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ForeKeith
ForeKeith
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PS CS6 Extremely slow and sluggish. Brush tool delay.

May 24, 2012 2:03 AM

Hello everyone.

 

I own a copy of Photoshop CS6.

Switching from Photoshop CS to CS6, I have found this version to be extremely slow and I can not find a reason why it is like this. It is impossible for me to work on it.

 

Problem: Slow performance, when using the brush tool there is a long delay - lag. The brush takes more than 8 seconds to catch up with my strokes.

 

 

Software:Adobe Photoshop CS6 x64
OS:Windows 7 x64 SP1
CPU:AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
GPU:Radeon 6790 OC @ 920Mhz
RAM:A-Data DDR3 1333Mhz CAS9 4GB (x2)
SSD:A-Data 510 128GB SATA3
HDD:Samsung SATA 1TB

 

Tried:

- Memory usage allowed upgraded to 6GB, nothing changed.

- Default selected "Scratch Disk" is the main SSD which has over 58GB of free space, I've tried selecting the secondary HDD as well but nothing changes.

- Disabled the "Use Graphic  Processor" square. nothing changed.

- Disabled the "Use open CL" square in advanced Graphic Processor Settings. Nothing changed.

- Changed power management settings in windows to "High Performance". nothing changed.

- Disabling tablet pc service doesn't help.

 

 

Notes:

- Graphic drivers are the latest release on AMD website

- Windows is completely updated

- SSD Firmware is the latest available.

- The issue happens both with mouse and tablet.

- 1px brush and 5000px brush lag just alike in zoomed and not zoomed canvas.

- This happens on both x64 and x86 versions of the software.

 

Any help is aprecihated.

Thank you in advance.

9884 Views   59 Replies   Latest reply: Adam Jerugim, Mar 5, 2013 10:31 AM
 
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,002 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    1. Noel Carboni,
    May 24, 2012 2:06 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    Download and install the ATI Catalyst version 12.2 drivers specifically (though they will end up saying 12.3 once you install them). At the moment, though it is not the latest release, 12.2 appears to be the best recent driver set to work with Photoshop.

     

     

    http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/Pages/radeonaiw _vista64.aspx

     

     

    Also, there appear to be several settings you have not tried, and you have to be sure to close and restart Photoshop when you make such changes, or you might not be testing with the changed settings.  Specifically, in the Performances preference dialog, press the [ Advanced ] button and try the different Drawing Modes.

     

    AdvancedSettings.jpg

     

    -Noel

    
     
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,002 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    2. Noel Carboni,
    May 24, 2012 2:09 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    By the way, since you have newer drivers already installed, here's specific information on how to remove a newer version of ATI drivers and install 12.2:

     

    • Uninstall Catalyst by removing the AMD Catalyst Install Manager in the Control Panel's Programs and Features section. This will cause the drivers that come with Windows to kick in.

     

    • Delete or rename these specific files, which the uninstaller neglects to remove.

      C:\Windows\System32\amdocl64.dll
      C:\Windows\SysWOW64\amdocl.dll

     

    • Download/install Catalyst 12.2

     

    

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    3. ForeKeith,
    May 24, 2012 2:19 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Thank you for your fast reply Noel,

     

    Thanks for suggesting to try those drivers out, I had them before upgrading to v12.4 but they did not make any difference.

    I did see that Advanced Settings window and it is from there I had tried to disable the OpenCL, however had not tried different Drawing Modes.

    I have tried them just now on your suggestion but sadly there was no difference.

     

    UPDATE: Here is my System Info dump.

    Thank you again,

    Keep the suggestions and doubts coming please,  really want to fix this!

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    Dec 23, 2006
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    4. Noel Carboni,
    May 24, 2012 3:33 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    Right off the bat something seems incomplete or wrong with your display driver setup:

     

    Video Card: Unknown Video Card Name.

    Driver Version: Unknown Video Driver Version.

