CS4 suddenly working really slowly

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

I'm using Photoshop CS4 64bit on Vista Ultimate 64bit.
Spec are:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Mobo: MSI P7N SLI Platinum
RAM: 4GB Kit Corsair XMS2
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Since i've got PS CS4 64bit it's been working perfectly, quick and smooth.
A few days ago i've played with the GPU OC settings, and since CS4 is working really slowly.
I've tried to disable OpenGL, but it stays slow.

I can't work like this, i need help :(

[John Joslin]

i've played with the GPU OC settings,...

Put them back to where they were?

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Done that already, didn't help.

[john_pa...@adobeforums.com]

Re-install the video driver. Something changed and you didn't get it put
back.

John Passaneau

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

Anton,
I own a 4870x2 and there is not much room to over clock it before I started to see slight stutter and/or artifacts. So I left mine alone and just adjusted the fan speed on the card to 50 percent to keep it cool underload. CS4 really gives the card a work out too. I just wish CS4 supported both GPU's.

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

John, did that yesterday, didn't help.
And david, i found that out pretty quickly :\

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

Check every single thing on your system that might have changed - antivirus, other utilities, system settings, etc.

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Nothing i can think of changed..

[John Joslin]

No automatic updates of anything?

Check the logs.

(I always disable any automatic updates!)

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Reinstalled fresh, still the same.
Could the problem me a CPU overclock?

[Hugh Hansard]

Been a SW engineer for about 17 years. In my experience, OC is really not a great idea -- I used to do it back in the 80's, but stopped around 1995.

With OC on the processor, GPU and/or memory, low-level drivers (especially video) start to get upset. If you want more speed, get a faster card, more memory, second CPU or seperate 15K SCSI scratch and page disks (the last provides the most bang for the buck). Realize that this costs $$ (last time I looked 15K 49GB 320 SCSI disks were $49 and a 320 PCIe card was about $100).

Upping the base HW is a far more reliable and long-term solution to OC.

You may fix OC for PS, but will it work with AE, LR, PP, DW, Flash, etc?

Good luck,

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

I'll try to drop the OC, and see if that helps.

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Just got my CPU back to normal (and everything else at stock too) and still painfully slow.
I also installed a ME trial version to see if it's my version and it's slow as well.
I'm going mad here :(

[David_E_...@adobeforums.com]

Anton,
Have you checked your RAM timing in your bios. Example: if your RAM is rated to run at 5,5,5,15 is it really set in the bios like that? Also check to make sure the RAM voltage is set run to spec in the bios. Is the ram 1066mhz or 800mhz and is it set to run at one of those speeds? How many Watts is your power supply rated at?

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

The RAM is 800mhz, and i haven't fiddled with it while overclocking. And the PSU is 750W.

[Hugh Hansard]

AN,

Can you quantify "painfully slow". Can you run the PS benchmark and provide results? It may help is seeing what is going on.

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

I've ran some benchmarks, i've got better times then most. It's more of a rendering thing.
So to better describe my problem, i present, a video of how slow PS is:
<http://www.divshare.com/download/6468511-3ee>

[Hugh Hansard]

You should try the 'Retouchartists' image and action benchmark.

I get 37 seconds with a fully loaded system including ghost and avp.

It can all be about tuning what you have. Most get between 1:30 and 3 minutes.

I have seen scores as low as 31 seconds on a stripped system.

Give it whirl,

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

For crying out loud Hugh, the problem is not with image processing. It's with real time drawing.
When did this become a "Yey! Let's share benchmark results" thread?
I can't use bloody photoshop with this slowness.

And i'll run your bench when i've got time to shut all the other apps down.

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Just ran the benchmark, 2 mins and 5 sec with winamp + last.fm + MSN + XFIRE + Utorrent on.

[Hugh Hansard]

AN,

I am looking at your system specs. Something seems way off (no kidding, right)... If you look at the benchmark table, you should have been in the 1:00 to 1:30 range.

What is your disk config?

Have you looked at blackviper?

SmartClose is a good app.

If you run perfmon, how much memory is PS using? How much paging?

There is an entire thread on performance tuning for CS4... I'll look for it and send you a link.

