Photoshop CS4

[Mike Jackson]

Hi gang,
Just a couple of updates. I bought a "student" edition of the Photoshop CS4 suite for $399. It looks like my local Junior College class may not meet the requirements on this pricing version, though it might work for the $599 version. I haven't actually pursued it yet, but looks doubtful.

More importantly, when I run it in the 30 day trial mode, it is terribly, terribly slow on my year and a half old system running in XP. I checked on the Adobe Forum and see there are lots of complaints about the speed on an "older" system. Unless I read some threads explaining how to speed it up, I will uninstall it on this one and use CS3. After seeing how slow it was, I thought maybe something on my system have become fouled, I opened CS3 and it was regular speed.

I can keep CS4 for a future machine, or let Tyler load it and register it.

[Kent Smith]

Good to know, I am still stuck in CS2 happily, I detest being forced into constant upgrades. I prefer them on my terms.

Which brings me to Gerber Omega 3.0. Now that we can talk about it, it is a great upgrade with many new tools, especially suited to printing. Anyone interested should check out the overview on their site.

[Doug Bernhardt]

A few years ago while I was still in love with PS7 I had CS2 loaded as well. There were a few conflicts and when I un-installed the older version the new one ran much better. Having said that I MUST upgrade to at least CS3 for the raw images from my Nikon D300.....no plug-in for CS2. Had thought of going straight to CS4 and a new illustrator as well. Have CS for illustrator and for whatever reason it just is problematic. I'll have to keep an eye open as I'll be getting a new system pretty soon (mac or pc just ain't sure yet) and doing the software changes/upgrades then. Mike , are you aware there has been a firmware up-grade for the D300? If so have you done it yet?

[Danny Baronian]

After talking with Mike, and seeing a few requirements for upgrading to CS4 on the PC, I checked out Adobes Photoshop site for the Mac.

The list was so long it should have a required warning as they do for cigarettes.

Firstly, you'll need a minimum of a G5, but a G5 quad core Intel is recommended; in other words the newest, fastest machine they sell. The recommended set up instructions was about 4-6 pages long, that included MULTIPLE HD scratch disks, cleaning the registry, clearing the cache, setting the prefs, to name just a few. The way I read it, these weren't just a one time thing, but part of the ongoing maintenance. Anything less, as stated, would result in poor performance.

In short CS4 appears to be a resource hog and memory hog that will run slower than any of it's predecessors. Reports of 30 - 45 seconds to perform a soft light layer is the norm. The same function on my G5 takes seconds or less; same for gradiants.

A search through Adobe Photoshop Mac forum seems to supply contradictory and confusing info regarding exactly when an intel machine is required vs advertised performance by Adobe for a suite of programs (Photoshop / Illustrator / Dreamweaver/ Flash).

A word of warning for anyone posting questions on the Adobe Photoshop Forum: there are some nasty people over there that will dump on you for what they consider simple questions. Why, I don't know. I've used the Adobe Illustrator forum for years, and unlike the Photoshop forum, there are many illustrators that are more than happy to help out with anything, providing some very useful solutions.

Regardless of platform - Mac or PC, CS4 is going to be one sluggish, maintenance intensive program.

Reading through Adobes set up notes for PS, you'd think they helped design Vista!

Doug, check on Amazon and purchase a new copy of CS3 to work in raw now.Contact Adobe first regarding new version upgrades. A CS4 upgrade from CS3 could be free or minimal when speed is improved in CS4.

Danny

[Tony Segale]

word has it, thru certain sources,

you could get 4GB of ram and wait for the update.


but, I don't know.

[Mike Jackson]

Tony,
I don't believe any of the old systems can handle 4 gigs of ram...it takes a 64 bit system to get that much, and the new operating systems are chewing up a big chunk of the ram. I believe I read you need in the range of 6 gigs of ram to get the surge in power on a 64 bit system.

[Tony Segale]

Mike...

I'm still behind the time when it comes to most computer knowledge.
I was just emailed this link in regards to CS4 updates and problems...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-10171771-39.html


Though I'm sure the layman is sometimes a bit befuddled by Adobe's obfuscating
array of techniques, wouldn't you say?

Aho.