# Adobe CS 4 (in particular Photoshop) on an iMac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085 "2009-02-02T04:37:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/1 "2009-02-02T04:37:50Z")
My partner has just upgraded her work Mac Pro and her home iMac to OS X 10.5.x, and Adobe CS 2 suite to CS 4. All Mac OS and CS4 updates are applied. On her work machine it all works fine, no problems. On her home machine, when she uses the retouch tool in Photoshop (to say smooth out a blemish in an image by using the surrounding colours) the changes she is making do not appear on the screen until she lets go of the tool. This makes it impossible to do serious work in PS as you can’t see where you’ve already done and what’s left to do. There also was a problem where the screen would go black for a second after that same operation, but we solved that by turning off a GPU option in the PS Performance menu. The iMac is about 2 years old, dual core, 2.18ghz, 2gb memory, an nVidia 7800 or 7600 video card (I forget exactly). Looking at memory, scratch file and CPU usage the machine is not maxing out anywhere, indeed the issue happens even when working on a small file of say 50k or so. PS’s memory usage doesn’t get over 1gb and the scratch file is not in use while she’s doing this. Changing layers and history settings in PS made no difference either. It’s tempting to say the problem is that the iMac just isn’t up to it, but I’m not seeing any actual evidence of that in any measurement or monitoring tool. There are certainly posts on Adobe and other forums claiming that the problem is that the iMac just isn’t up to it, but I don’t see why - it’s not _that_ weedy, and hads no such problem with the same image files under CS 2. So I’m wondering if anyone else has come across anything like this, and can validate that the problem which won’t be fixed except by a hardware upgrade, or has any other ideas in the Mac OS or CS or PS itself that might help? What chance is there that upgrading to the most powerful current iMac version would help? It’s only 3.08 ghz and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS so I don’t see that’s liable to make a huge difference. Certainly we don’t want to upgrade unless it’s sure to fix this problem. Thanks to anyone who has experience in this area! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/2 "2009-02-02T13:24:31Z")
I don’t have a solution, but as a data point, I have what’s probably an identical machine with CS4 on it, same memory, and my card is the low-end 7300 (the better card would be the 7600). I also use the retouch tool extensively, and it works perfectly fine on its own. I will add that I always do clean installs of OS’s and major applications, though, rather than going through upgrades. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/3 "2009-02-02T13:27:19Z")
db monkeys fixed ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/4 "2009-02-03T01:07:02Z")
Hmm, well OK, thanks for that. I’m not sure where that leaves us; perhaps a complete wipe and reinstall, do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/5 "2009-02-03T01:37:42Z")
I dug this [performance-optimization guide for Photoshop CS4](http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb404440&sliceId=1) out of Adobe’s website. This looks like it might be relevant: > [@](#): > > Photoshop CS4 leverages the graphics display card’s GPU, instead of the computer CPU, to speed its screen redraw. For Photoshop to access the GPU, your display card must contain a GPU that supports OpenGL and has enough RAM to support Photoshop’s functions - at least 128 MB, and a display driver that supports OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0. > > There can be incompatibilities among the components that allow Photoshop to use the GPU. You may experience issues such as artifacts, errors, crashes, Photoshop closing without an error, and slow downs. If any of these occur, update your display driver and see “GPU and OpenGL Features and Limitations in Photoshop CS4” (TechNote [kb404898](http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb404898)). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/6 "2009-02-03T05:08:21Z")
Yes, thanks, the GPU option change I mentioned above we got out of their website too. They do mention similar-sounding issues with the nVidia 7300gt > [@](#): > > Display card: NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT > Issue: When you use a large airbrush with a stylus, it takes a long time to display the entire brush stroke, and the brush stroke draws in blocky chunks. > Solution: Check for an updated display driver, use a mouse, or turn Enable OpenGL Drawing off while drawing with a stylus and using large brush sizes. but I don’t think that’s what she has. And **Balthisar** seems to have that card and doesn’t have the problem. All quite odd. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/7 "2009-02-05T02:05:10Z")
A minor update on this: I said in the OP that the problem happened with the retouch tool, but I’ve since learned that covers several tools; in fact it only happens with the Clone Stamp Tool. You pick up a colour/texture with it and start spreading it elsewhere, but you can’t see the results until you let go of the mouse button and _boom_ the changes all appear at once. We tried it on my Mac Pro and it works perfectly fine so it’s definitely this machine and CS4 together. **Balthisar** , any chance you could confirm with that exact tool? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-cs-4-in-particular-photoshop-on-an-imac/484085/8 "2009-02-05T15:15:59Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > **Balthisar** , any chance you could confirm with that exact tool? Thanks! Alas, that will be be impossible. My machine has been declared unrepairable (graphics card problem!), and I’ll be getting a shiny, new aluminum model as a replacement. The only downside to AppleCare is that they’re slooooooow. My 17" Mac has an ATI card of a decidely lower class; I could try it on that, but now the configurations won’t match.