Adobe CS2 (Photoshop, Illustrator) performance problems (#2)
Yesterday's reports of issues with performance from Adobe's Creative Suite 2 (CS2) applications generated dozens of reader responses, with most users corroborating slow operation -- primarily in Photoshop 9 (CS2) and Illustrator CS2.
MacFixIt reader David Notley's case is typical:
"Ever since installing CS2 we have a consistent slow down at one specific time. The first time you go to print in IDCS2, after the machine has been shut down, it takes a long time to launch the print window. After that initial slowdown the print dialogue window opens normally when launched again. The problem is the same on all four machines, all running OSX10.4.2. Repairing permissions, deleting and re-installing the printers has made no difference. The problem only occurs with CS2, no other applications."
Tommy Stubbs adds:
" I'm a longtime illustrator using Photoshop for many years. Photoshop CS2 has many problems that cannot be corrected by the user. Adobe has acknowledged a problem with brushes when you select smoothing and scattering with Wacom tablets. It locks up. The font preview issue is another. Overall performance is another. There are many improvements that will make CS2 a great application. But not till Adobe comes up with a fix. I have gone back to CS1 which works just fine. I have experienced no problems with Illustrator CS2 or any other CS2 applications."
Michael Fiegel writes:
"I convinced my boss to let me upgrade from Photoshop 7/Illustrator 10 to CS2, and what a horrid mistake that was. Startup times are at least double what they were in the older versions, and saving documents easily takes three times as long. Luckily I was smart enough to keep the old versions installed, so I've re-saved all my documents as Legacy format docs and have been happily working with PS7/Illustrator 10, and saving - literally - hours of time. The only piece of the pie that works well is Indesign CS2, but I've got no point of comparison so it may be that it's slow too and I just don't realize it."
Rob White notes frequent crashes in addition to performance issues:
"I also have frequent crashes immediately after starting up Photoshop CS2. (On the order of once every 4 times I start it) If I click the message button to restart it, it seems to run fine. Bridge seems never to crash, but can take as long as 2 minutes to fully open!"
Don Saban reports on his experience discussing the issue with Adobe's technical support team:
"I'm having the same issues. Adobe says "this is the first they've heard of it" and that I'm the only one with problems. My issues are: delayed brushes, rubber stamp, cloning tools, general sluggishness, and stalls that last up to 3 or 4 minutes. Adobe says that it's my machine, not their software that's the problem. All my associates, ranging from Panther to Tiger and G4's to G5's are having this problem. As Johnny Cochran once said, 'don't admit until you can fix.'"
We are working on identifying and confirming several workarounds that can provide temporary performance boosts. If you are having issues with slow CS2 application performance, please let us know.
Resources
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worse and worse. Slow downs, freezes, crashes! Sloppy Sloppy programming.
Try cutting and pasting chart data into Illustrator CS2? doesn't work. Photoshop
used to be so reliable? now it's about as reliable as bad shareware. I think they
need some serious competition. Software programmers around the world please
unite to come up with an alternative to Photoshop! I think the whole Suite
concept of upditing everything at the same time is to blame. To much pressure
leads to a lot of bad software. Lets hope the regulatory commisions don't allow
Adobe to buy Macromedia. If they do God help us all!
http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/
A review is at:
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/07/19/214206
I don't know how much this review reflects what's in the Mac version, but it points out that one of the big differences between GIMP and Photoshop is in how the two programs handle layers.
everything in all the apps, I have not had any slowdown problems with
Photoshop - which is the primary focus of this discussion. In fact, my
experience has been just the opposite: many things I do in Photoshop CS2
seem a bit snappier than in CS1. I don't mean to contradict the folks having
problems, but saving files, for instance, is much faster in CS2 on my G4 dual
1 GHz, with 1.5 GB of RAM. I suspect the improvements I see can be
attributed to the fact that I no longer have File Browser adding to the
overhead in Photoshop. The devision of labor is now handled by the
operating system (OS X 10.4.2) rather than by a single application. Of course,
the WYSIWYG font menu could slow things down for some people if they have
hundreds of fonts installed. Using Font Reserve or Suitcase to open additional
fonts might show things down further as this adds another application to the
mix.
I have one friend who had a problem when Illustrator CS1 started crashing on
startup. It turns out she had used the demo version of Illustrator CS2 and
removed it after the trial period; it left some preferences behind that were
interfering with CS1. While CS2 was installed there was no problem with the
previous version; removing the CS2 preferences restored CS1 to health.
