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Photoshop CS2 + Quad = PAINFULLY SLOW

A

Alenate

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2006
12
0
I'm new to this forum (hopefully this is the right place to post my question). I'm also new to Mac.

I have the Quad G5. It's a beautiful machine. But my Photoshop CS2 (9.0.1) runs painfully slow.

Photoshop CS2 on my PC w/ Intel Xeon processors runs like a dream.

I've searched the Internet for information on this problem. Haven't found much. Can anyone else out there sympathize with me???
 
This almost sounds like a very well thought out troll. Photoshop CS on a Quad "painful"?? Sorry, I cannot sympathize. Photoshop feels perfectly fast even on my G4. You have one of the best Photoshop machines in existance. There is either something seriously wrong with your computer, or you're making it up.

But, of course you might not be. As CanadaRAM said, how much RAM do you have? Also, how much free space on your hard drive do you have left? Is your installation of Photoshop a full and complete install, so that it most benefits from the G5 and it's processors?
 
Check your memory settings Photoshop/Preferences/Memory. Also, Adobe just came out with a new update a few days ago, check there too.



 
No trolling here.

I checked my PS preferences ...

Available RAM: 2455MB
Maximum Used By PS: 70%
 
Hmm I never heard of that, very strange. Sorry to have doubted you. Hopefully Adobe can fix this, as I really 100% don't think it's a problem with the G5 being slow. Especially a Quad.
 
I don't think it's the G5, either.

Yeah, it's quite depressing.

I upgraded to PS 9.0.1, which Adobe released a few days ago. Honestly, I think the problem is now worse. :(
 
Alenate said:
I don't think it's the G5, either.

Yeah, it's quite depressing.

I upgraded to PS 9.0.1, which Adobe released a few days ago. Honestly, I think the problem is now worse. :(
Click to expand...



DO you have to run CS2? I have CS1 & 2 but I run CS1 because of the many crashes I had with CS2. I'm also running it on a quad.


 
ATD said:
DO you have to run CS2? I have CS1 & 2 but I run CS1 because of the many crashes I had with CS2. I'm also running it on a quad.


Click to expand...

I wish. I have versions 5 & 7.

Will v7 run on OSX?

I'm going to call Adobe. I'll let you guys know what they say.
 
Alenate said:
I wish. I have versions 5 & 7.

Will v7 run on OSX?

I'm going to call Adobe. I'll let you guys know what they say.
Click to expand...



7 runs on a quad but not very well. They do not play well together. 7 runs on a dual fine, not sure why.


 
Just got off the phone with an Adobe "specialist." Basically he told me that it's a "redraw issue" - how fast my particular video card refreshes the screen.

(I have the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT).

So, I asked him if it's solely a video card issue, and he was like, "Well, it's in how Photoshop and the video card work together."


I'm bummed. I use PS all the time. My friend has an iMac w/ CS2, and it's lightening fast.
 
Alenate said:
Just got off the phone with an Adobe "specialist." Basically he told me that it's a "redraw issue" - how fast my particular video card refreshes the screen.

(I have the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT).

So, I asked him if it's solely a video card issue, and he was like, "Well, it's in how Photoshop and the video card work together."


I'm bummed. I use PS all the time. My friend has an iMac w/ CS2, and it's lightening fast.
Click to expand...

Sounds more like a service rep that knows nothing about what you speak. I personally find Adobe's Mac support to be lacking. As if they don't really care anymore about the Mac.
 
How 'bout energy settings? Have you set your processor setting to high? Do you have other programs open? PS runs spankin' fast on my quad.
 
4God said:
How 'bout energy settings? Have you set your processor setting to high? Do you have other programs open? PS runs spankin' fast on my quad.
Click to expand...

Spankin' fast? You're kidding. Which video card do you have? The Adobe guy made it sound like it's an issue specific to my video card.

Here's what I mean by "painfully slow" ... I'm using the Stamp Tool ... I use the "[" and "]" keys to increase and decrease the size of the stamp ... each time I press the "[" key I can seriously say "one thousand one" before the stamp increases in size one notch.

On my friend's iMac it's instantaneous. Same with my PC.

I'm new to Mac, so I'm not sure how to alter the energy settings.
 
Alenate said:
Just got off the phone with an Adobe "specialist." Basically he told me that it's a "redraw issue" - how fast my particular video card refreshes the screen.

(I have the NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT).

So, I asked him if it's solely a video card issue, and he was like, "Well, it's in how Photoshop and the video card work together."


I'm bummed. I use PS all the time. My friend has an iMac w/ CS2, and it's lightening fast.
Click to expand...


He is clueless, the 7800 is a fast card.




 
Alenate said:
I'm new to Mac, so I'm not sure how to alter the energy settings.
Click to expand...

Go to the Apple Menu, choose "System Preferences" click "Energy Saver" on the second row...

Click on "Options"

You'll see a processor pull down menu. Options are Automatic, Highest, Reduced... choose Highest (it is a desktop, what do you need so save energy for theres no battery). On the reduced setting, the processor(s) run(s) at half clock speed. On automatic, the processor(s) run(s) at half clock speed unless the computer *thinks* it needs to be faster. Sometimes it doesnt get it right.

You will also probably want to shut off "put the hard disks to sleep if possible" under the sleep section...
 
how about ram

There is a known problem about running photoshop on mac's with over 4 gigs of ram where it bogs down the performance. Maybe check that out?
 
Okay, my processor was set to Automatic, so I switched it to Highest. I also turned off "put the hard disk to sleep if possible."

Then I restarted my Mac.

No difference. Maybe a slight, slight increase in speed, but it still drags.


Matthew - I have 2.5g of RAM.
 
Alenate said:
Okay, my processor was set to Automatic, so I switched it to Highest. I also turned off "put the hard disk to sleep if possible."

Then I restarted my Mac.

No difference. Maybe a slight, slight increase in speed, but it still drags.


Matthew - I have 2.5g of RAM.
Click to expand...

Maybe you have a bad stick of RAM? Try removing all but one, and running Photoshop on each indivdual stick of RAM one at a time.

Also, how much hard disk space is left on your drive? If it's very low, this greatly effects the performance of Mac OS X.
 
I have a 250g hard drive with about 140g left on it.

I'll try removing some of the RAM.
 
Alenate said:
I have a 250g hard drive with about 140g left on it.

I'll try removing some of the RAM.
Click to expand...

Also what sort of peripherals do you have attached? Also, try running Activity Monitor in the Applications -> Utilities folder and see if anything is taking up a lot of CPU time.
 
Hey before we go swapping RAM and ripping the computer apart, how about uninstalling and reinstalling PS, repairing permissions, running scripts and resseting PRAM?
 
iGary said:
Hey before we go swapping RAM and ripping the computer apart, how about uninstalling and reinstalling PS, repairing permissions, running scripts and resseting PRAM?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have no idea how to repair permissions, run scripts, or reset PRAM. Is it difficult to do?

I'd really like to know if any other Quad G5 users with the 7800GT video card are experiencing similar slowdowns in PS?
 
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