. If CS4 runs better on a Mac, then is it safe to assume that Adobe and Mac are in bed together? For that matter, is there some freaky three-way between Canon, Adobe and Mac?
Can Adobe please release a patch to run the CS4 display in "classic" mode to appease the people who found the display properties of CS3 simply stellar?
I have a lot of work to do, and this situation sucks. I am preparing for a shoot today, and I don’t even want to use the new camera because I know it’s going to take me at least twice as long to process the photos with my new software situation.
I have admired Adobe for so long for creating innovative software that runs smoothly. This is the first time I have ever been so utterly disappointed… because they got me right where it hurts – my livelihood!!
Please, Adobe, fix this crap.
JH, we want to help … that’s why we visit these forums.
Do you run 64-bit XP? If not then what good does your 4Gb RAM do (unless you use the /3Gb setting)?
Is your frustration with OpenGL features of CS4? Try these nVidia 3D settings (use Balanced or Performance): Wolf Eilers, "CS4 and nvidia 180.48 driver – disable PhysX GPU acceleration" #8, 6 Dec 2008 11:32 am </webx?14/7>
Justin,
Go to start, then run, then type in dxdiag check for errors.
Go into your bios and check to see if your APG port is set to its max speed. (this is a APG card correct)? If PCI-E then never mind.
512 MB card? if so and you have the 1/3 switch applied your 512 MB is allocated first to the 512 allocated space of the 1 gig. This will leave only 512 MB for XP 32 bit to run and what ever else you have running. This is if your running 32 bit of course.
bump please help.
just got a new computer and i reformatted it so computer is clean. quad core 4gb ram 512mb 9600GT and CS4 is so slow. CS3 runs faster on a lot slower computer. newest drivers for everything…what’s the fix?
i’ve been reading the forums and no one has a fix 🙁
Kay, you have have to be a tad more specific as to your exact issues. Is it the GPU features that perform poorly?
And that applies to the identical posting in another thread. More details, please.
have XP 32bit, i reformatted because i got a new computer and hate the bloatware it comes with
problems are just as mentioned, it’s slow with lots of lag. i would drag something and it stutters and i can see it slowly crawl. when i type something i would type a letter and it show up 10seconds later. stuff like tha
video memory 2,097,151KB (think that basically equals 2GB?) driver version: 6.14.11.7824 (latest I could find from NVIDIA web site) card type: PCI-E
acceleration options tested "performance", "balanced" and "let the 3D application decide" – all yield the same results – SLOW
DirectX diagnostics show no errors
DirectDraw acceleration: enabled
Direct3D Acceleration: enabled
AGP Texture Acceleration: enabled
Running WinXP 32 SP3, which reports seeing 3.25GB RAM in system properties (assuming system reports over 3GB of ram that I am actually running in 3GB mode).
It seems a bit excessive that I have to jump through so many hoops to get this software to display smoothly… but really just ending up jumping through hoops with no reward. They (Adobe) had to have seen this coming, and I’m sure there are many, many distraught people out there with the same problem I am experiencing (or at least there will be).
My current work-around is to open files in ACR5.2, make necessary changes to file in RAW, save as TIFF, then open exported photo in CS3 since it holds no prejudice against my video card or anything else in my computer for that matter.
So I suppose now Adobe will dictate exactly what hardware I should own just to manipulate photos. Brilliant.
In the time it took me to compile this post, I could have completed two complex photo edits.
… when i type something i would type a letter and it show up 10seconds later.
Now that is one I can also find sympathy with. Typing text in CS4 certainly is a study in delay!
Another CS4 user here with slowness, flickering, and cursor stuttering.
Couldn’t use the dodge tool on a 828k image because it skips/lags/stutters across the image as I try to use it.
Also, I noticed that I can drag filter dialogs in the work area, but as soon as the dialog overlaps the image, the dialog starts to flicker and lag behind the cursor. Here’s a quickie image explaining a bit more: <
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/monosonik/cs4_vista64 .jpg>
My system is similar to those in this thread:
Windows Vista 64-bit w/ Service Pack 1
Intel Quad 2.4 Ghz
MSI P6N SLI Platinum
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX / Driver Version: 7.15.11.8048
RAM 8 GB
Western Digital 640 GB / 32 MB cache
I’ve tried a myraid of settings within PS to no avail.
Will boot to XP 32 for further testing.
install the latest video drivers first thing.
The 8048 revision is the latest version of the driver.
I should mention this is a clean, fully patched install of Vista 64.
I may see about trying out an ATI card to see if the issue remains.
Just a test for you: disable your anti-virus software, then try CS4 again.
We now have 2 confirmed anti-virus packages causing slowdowns in CS4 but not CS3.
Chris, can you tell us which ones they are?