    Video Card Driver: Unknown Video Card Driver.

    Video Mode: Unknown Video Mode.

    Video Card Caption: Unknown Video Card.

    Video Card Memory: Unknown. MB

    

     

    This is what I see, with an ATI 5670, for those same fields:

     

    Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5670
    Driver Version: 8.950.0.0
    Driver Date: 20120214000000.000000-000
    Video Card Driver: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,ati umd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdv a,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
    Video Mode: 1600 x 1200 x 4294967296 colors
    Video Card Caption: ATI Radeon HD 5670
    Video Card Memory: 1024 MB

     

    I really would suggest trying going through the uninstall and install I noted above.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    5. ForeKeith,
    May 24, 2012 3:55 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I have no idea why that happened. I had installed new drivers but didn't retsart the computer after that. Yesterday it would have correct fields but there would have no difference.

     

    UPDATE: I have restarted the computer and the System Info shows this:

     

    Video Card Number: 1

    Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series

    OpenCL Unavailable

    Driver Version: 8.961.0.0

    Driver Date: 20120405000000.000000-000

    Video Card Driver:aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticf x32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32, atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll

    Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 x 4294967296 colors

    Video Card Caption: AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series

    Video Card Memory: 1024 MB

     

    But that doesn't really solve my problem

    Thank you again for the help.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    Dec 23, 2006
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    6. Noel Carboni,
    May 24, 2012 4:03 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    I really, really, really think you need to uninstall 12.4 and install 12.2.  I don't know how to be more clear.

     

    Even if it doesn't directly solve this problem, it will poise you for MUCH better stability once you do solve it.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    7. ForeKeith,
    May 24, 2012 10:55 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I have tried with 12.2 but it didn't change anything.

    I can't talk about stability tough, I can not use such a slow software...

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    8. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 4:14 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I'm using 12.2 Catalyst now:

    It seems that unchecking "Use graphic processor" fixes the problem,

    I also have noticed that switching between drawing modes has a certain impact on the performance. Advanced is terribly slow while Basic is just slow.

    Although I do not understand why a graphic card like mine (HD 6790) would cause slowdowns in photoshop. I read of people with slower graphic cards having absolutely no lags.

     

    I have also noticed that moving layers is slow and lagghy even with "Use Graphic Processor" unchecked.

    Has anybody got any idea on how to fix this and the previous issue up?

    Please.

     
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  • metallicfist
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    9. metallicfist,
    May 28, 2012 8:05 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    I have the same problems as you have and my specs are:

    Motherboard: Asrock Fatality P67 Performance

    Cpu: Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4 Ghz

    Graphic Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 OC

    Ram: 6.0GB

    Hard Drives: 60gb intel 520 SSD - system and photoshop here

    977GB Western Digital WDC WD10EAVS-00D7B1 ATA Device (IDE)

    Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio

     

    when i turn off graphic processor then it works almost fine, brush is fast and responsive and anything else on the layout

    but when using liquify then the mouse keeps moving laggy until i hold down the button O.o

    it's strange and i do not have these problems in CS5.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    10. Curt Y,
    May 28, 2012 8:25 AM   in reply to metallicfist
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    metallicfist wrote:

     

     

    when i turn off graphic processor then it works almost fine, brush is fast and responsive and anything else on the layout

    but when using liquify then the mouse keeps moving laggy until i hold down the button O.o

    it's strange and i do not have these problems in CS5.

    This definately says it is a graphics card/driver problem.  Lifquify underwent a major change in CS6 to rely more on features of the video card.  So just because it worked in CS5 means nothing.

     

    I am sure Nvidia is working full time to update drivers to meet this new challenge.  If latest driver does not work send them a bug report.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    11. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 8:57 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Curt,

    We (Metallicfist and I) seem to have the same problem on different graphic cards (NVIDIA and AMD)

    A friend of mine has a Radeon HD 6850 OC and it works fine with Catalyst 12.4

    These facts make me think that it doesn't seem like a GPU driver problem.