Also, VideoGuys has a 40 page document on tuning. Adobe also has a pretty good guide. It is based on NLE, but the concepts are the same.

Have you signed-up for Beta 2? I think it is available to folks with these types of issues. The Engineers really want feedback on performance. They are working hard on brush-lag and OGL -- they want to get the 4.1 release right. Progress is being made. Try Beta 2 to see if it gets you closer. It has helped many of my issues.

H

[Hugh Hansard]

AN,

Sorry, a couple of more items...

What size images are you working with? Folks have seen problems at the 3000x3000x32 range. Are you in this area?

What size brushes? folks are reporting brush lag at the > 150px level.

Are you using a tablet?

What is your monitor resolution? 2560x1600 seems to be an issue.

OGL level? > 2.1?

DirectX (get the Nov, 2008 release) -- 9.0c

Turn-off "documents as tabs" (this provided a 50% boost for me).

Sorry for the laundry list, but there are lots of folks working through the issues.

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Using DX10.1.
No idea how to check the OGL level.
Disabling "documents as tabs" didn't help at all.
Screen res is 1680x1050.
Not using a tablet.
Doesn't matter what size brush/image we're talking about. Just tested it on a 5px brush and a 640x480 image.

Again, i don't think it's that kind of performance. Rendering is the only thing that's wrong.
Kepp in mind all was working well until some point.

Also, where can i sign up for beta 2?

[Wolf_...@adobeforums.com]

Turn-off "documents as tabs" (this provided a 50% boost for me).

Meaningless. 50% boost to what?

[Hugh Hansard]

WE,

Sorry for being in-precise. There is a threat in the pre-rerelease area for Beta 1 that has the specifics.

H

[Hugh Hansard]

AN,

Been thinking on this...

Why would it get slower all of a sudden... For me, that is the strange part.

Have you tried SystemMechanic or RegisteryDefence to see if any corruption? Both are good tools for strange problems.

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

Hugh, could you provide a link to the pre-rerelease area for Beta 1? Can't seem to find it.

[Hugh Hansard]

There is a stickey at the top of this forum for folks with performance issues.

Also, is your scratch on the same disk as page? Is this disk clean?
PS can slow-down if this gets fragges.

H

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

Sorry for being in-precise. There is a threat in the pre-rerelease area

for Beta 1 that has the specifics.

not everyone's in the super secret society hugh. maybe you can provide the info here.

There is a stickey at the top of this forum for folks with performance
issues.

not that i can see, got a link for that?

[Hugh Hansard]

DM,

Wow, I am sorry. It was the very first post in the forum as of two two days ago. It was stickey for about a week or so. Guess it is gone. Sorry again,

H

[Lawrenc...@adobeforums.com]

A couple of things about overclocking.

When you want to return to system specs, you ought to reset the BIOS to defaults (in BIOS, F9>Y, F10>Y. Better, if the mobo provides for it, use the CMOS jumper to reset to defaults. It is different in some BIOS schemes than simply F9,F10.

Second, depending on the degree of overclocking and the way you set it up, you may have a hardware problem. If you can, after resetting factory defaults, substitute a known, unclocked cpu and see if that changes anything. Overclocking does accelerate the aging process of a cpu (cpus do age in any case).

You might also check ram.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

Wow, I am sorry. It was the very first post in the forum as of two two
days ago. It was stickey for about a week or so. Guess it is gone. Sorry
again,

no problem.

. There is a threat in the pre-rerelease area for Beta 1 that has the
specifics.

what about the info? can you post it or are you NDA'd?

[Hugh Hansard]

EW,

Sorry, I should have included references. I posted quite a few timing tests on the general release, Beta and Beta 2 over the past few months. I am focusing on an OGL timing protocol at the mement.

If I get the time, i'll find you the links, but they were like two months ago.

H

[Anton_No...@adobeforums.com]

I FINALLY FOUND THE BLOODY PROBLEM!!!!! :D :D :D :D

Turns out it was the triple buffering that got turned on for some reason in my card's driver. Turned it off and all's back to normal.
I'm so happy to be back to CS4 after i was forced to downgrade to CS3 for about a month.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help, the effort you guys put into it was awesome!

[Q_P...@adobeforums.com]

I love a happy ending.
Q