CS4 better than CS3 for Leopard?

[Nathan...@adobeforums.com]

Hi,
I've been having some trouble with Adobe CS3 (especially Photoshop) on Apple OS X Leopard. Does anyone have experience with CS4 on this platform, and if so, is it better in terms of compatibility and/or memory management? Or is it just a bunch of new features? I would really like improved stability for my Adobe software.

[Neil_...@adobeforums.com]

Nathan,

Your questions can generally be summed up with "Yes." Upgrade.

Neil

[Ann_She...@adobeforums.com]

If you use a digital camera and shoot in RAW format, you would be crazy not to upgrade to CS4 — if only to get ACR 5.2!

And for a lot of other reasons as well ….

[Nathan...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks.

So if I upgrade and want to eliminate all problems associated with Adobe beforehand, what's the best thing to do? Should I completely uninstall CS3 with the Adobe uninstaller, in order to remove all files, caches, and logs, and then do a clean install of CS4? I mean, what's the best process?

[Ann_She...@adobeforums.com]

There is no need to uninstall CS3 unless you want to: you can have both CS3 and CS4 on your computer and running concurrently if you wish.

Some people are not happy with the new PDF Presentations via-Bridge and you may need to keep CS3 if that would affect you.

[D...@adobeforums.com]

So if I upgrade and want to eliminate all problems associated with Adobe.

It will never happen, but we can dream.

[Nathan...@adobeforums.com]

Well, no, I realize I won't actually solve all problems; I was referring to specific problems I'm having with CS3. I wondered if leaving CS3 on the machine could affect CS4's performance, in which case I would uninstall CS3 first. Or maybe they're in totally separate locations and are unaffected by each other.

[Buko]

I wondered if leaving CS3 on the machine could affect CS4's performance,

No. the 2 version have nothing to do with each other.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

wondered if leaving CS3 on the machine could affect CS4's performance

Absolutely not.

I have five versions of Photoshop (7.0.1 through 11) happily coexisting on my machine.

[Mark_R...@adobeforums.com]

No Keep CS3 - there are still a few problems with CS4 they will mean that for some tasks you may need to revert to CS3 for some 'safer' tasks. Having two versions of Photoshop installed on the same machine makes no difference, they both have separate settings and preferences.

As Ann has mentioned its certainly useful to have CS3's Web galleries and PDF settings, although you can install a plug-in for CS4 that will do this.

Additional advice for working with Leopard - when using Photoshop or any Adobe software, turn Leopard 'Spaces' feature off. Its off I think by default anyway.

[Jim_J...@adobeforums.com]

Does anyone have experience with CS4 on this platform

Nathan, keep in mind that many of the people that have responded are not running Leopard so they are just repeating rumors they have heard on this forum. You should download a trial and test any software and operating system for yourself. Results vary.

The discussion has not addressed the processor you use (PPC/Intel) and what graphics card you have. This may be important to the performance of CS4 on your system. A trial of Photoshop will best determine the answer to your question.

[Neil_...@adobeforums.com]

Nathan,

I wondered if leaving CS3 on the machine could affect CS4's performance,
in which case I would uninstall CS3 first.

Both versions can happily coexist and run on your system. The installation of CS4 does not affect your installed CS3. (A number of folks here keep older versions for features that have been dropped or changed in CS4.)

Neil

[Neil_...@adobeforums.com]

Nathan,

I wondered if leaving CS3 on the machine could affect CS4's performance,
in which case I would uninstall CS3 first.

Both versions can happily coexist and run on your system (provided your computer meets the apps' system specs). The installation of CS4 does not affect your installed CS3. (A number of folks here keep older versions for features that have been dropped or changed in CS4.)

Neil

[Mark_R...@adobeforums.com]

"keep in mind that many of the people that have responded are not running Leopard so they are just repeating rumors they have heard on this forum." - that's not the case, I am running Leopard using CS4. Main issues are slightly carelessly put together compatability between the OS and the CS4 Application Frame, and windows. Otherwise everything is roughly Ok. There are some hard drive usage issues too, with Occasional crashes during heavy scratch activity - and these may be Leopard related issues. I use CS4 about 80% of the time.

Check your graphics card is compatible as Jim said, although you can still use CS4 very well with Open GL turned off if you need.

[Nathan...@adobeforums.com]

I have an Intel iMac (mid-2008 Aluminum model) with an ATI Radeon 2600 graphics card with 256MB video RAM. I also have a 2.4ghz CPU and 4GB of system RAM.

I had noticed problems with Leopard's spaces-- sometimes window show up in the wrong space, or an Adobe program tries to force you to a space in which it's not open... etc. Or PS's toolbars disappear when moving back into its space. Strange stuff.

[Allen...@adobeforums.com]

Spaces has frequently been reported as problematic.