    Also, there are a sheepload of nvidia GTX 460 around, how come this is the first time I read about an user having problems like these?

     

    I have tried to bring the clock of the GPU down to factory default but that didn't change anything.

     

    P.S. This message makes me sound like an *** but I'm not trying to be mean, just telling my opinion on the matter. <3 Curt.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    12. Curt Y,
    May 28, 2012 9:02 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    In CS6 they added the Mecury Grahics Engine and some features require more of the graphics card.  Min VRAM is now 512 m.  Here is a link http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    13. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 9:21 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    HD6790 has 1GB DDR5 RAM
    GTX 460 has either 756MB or 1GB RAM

     

    Features that require the power of mercury engine are obviously going to be slower when "use graphics processor" is unchecked. However with such graphic cards there should be no slowdown when it is checked.

    There are slower graphic cards that work no problem with it, some people have our same graphic cards and have no issues whatsoever...

    I believe there is something else that either doesn't work properly or is missing...

     
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  • Curt Y
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    14. Curt Y,
    May 28, 2012 9:36 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    What does the GTX prefex stand for.  Just had another user with graphics card problems and after 90 min. on line with Nvidia they said the GT240 was not compatable with CS6.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    15. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 9:53 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Curt Y wrote:

     

    What does the GTX prefex stand for.

    Beats me, all I know is that GTX 460 is faster than my HD 6790 and it is almost the top of the line on NVIDIA's 400 series...
    It is a recent card. GT240 is f-old, for that one to be non compatible doesn't surprise me, even though at the bottom of the link you gave us NVIDIA series 200 is supposed to be supported by CS6's Mercury...

    Is it even possible that my HD6790, which shares the same processor as an HD6870 and HD6850, is not compatible with CS6 while those 2 are?

    What softwares does photoshop requires to run correctly on any W7 computer? Could it be that a third party software which is required to make PS work correctly is not working correctly or is outdated?

     
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  • Curt Y
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    16. Curt Y,
    May 28, 2012 10:03 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    Do you have more than one card installed?  This can cause problems.

     

    Anti-virus can also cause problems.  Temporarliy disable it and see if performace improves.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    17. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 10:13 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Only one (AMD 880G chipset). No antivirus at all

     
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  • Curt Y
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    18. Curt Y,
    May 28, 2012 10:17 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    Here is a note from the person with the GT240.

     

    According to NVIDIA Tech Support,on Adobe's website it tells what cards are compatible. Tech said GT240 was not and that Adobe lists the GT470 as the minimum.

     
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  • nickna12
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    19. nickna12,
    May 28, 2012 10:32 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Just as a spot of perspective - I'm using a Nvidia GTX 560Ti 1024Mb with the latest 301.24 driver and everything is working fine - no brush lags, CL ok. 

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    20. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 10:36 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Curt Y wrote:

     

    Here is a note from the person with the GT240.

     

    According to NVIDIA Tech Support,on Adobe's website it tells what cards are compatible. Tech said GT240 was not and that Adobe lists the GT470 as the minimum.

    Seriously? Thats funny

    Although there is only GTX 470, no GT version was ever released.

    I would try asking AMD about this stuff but I don't believe HD6790 is not compatible because, as I said, it has the same processor HD6850 and HD6870 have, and slower cards work perfectly...

    This is confusing.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    21. ForeKeith,
    May 28, 2012 10:37 AM   in reply to nickna12
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    nickna12 wrote:

     

    Just as a spot of perspective - I'm using a Nvidia GTX 560Ti 1024Mb with the latest 301.24 driver and everything is working fine - no brush lags, CL ok. 

    Lucky you. Seriously.

