Photoshop CS3 vs CS4 on a 64-bit Windows 7 PC

[hbs]

<p>Hello All:<br>

This is a question I haven't seen addressed anywhere. I currently have Photoshop CS3 and recently upgraded my 5-year old Windows XP Pentium 4 Dell PC to a 64-bit Windows 7 machine with 4 GB of DDR2 RAM and an Intel Core 2 Quad 8200 processor. Not surprisingly, I see an enormous improvement in speed.</p>

<p>My question is this -- would I see any significant additional performance increase if I upgraded to CS4 which is designed to run with a 64-bit system whereas CS3 is strictly 32 bit?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any insight.</p>

<p>Harvey</p>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>I've heard that CS5 is soon to be released.</p>

<p>Maybe wait and check out.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>IF one was messing with giant files and one added ram above 4 gigs; then the older CS3 would be boxed in the old 32 bit limit of 4 gigs and CS4/5 would have this pie in the sky limit. With smaller files it would be more of a wash; since one is not running out of ram.<br>

Questions like this have existed since photoshop first came out; without any files sizes mentioned; the question really has no answer.</p>

[hbs]

<p>Thanks, Kelly. The largest file sizes I typically run are D300 NEF files -- around 15 meg each. I also do virtually no batch processing.</p>

[dane_strom]

<p>I noticed a great increase in speed in all operations after upgrading from 32-bit CS4 to 64-bit CS4. Plugins now take maybe half as long to render their effects after you hit "OK." It no longer takes 20-30 seconds to open up a layer that's underneath 5 or 6 other layers of plugins, etc. Bridge opens quicker, files open faster. Everything just runs quicker. Noticeably so. This is with all files, regardless of filesize and RAM. 64-bit structure goes further than just being able to use more than 4 GB of RAM. If you upgrade from 32 bit CS3 to 64-bit CS4, the difference will definitely be noticeable. It was noticeable simply switching between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of CS4.</p>

<p>That being said, unless you really find it necessary to do things quickly (it sounds like you're not pressed in that way) I'd say it's probably is not worth the upgrade for that extra speed alone.</p>