upgrade to cs4?

[saulzelan]

<p>Hello forum:</p>

<p>My question is about upgrading to photoshop CS4 from CS3. I currently run CS3 on a dell optiplex with windows xp 64 bit accessing almost 4 gb of RAM. The performance is good, not stellar given the size of my files (see below). I am thinking of upgrading my computer to allow additional RAM useage (perhaps up to 8gb). Two questions:</p>

<p>Will CS3 allow me to access more than 4gb of RAM, thereby improving performance or do I need to upgrade to CS4?</p>

<p>Is CS4 still very buggy? My concern is that some have reported problems opening large files in CS4 and I routinely work with 300 MB+ image files scanned at 3200 dpi from medium format negs on my Imacon. Do you think I should wait until CS5 releases? (and when is it expected?)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

 

[john tonai]

<p>CS4 has streamlined productivity compared to CS3. A few improvement of tools.</p>

<p>CS4 is not buggy, but it is probably in the last quarter of its life. CS5 is estimated to be released May/June, of course that is a WAG (wild-ass-guess}. But since there are many bugs that will probably need to be sorted out, you would want to wait on CS5 for a few months. That puts a reasonable time to purchase CS5 at around September/October. Can you wait 3/4 of a year?</p>

[john_a5]

<p>I work with CS4 and many of my files are in excess of 1GB, never had any issue with the files opening or it running particularly slow. I think CS4 has been out awhile, but not sure if long enough for CS5 to be on the near horizon--might be in the middle somewhere of the cycle.</p>

<p>I am not an expert with regards to the RAM question, I run 4GB and do fine with it.</p>

<p>There are several nice features that work well and offer better workflow if your computer has an OpenGL graphics card. One issue with previous version to CS4 was that the image was not "resolved" at odd percentages of magnification. So you had to be at 12.5/25/50 or 100% to be sure you weren't seeing artifacts not in the file or that everything was lining up or get a sharp image. CS4 made it all fully resolved at any magnification. There are other nice features with it as well. Even though I use PS professionally, I have skipped versions in the past that didn't offer things I felt were critical to me, the last several have all had great new features.</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>Agreed -- CS4 is NOT buggy at all. Bridge might be, but the Photoshop piece and the awesome ACR 5.x is excellent. Preaching to the choir I think.</p>

<p>Were I you I'd wait for CS5 -- another three mos. and it should be available (my best, educated guess). CS5 and a 64-bit machine and O.S. and the World is Yours.</p>

[thomas_lozinski]

<p>I have CS3 and 4 and really prefer working in CS4. I don't work with huge files though. ACR 5 is also much better because you can do gradients on the raw files and some other stuff.</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p><em>Will CS3 allow me to access more than 4gb of RAM, thereby improving performance or do I need to upgrade to CS4?</em></p>

<p>No. You need to go to CS4. And I'd dump XP-64 as well. It's buggy and not supported. Windows 7 64-bit is fantastic. That and CS4 with 8 gigs or 12 gigs of ram and you'll be blown away how much of a difference there is.</p>

<p>One thing that did happen between Xp-64 and Vista-64 was that Vista 64 will address your ram in a different manner than Xp-64. With XP64, when you capped out on ram at 3.2 gig, the OS went straight to scratch drive. With Vista64, the os will use ram available beyond 3.2 gigs before going to scratch drive. I'm not sure how much of a speed difference though, it can't be much.</p>

[michael_bradtke]

<p>I run CS4 and XP64 with 8 gb of ram. No bug problems for me. The only thing that does not work as far as I know is no open GL. Not a problem as far as I am concerned. And I work with large files. Scans from my 4X5.<br>

I would say do what you have to do to get at least 8 gb of ram 16 if you can swing it and stay with your old OS</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p>Michael, have you tried Win7? I couldn't get rid of XP-64 quick enough. It's the server 2003 kernel and what a flop that was. Win 7 is much more stable, slimmer, faster, and safer.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>i think the best update for any version of Photoshop for the common user (read not a pro photo retoucher) is to go with Lightroom.</p>

<p>You will gain way more speed in yoru workflow, the ability to managed your image more easily and faster, and its probably all you really need for your digital darkroom. Keep your version of CS3 for specific retouching and special plug in, but Ligthroom is definatly THE software you need in your computer.</p>

[danny_low]

<p>I upgraded to CS4 a year ago using XP 64 bit. Everything worked fine and I got a noticeable improvement in speed as I had doubled the memory (8GB) compared to my old system. I was also able to finally process some HDR images that ran out of memory or took way too long with CS3. I have since upgraded to Windows 7. Everything continues to work fine with CS4.</p>

<p>My recommendation is increase the memory on your system to at least 8GB and upgrade to Windows 7 and CS4. You should see a noticeable improvement in speed even with images that could have been editing with CS3.</p>

<p>Danny</p>

 

[saulzelan]

<p>many thanks to everyone for your input, that is very helpful! :)</p>

[rob_wall]

<p>Bridge crashes a fair amount but otherwise I have been very happy with CS4.</p>