I thinks we have to say "We now have 2 confirmed anti-virus packages causing slowdowns in CS4 but not CS3 on some computers".
Update:
Disabling, and then uninstalling AVG anti-virus, did not solve this. One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that zooming in and out seems to trigger the problem. If I leave the image at 100% I do not get laggy/flickering cursor/tools. The "dialog overlapping the image" lag problem remains, however.
Also:
Installed PS CS4 on XP 32 and I have yet to see the problem with the laggy/flickering cursor/tools. This is using an older Nvidia driver set, as well. I will update it to the current version when I get home. The "dialog overlapping the image" lag problem remains, however.
Just to make sure I’m not going insane, I opened an image here at work on CS2, opened the Motion Blur dialog box, and then proceeded to drag it around the blank canvas and across the image. No issues.
Justin,
I can’t grab your email or phone # from the U2U reg data, but I am interested in working with you so please contact me directly (email below).
I apologize for the cross-post, but it is critical that I start getting feedback sooner than later on this…
Another call for volunteers:
If you are experiencing a performance lag using CS4 (especially with OGL features disabled) and are interested in helping test a change that may mitigate the issue, please email me directly: travlin_adam at yahoo dot com
-Adam
Hello, fellow photo shop cs4 users
I’m having the same issues that the rest of the persons posted in here when I move the an images file on the interface it takes like 1 or two secs to allow me to do it, its small but the more you work the more annoying it gets, this window sluggishness is also much bigger than the brush lagging at least on my system.
The only part that moves smooth is the zooming in and out, and the canvas rotation-T works very well too.
The brush lagging problem is reduced substantially if I turn off the OpenGL advanced drawing, but its still there, I have Kapersky antiviurs and I have tried to disableing it to see if it could improve
the performance but if it does, its not noticeable.
my system specs:
Machine name: LAZARUS
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.080917-1612) Language: Spanish (Regional Setting: Spanish)
System Manufacturer: GATEWA
System Model: GT3242m
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.9GHz Memory: 4028MB RAM
Page File: 2402MB used, 5439MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6000.16386 32bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: Quadro FX 3700
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_061A&SUBSYS_055F10DE&REV_A 2 Display Memory: 2258 MB
Dedicated Memory: 499 MB
Shared Memory: 1758 MB
Current Mode: 1792 x 1344 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Monitor PnP genérico
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2umx.dll, nvwgf2um Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7846 (English)
DDI Version: 9Ex
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 11/5/2008 03:52:00, 8469504 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Ditto here, except I’ve gotten no benefit turning off OpenGL Advanced Drawing.
My computer is an HP G60-125NR laptop:
Vista 32 Home Premium
2.00 gigahertz AMD Turion Dual-Core RM-70
3G RAM
WDC WD2500BEVT-60ZCT1 ATA Hard disk drive
Board: Wistron 303C 08.45
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard F.25 10/03/2008
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G (Driver version 7.15.11.7614)
Not sure Vista performance scores really mean anything, but mine are:
Processor AMD Turion Dual-Core RM-70 4.8 — 3.6
Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB — 5.8
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G — 3.8
Gaming graphics 1407 MB Total available graphics memory — 4.3 Primary hard disk 168GB Free (223GB Total) — 5.2
Wondering why everything is so much slower than CS3…
techtipsmaster?……hmmmmm….
Update:
It seems that the reg file fix posted in another thread improved my performance by leaps and bounds. This is under Vista 64 with a Geforce 8800 GTX.
Update:
n.b.
dual quad core
4gb ram
Nvidia Quadro 1700
xp
Latest DirectX and Drivers
If I switch if OpenGL everything runs as quick as it did with CS3, but at different levels of zoom, lines I draw, are pixelated like CS3. Switch back on OpenGL everything runs sloooooow but at different levels of zoom everything looks so crisp… I’m sticking with the latter as I like to have crisp displays at all levels of magnification but I am so disappointed as this could have been such a lovely update, frustrated times ahead I think!
Youre lucky ,at least if you turn it off, it works … For me on the other hand On/Off Does not
change anything ,
like all the other "fixes" for that matter
IntelP D 2.80 GHz
2GB dual channel
Ati Radeon 4870 HD
XP 32bit SP3
1.5TB HD (150f)
I think we are all waiting for Adobe to at least surface here and acknowledge the CS4 lag problem pointed out in this thread, and that a solution is currently in the works.
I think we are all waiting for Adobe to at least surface here and acknowledge the CS4 lag problem pointed out in this thread, and that a solution is currently in the works.
Already happened a while back.
Read a few of the dozen other threads on the CS4 lag phenomenon!
I have not found a fix that works yet. Nothing here in the forum has proved useful. Adobe.. please get on the ball.
