Improving Photoshop CS4 performance

[macstatic]

I have a feeling I could get better performance out of Photoshop CS4 on my Mac. The most notable "problem" is that when I've worked with large Photoshop files and quit Photoshop it takes forever for it to actually quit.

I'm thinking temporary workspace, but would that mean I'd need more memory or more hard drive space -or both?

My Mac's a 1.67GHz Powerbook G4 with 1.5 GB RAM and an 80 GB hard drive (currently around 10 GB free space). Images are stored on an external Firewire 800 drive. I'm running MacOS 10.4.11.

As far as I know I can only expand my Powerbook's RAM to 2GB, so would 512 KB more make much difference? The hard drive is a Seagate ST9808211A (80 GB ATA, 5400 RPM).

 

[Edge100]

I have a feeling I could get better performance out of Photoshop CS4 on my Mac. The most notable "problem" is that when I've worked with large Photoshop files and quit Photoshop it takes forever for it to actually quit.

I'm thinking temporary workspace, but would that mean I'd need more memory or more hard drive space -or both?

My Mac's a 1.67GHz Powerbook G4 with 1.5 GB RAM and an 80 GB hard drive (currently around 10 GB free space). Images are stored on an external Firewire 800 drive. I'm running MacOS 10.4.11.

As far as I know I can only expand my Powerbook's RAM to 2GB, so would 512 KB more make much difference? The hard drive is a Seagate ST9808211A (80 GB ATA, 5400 RPM).

You're asking a lot of that machine. More RAM will help for sure, but there's only so much you can get out of a 2005-era machine using 2009-era software.

Max your RAM first and foremost. Then perhaps consider working with CS2 or CS3 (if you have them), which should be a bit more friendly to your Mac.

 

[FourCandles]

.....

I'm thinking temporary workspace, but would that mean I'd need more memory or more hard drive space -or both?
...
Images are stored on an external Firewire 800 drive.
...

Have you configured PS to use your FW drive as a scratch disk?

 

[Mr.Noisy]

Have you configured PS to use your FW drive as a scratch disk?

if your setting up a scratch disk Don't use the OS disk or the disk containing the source of the images your working on, but as previously mentioned CS2 or 3 would be best for your machine, just max the ram if possible.

 

[sangosimo]

for the best performance I would build a windows machine so you can take advantage of the gpu acceleration

 

[Edge100]

for the best performance I would build a windows machine so you can take advantage of the gpu acceleration

I think you're thinking of 64-bit CS4, which is Windows only at the moment. GPU acceleration is in the Mac version too.

Not sure if this works with older machines like the PB G4, but it definitely works on current Macs.

 

[FourCandles]

if your setting up a scratch disk Don't use .......... the disk containing the source of the images your working on

Oops - I've had that set up for a year or so Thanks for the pointer - time to rearrange my disks!

 

[G5Unit]

Yeah your machine isn't really designed to handle an app like CS4.

I run CS3 on my PowerMac G5 single 1.8Ghz and it's barely even possible anymore.

Have you tried downgrading to Photoshop 7? In my opinion, it's the best version ever.

 

[cenetti]

Get a 8 core Mac pro with minimum 16gb ram....
Than you'll be able to run ligthroom and CS4 at the same time, handling 12mp files with ZERO lag..... all while watching a 1080P .mkv file on the second monitor.....

 

[rjphoto]

CS4 System Requirements

From Adobe:

Mac OS System Requirements
PowerPC® G5 or multicore Intel® processor
Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.4
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices)
1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0

Sounds like you are lucky it runs at all.
I've been debating getting an Intel Mac just for CS4.

My CS2 was on a PC and I don't have it any more and PS Ver. 7 won't run on OSX 10.5. I had CS2 Demo and it ran fine, but it has expired and now if I need PS7 I have to reboot to an old OSX10.3 Start up drive.

Anyone know where I can get a "Legal" copy of CS2 for Mac?

 

[John89]

Get a 8 core Mac pro with minimum 16gb ram....
Than you'll be able to run ligthroom and CS4 at the same time, handling 12mp files with ZERO lag..... all while watching a 1080P .mkv file on the second monitor.....

Dont forget Crysis on your 3rd monitor, running on Parallels