In regard to the complaint about the CS apps coming in a suite: no doubt it
does add some pressure to get all the products ready at the same time. Still,
as they now have synchronized development cycles, it's probably not that
much worse than before. And there is a real economic advantage to buying
them all together rather than one at a time. Besides, they used to be bundled
in various configurations which could be confusing, particularly when their
upgrade schedules were not aligned. What's more, the competition at
Macromedia moved to a suite approach even before Adobe did; it was a
successful strategy for them so Adobe was obliged to follow suit. Personally I
think the suite approach is, on the whole, advantageous for users as well as
for Adobe.
With respect to the barrage of problems with Photoshop CS2, if Adobe can
find the cause(s) and come up with a solution, we can blame them then for
not sorting it out before releasing CS2. Until that time, however, it's rather a
hit and miss process. They are certainly not responsible for conditions on
clients' computers over which they have no control. Experience suggests that
in at least half the cases there are problems on the client computer that
are not Adobe's fault. For the rest we need fixes or decent workarounds.
Hopefully Adobe, or even perhaps some enterprising users, will come up with
some of these.
---
Don't anthropomorphize computers.
They hate that.
Dear whitedog it may appear that you have some kind of connection with Adobe,
perhaps employed? Anyway I think Adobe have a lot to answer for, general
sloppiness is what we have all come to expect from Microsoft and now it seems
that rather than taking on Microsoft with bigger and better products they have
bought Macromedia and fed us all mediocrity, for me it's a bitter pill to swallow
as I have been using their products since day one. I think greed is to blame.
Well that's my opinion. I think the product CS2 is exactly what we can expect in
the future good features and tool sets, but bad execution leaving users the
world over frustrated. SAD BUT TRUE!!!
I loaded CS2 on a brand spanking new Duel 2.7 G5 with 5.5 gigs of RAM.
Before loading I updated Tiger, ran Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro. Everything
in peak performance. Loaded CS2. Ran tests again. Result: Photoshop runs
much slower than CS1 did on my previous computer a Duel 1 gig Mirror Drive
G4 mostly because the dreaded long spinning beach ball pops up constantly.
I can feel my life wasting away while I wait for it to process. I've tried
designating a greater percentage of memory, even tried designating less
memory. No difference. It's not all bad ? sometimes it really screams but then
comes the beach ball and the 40, 50, 60 second waits. Never had this with
previous versions of PS. And, don't even get me started on Illustrator.
I'm still not sold on the Suite concept. I prefer to skip some upgrades if I've
got something running nicely. I used to always skip every other Illustrator
upgrade because new versions have always been problematic. With the suite
concept even if you only want a photoshop upgrade you still have to buy
everything. I mean I don't know anyone who wants GoLive! I think Adobe
makes out on it's suite more than the consumer does.
Adobe's code writing difficulties, on top of even individual Mac owners'
maintenance problems and mistakes is the matter of what Apple has done to
OS X.
Has anyone noticed - the usual progression from Beta to "Workable Version"
to "Good OS" to "Better OS" seems to have seriously faltered in OS X??
I thought it might be my own faulty perception, but still felt so much dread
at further "upgrades" that I stopped at 10.3.6. Everything has been good for
months now on my 1 Ghz eMac. Meanwhile, there were widespread problems
with 3.7 thru 3.9 and then 10.4 came out. Now it's a stark difference, I still
see those reporting Joy & Gladness with Tiger, but there seem to be more
serious problems for "the Other Half." I consider a degraded version of $600
PhotoShop a "serious problem" especially when the upgrade to "9" costs
another $149. (I'm still using CS / 8 and am happy as heck about it.)
So, is there an underlying problem with OS X? Maybe - take a look at this
essay: http://rixstep.com/2/20050828,00.html
- by tigerpshaw September 3, 2005 7:03 AM PDT
- I'm just curious - what are you all using for font management? I've found that the majority of problems I've had with CS1 and 2 are font conflicts and without an outside font management app all Adobe programs are slow as mud in the areas you described... I've found that the best way to speed up almost all graphic apps is to disable Fontbook, use an outside manager (I've been using Suitcase - which is a whole 'nother adventure) and try to keep application used fonts separate from system fonts.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(8 Comments)Anyone else have similar experience?