Adobe.. please get on the ball.
If you read all the threads, as I recommended, you would see that Adobe is as you put it, "on the ball". Their engineers have been interactively working with several users from this forum who complained about various display problems.
Fixes that satisfy everyone, and don’t break something else, are not discovered overnight!
James @ #44
I have not found a fix that works yet. Nothing here in the forum has proved useful. Adobe.. please get on the ball.
Well, nothing that works for you. Nevertheless, some people have been helped by suggestions noted on this forum.
And has been mentioned in many threads, this is a user-to-user forum so although individuals from Adobe appear from time-to-time, it is mainly us users you will find here.
Anthony.
Same here. Brushes "follow" cursor around and can’t keep up. Some things are snappier, some things slower. Overall, I’m not looking to do this upgrade because in addition to this unusually heavy performance hit with an upgrade, there are just too many other things that aren’t working properly with both Illustrator and Photoshop. Hopefully, Adobe is gonna be willing to make some changes "before" a paid upgrade to CS5.
Usually, I realize that my PC is getting older and I lay some of the blame there for the loss of performance. Not this time. My machine is more than powerful enough for this task, with recent performance upgrades. Vista performance index is 5.5 out of 6!
For James Kallstrom,
The latest driver for the 8800GTX is in beta 180.84 dd 9/12/2008 and is worth a try,
Roger
Another frustrated user here that is seeing extreme laggy-ness in PhotoShop CS4, Flash and Illustrator also are dog slow compared to CS3. (as many have described here) I’ve updated the NVIDIA drivers and tried all settings, but nothing helps.
Dell Precision 690, 4 gigs ram, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 with latest drivers. CS3 works perfectly.
Well, a few weeks later and I have a faster system, and Photoshop is running notably faster than it was before (at least the original problem of a slow selection tool is remedied). But, in general, I am still not impressed. There is just enough noticeable lag in mundane functions – like resizing & dragging windows, etc. – that there really isn’t any joy in using the software. Have you ever walked with someone who likes to walk just a tad bit slower than you do.. so you have to slow your own pace down a bit just to keep from leaving them behind? That’s what using this software feels like. It’s fine for a short distance.. but in the long haul it becomes very frustrating.
What I did to speed the software up:
Purchased and installed Nvidia GTX-280, which also required the purchase of a new power supply to power the card (a mere $300 after the upgrade price of the software). Then I downloaded and installed the latest video drivers for the card. I don’t feel like typing the rest of my system configuration.. scroll to the top of the thread to see that if you like.
…anyway, then I set the 3D performance in the video driver to Balanced. Then checking the "Force Bilinear Interpolation" checkbox seemed to help somewhat (in the Photoshop performance box in preferences).
My selection tool works quite well now, but the way the software runs as a whole kind of leaves me cold.
I would LOVE to see this software run on a system that Adobe deems to be the perfect hardware/OS scenario. Something tells me I would still think it sucks.
…. and this is why the old hands on the forums try to calm people down a bit and quit suggesting that Adobe doesn’t care. They do, a lot, and not because it is just a job.
The only thing I happy about with CS4 is after effects. For photoshop and premiere, I am not sure what they were thinking. I spend $3000 on a new computer with I7 cpu 6 gb of ram etc. and everything is sticky and choppy as hell. The service at Adobe is awful, my worst experience with customer support, they are taking our money pretending there product works and they are treating you like a thief or pirate asking you tones of questions each time you have to reinstall trying to make there product stable.
Is this running better with mac, I am about to switch?
fred
Fred,
Is this running better with mac
Photoshop itself couldn’t care less whether it’s Win or Mac, but Macs do seem to have less trouble with video drivers for the GPU-accelerated (OpenGL) stuff. This is likely your problem.
Three things you can try first:
Update Photoshop to 11.0.1 if you haven’t.
Update video card driver to the latest version. Both ATI and nVidia drivers have been very buggy. It seems to be improving, but slowly.
Turn off OpenGL in preferences > performance.
Fred,
I don’t want to come across as a wise-guy but I do have a question. Why does your machine have only six gig of ram when it cost $3000.00. My computer cost half that and is maxed out at eight gigs. Windows Vista 64 and runs PsCS4 with only very minor problems. NVIDIA card, dual monitors.
Q
Because it’s Core i7 which requires DDR3 which is still very expensive
And DDR3 is a three channel RAM system, so your best performance is running ram in sets of three. Also, if the board is the Intel Smackover, there is only one set of three sticks, whereas many (not all) have two sets. The extra slot on the Smackover will buy you a bit more space but lesser speed. At the moment DDR3 is commonly available in either 3 or 6G sets.
DDR3. Now I understand. Thanks
Q
