Photoshop CS3 vs CS4 performance

[john_oconnell14]

I read a post in this forum that Adobe Bridge CS4 was much faster than AB CS3, which got me thinking...

 

I recently purchased PS CS3 and got a free upgrade to CS4 which I haven't yet installed as I'm unsure what

peformance will be like on my ageing Pentium 4 1.8GHz with 1.5 GB RAM. PS3 is okay and very useable but I was

wondering if CS4 was faster than CS3 and hence worth installing.

 

Can any CS3->CS4 users out there comment on performance of both versions, particularly on older hardware?

[patricklavoie]

im on a mac and here what i find;

 

1_bridge is in fact way faster at opening, processing thumbnails, and showing 1:1 preview, the loupe work way better also and i feel it more responsive.

 

2_Ps itself open twice as fast, and many plugin like the smar sharpen, that use to give me some process bar (really quick one) now just give me the result without any process bar.

 

3_nice untold addition, or corrections have been made; in the liquify filter for example, the maximum brush size is now 1500 instead of 600..for me its a major improvement.

 

4_and on a pc you wont have ram limit anymore, dont have this goodies on mac.

 

So yes i would update to CS4, and keep CS3 if you want..see how its working for you. But as you say you have a old computer, and it may suffer a bit for sure.

[edelson1]

Given all the variables, which now include what video card you have as CS4 will use a supported GPU to speed up scrolling and magnification (and gets rid of the "in between" mag percentages that would render poorly) to treat the image as though it was a texture, I would certainly try loading it and testing it for yourself. While processor speed matters, you at least have over 1 Gb RAM (if you could go from even 1.5 to 2 Gb, it will help, even in CS3) and if it is too sluggish, then roll back to CS3.

 

BTW, Bridge in CS4 is a great improvement over the earlier version, and can actually be helpful rather than a hindrance. It's not Lightroom, but it can actually support a work flow that flows.

 

Henry

[charlesheckel]

--and as the upgrade is free, you can now afford a quad core. ;-)

[gy]

guys, how does the upgrade process goes ? do you have to uninstall the CS3 first then install the CS4 or the CS4 updates the CS3 ?

[edelson1]

No, I just installed CS4 and activated it. I still have my old, and functional, CS3 on the drive. I could uninstall CS3 at this point, but at that time I preferred knowinng I had a functional program available in the event "early adoption" left me with only MS Paint to fall back on. :)

 

Henry

[john_oconnell14]

Thanks for all your reponses guys

[davidsimageline]

CS4 is way faster on my Dell ( 1.7 Core Duo 2 GB Memory 120 Sata HDD ) CS3 used to slowdown at time even with it using 80% of my memory. Now I tried the CS4 and I am loving it a big improvement. :)

[john_oconnell14]

I've installed CS4 so now I have PS7, CS3 and CS4 on one system - I'll probably uninstall CS3 and keep PS7 until I get time to make the full transition to CS4.

[yohanes_wibowo]

Hi all,

I recently purchased PS CS3 and got a free upgrade to CS4 which I haven't yet updated.

For your info my computer spesification is :

intel core2 duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz

2GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB

 

So guys how do you thing If I update my cs3 to cs4?

need suggestion, many thanks

[bill_tuthill]

Can anybody compare memory consumption,

e.g. Windows Task Manager mem usage with the same image in CS3 and CS4?

 

Reading the Adobe "[New] Features" webpage, content-aware scaling seems interesting.

Adjustments Panel seems like an idea that was a long time coming.