PS CS4 slow in 64-bit-but normal in 32-bit

[thomas_janik]

<p>Tired of struggling with big (500 MB) scan files in PS CS3 with my system, I recently purchased a new computer (i7, 12GB RAM, Vista 64-bit, ATI 4850 512MB video card); I also downloaded the trial version of PS CS4. Well I was as happy as can be, what took 5 min. on my previous system now took 20 sec. Then, quite suddenly, I noticed some odd behavior: painting on a mask, I saw the effect appear somewhat delayed and not the area I had painted! Then I noticed a delay in turning layer visibility on and off. Upon clicking on the eyeball, the eyeball remained for a few seconds, then disappeared but no effect on the image, i.e. the layer was still visible unless I used the mouse wheel to resize. There were some other processes slowed as well. Although I was working on a 1.5GB file at the time, smaller files behave in a similar way. I removed and reinstalled the video drivers, the BIOS and CS4, none had an effect. Interestingly, if I launch CS4 in 32 bit mode, it behaves normally, but defeats the purpose of having all that RAM. I checked the Adobe forums and could not find a similar report. Open GL on or off has no effect and the ATI 4850 is listed by Adobe as a tested card.<br /><br />Any advice appreciated.</p>

[r_johnston]

<p>I use a program called Diskeeper to defrag my drives. Huge files if drive is not defragged can slow a system to a crawl. The more files you work with, the worse it gets. Diskeeper automatically defrags while you are working, packing the files together so programs do not have to search all over the Hard Drive to get the complete file. It also helps if you use a cache for PS on a different drive.</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>Fire up Task Manager, click on processes, and processes for all users (UAC will ask for permission to continue), then sort the processes by CPU. Now make your changes in Photoshop and see what process is consuming resources. If not CPU time then check for paging (yes, I know you have 12 Gigabytes of RAM, but still check for paging - operating systems and programs can be "weird"). Next check the size of your Photoshop scratch file. If it is large, Photoshop may be using it despite your RAM.</p>

<p>Where is your Page Data Set? Your Photoshop Scratch file? On separate defragmented disks?</p>

<p>What other programs did you add between the time Photoshop worked well and it slowed down?</p>

<p>The fact Photoshop works well in 32-bit mode suggest a memory use problem. Have you run an update on Photoshop to insure you have the latest patches?</p>

<p>These are just a few things to check.</p>

 

[brad_smith8]

<p>Strange. The 32 bit version can only access 4GB of that RAM. And obviously in the performance options you wouldn't have lowered the available RAM in 64 bit.</p>

<p>I'm running a similar system except with Nvidia graphics and XP x64, and all's well. Hmmm. I rarely use the 64 bit version since my plugins won't work with it.</p>

<p>On my G-15 keyboard I have the CPU and RAM loads displayed as bar graphs. When I run CPU intensive tasks like PT Lens (which is aware of all eight [physical and logical] cores), it's fun to watch the bars dance away, and even better; there's no lag between moving the mouse and the execution any more.</p>

<p>The i7 is brilliant.</p>

[brad_smith8]

<p>Never mind - please delete.</p>

[thomas_janik]

<p>Problem solved. Seems I was using version 11.0; ver 11.0.1 solves all the issues. Thanks for the suggestions.</p>