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Camera Raw Sluggish in CS5 vs CS4

Mar 27, 2012 6:48 PM

My computer is Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit.  Quad Core Q6600, 2.4 GHz, 6gb RAM.

 

When running Photoshop CS4 with Bridge and Camera Raw, I could change any of the settings, and the preview would update pretty much instantaneously, with no lag.

 

I updated recently to CS5, with its accompanying new version of Camera Raw, and I find that on this same computer, working with the same Raw Files from my Canon 1D Mark 2, there is a pretty noticeable lag in the preview when changing almost any of the settings.  It's slow enough that it seriously impedes my workflow, and makes me think of returning to CS4.

 

Within CS5, I have the following Performance settings:

 

Available RAM: 5349 MB

Ideal Range: 2942-3851 MB

Let Photoshop Use: 3209 MB (60%)

 

These were the default settings used when it was installed.

 

Scratch Disks:

I have a separate physical hard drive selected for this, different from the one where the OS is installed.  Only that disk is selected as a Scratch Disk.

 

History & Cache:

History States: 20

Cache Levels: 4

Cache Tile Size: 128K

 

GPU Settings

NVidia GeForce 9800 GT/PCI/SSE2

Enable OpenGL Drawing is Checked.

 

These settings are pretty much the same as in my CS4 installation (both are currently installed on this computer).

 

Can this be improved?  As I said, this seriously slows down my workflow.

 

Thanks.

 

Don Cohen

www.dlcphoto.com

DLC Photography

1105 Views   9 Replies   Latest reply: Yammer P, Mar 28, 2012 2:19 PM
 
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  • Curt Y
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    1. Curt Y,
    Mar 27, 2012 7:15 PM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    Uncheck the Open GL option in PS.  If the perfromance improves it is a video card/driver problem.  Make sure you have the latest driver.

     

    Also, you did not state what version of CS5 you are running.  Make sure both Bridge and PS are the latest.

     
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  • Yammer P
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    2. Yammer P,
    Mar 28, 2012 3:01 AM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    Things to note about ACR6:

     

    * It's slower when hosted by Bridge for Windows, as it's running 32-bit code.

     

    * Early versions (6.0, and maybe 6.1) were slower. Upgrade to 6.6 or 6.7RC (available at Adobe Labs).

     

    * Luminance noise reduction is a massive CPU hog. Set it to 0 in defaults and only use it on finalists.

     

    * Lens Corrections has a big effect too. Like Luminance noise setting, consider disabling in defaults if your computer isn't new-ish.

     
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  • DLC-Photography
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    3. DLC-Photography,
    Mar 28, 2012 3:36 AM   in reply to Yammer P
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    Thanks to the both of you; it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, but I'll try out your suggestions and see how they work out.

     

    For the record, it's PS CS5 12.1 and Bridge 4.1.0.54; no updates available.

     

     

    * It's slower when hosted by Bridge for Windows, as it's running 32-bit code.

     

     

    Are you saying that it'll run faster if I start Bridge from within PS CS5, 64-bit?

     

    Thanks.

     
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  • Yammer P
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    4. Yammer P,
    Mar 28, 2012 5:48 AM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    DLC-Photography wrote:

     

    For the record, it's PS CS5 12.1 and Bridge 4.1.0.54; no updates available.

     

     

    * It's slower when hosted by Bridge for Windows, as it's running 32-bit code.

     

    Are you saying that it'll run faster if I start Bridge from within PS CS5, 64-bit?

    You can determine Camera Raw's version number from Camera Raw Preferences (look in the title bar). 6.7RC is the best version for CS5 so far. You can download it here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cameraraw6-7/

     

    Bridge is a 32-bit application. Camera Raw is provided as 32-bit and 64-bit plug-ins, and the faster 64-bit plug-in only works when hosted by 64-bit Photoshop (on 64-bit Windows).

     

    So, hosting Camera Raw in Bridge will use the 32-bit version. From Bridge, opening a raw image with Photoshop will use the 64-bit version of the plug-in (if 64-bit is installed, and the 32-bit version of Photoshop isn't already running).

     
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  • DLC-Photography
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    5. DLC-Photography,
    Mar 28, 2012 9:50 AM   in reply to Yammer P
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    Camera Raw 6.6.0.261.

     

    I ran it from within PS CS5/64-bit, but didn't notice any improvement in the lag.

     

    Disabling Open-GL didn't improve the lag, run within Windows, or from within PS CS5.

     

    Setting Noise Luminance to 0 to disable it improved the lag somewhat, but it was still noticeably worse than in CS4.

     

    I didn't have Lens Profile Corrections enabled, so that isn't a factor for me.

     

    I'm downloading Camera Raw 6.7RC now - will see if that helps.

     

    Thanks.

     
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  • DLC-Photography
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    6. DLC-Photography,
    Mar 28, 2012 10:42 AM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    Installed 6.7RC - perhaps a slight additional improvement.

     

    With this version of Camera Raw, and setting Noise Luminance to 0, the lag is improved, and is overall more usable, but still not quite as responsive as it was with CS4.  I don't seem to notice much difference running Bridge/Camera Raw from within Windows or PS CS5/64-bits.  And the Open-GL option didn't seem relevant on my system.

     

    The help is much appreciated; suggestions on additional tweaks to improve performance would also be welcome.

     

    Don

    www.dlcphoto.com

     
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  • Curt Y
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    7. Curt Y,
    Mar 28, 2012 11:00 AM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    There were more problems with Vista than with Win7 OS.  In particular I seem to remember comments that Aero graphic display option caused delay problems.  Guess it overworked the graphic card.

     

    Might try to go to the graphics options and choose the basic one and see if it makes a difference.

     
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  • DLC-Photography
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    8. DLC-Photography,
    Mar 28, 2012 11:16 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Thanks for the suggestion - I tried it, but didn't seem to make much difference.  Good thought, though.

     

    But it is improved enough with the 2 suggestions mentioned above that I can work fairly efficiently.  Not quite ready for a new computer, though!

     
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  • Yammer P
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    9. Yammer P,
    Mar 28, 2012 2:19 PM   in reply to DLC-Photography
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    DLC-Photography wrote:

     

    But it is improved enough with the 2 suggestions mentioned above that I can work fairly efficiently.  Not quite ready for a new computer, though!

    I run CS5 on a Core2 Duo overclocked at 3.5GHz, running the RAM at 1066MHz. RAM size isn't really a factor when using Camera Raw, unless your computer is busy servicing other processes. It's perfectly usable, with no significant lag on the sliders, most of the time. Once you start adding geometric transforms, gradients, noise reduction, etc. it can get pretty sluggish, especially when hosted in Bridge. These things are quite subjective though, so it depends how sensitive you are.

     
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