     
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  • metallicfist
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    22. metallicfist,
    May 29, 2012 3:17 PM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    Yup that's pretty lucky...

    well my GTX 460 is a 1gb and anyway photoshop should not behave like that, i would consider it as a bug and not user hardware/software related.

    i also tried to install the latest version of Geforce 301.24 driver yesterday after i wrote my first post here, but it didn't change anything. Still having the same issue :S

     

    also GTX is just a name of a serie of graphic cards, it doesnt mean anything

     
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  • jworthin
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    23. jworthin,
    May 30, 2012 9:19 AM   in reply to metallicfist
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    Is the slowdown only affecting Liquify? Or does it also affect other GPU features like Oil Paint, Warp and Puppet Warp, canvas rotation? I have only seen Liquify slowdowns rarely and they are very hard to reproduce here. Are the slowdowns on machines with tablets attached?

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    24. ForeKeith,
    May 30, 2012 10:35 AM   in reply to jworthin
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    Hello Jworthin,

    The slowdowns, as I said earlier in my first post, happen with brush tool and when moving layers around.

    It is so slow I couldn't even bring myself to test any other feature...

    On a new document, A4 size 300dpi, brush tool lags incredibly much.

    And I can't bring myself to believe it is caused by having a slow graphic card because this card isn't slow at all.

     
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  • metallicfist
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    25. metallicfist,
    May 30, 2012 11:38 AM   in reply to jworthin
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    I have tried both, there is no difference and yes it only happens with Liquify or very soft and big brushes.

    didn't notice any kind of slowdown using vanishing point, oil paint, dynamic zoom or anything else.

    my brush is delayed and behind the mouse when going quick.

     
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  • jworthin
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    26. jworthin,
    May 30, 2012 11:48 AM   in reply to metallicfist
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    I do not think the problems are caused by the cards, it may be a driver problem but these cards should be performing faster.

    Just to be clear, when you run Liquify the preview does not have the (CPU mode) thin black pixel outline, right?

    Does the cursor seem to track the mouse better when the cursor is not over the preview in the Liquify dialog? Like when you hover over the tools or controls.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    27. ForeKeith,
    May 30, 2012 12:49 PM   in reply to jworthin
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    AMD replied to my email just today and said that my graphic card should be compatible and should perform great with the current drivers.

    I would love to have the issue with my graphic card fixed because mercury engine is the main reason I bought CS6.

    However, even when I'm in CPU mode, moving layers around is very laggy, even with thumbnails preview turned off in the layers window...

     
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  • metallicfist
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    28. metallicfist,
    May 30, 2012 1:11 PM   in reply to jworthin
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    there is no black pixel outline, i dont get the second one? It's not the cursor not following the mouse, it's the cursor that feels laggy when using brush but not when using liquify, actually its the opposite, when using liquify tool then it moves laggy and response strange but when starting to hold down the leftclick button then it goes back to normal and no lag until i let go of the mouse again. I dont know if you understand, it's kind of hard to describe.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,002 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    29. Noel Carboni,
    May 30, 2012 1:21 PM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    ForeKeith wrote:

     

    AMD replied to my email just today and said that my graphic card should be compatible and should perform great with the current drivers.

     

    Wow, they went out on a limb and said that?    AMD clearly is denying any problems just as any corporate entity appears to do nowadays.  Didn't someone once say "shoot all the laywers"?

     

    It's pretty clear the Catalyst 12.4 release is a bust with Photoshop.  Lots of people have seen that.  And I just checked - AMD hasn't released Catalyst 12.5 yet.

     

    http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64. aspx

     

    But I agree that your card is MORE than powerful enough.  Mine is slower than yours and my Photoshop experience is quick and interactive.  There is a SPECIFIC PROBLEM that's manifesting here.

     

    But just to be absolutely, completely, undeniably sure we're not talking about a performance issue with very large files, please do the following:

     

    1.  Create a new, blank document as follows:

    NewImage.jpg

     

    2.  Choose the Brush Tool then reset it by right-clicking in the little brush icon at the upper-left and choosing Reset Tool:

    ResetBrushTool.jpg

     

    3.  Make the brush 1000 pixels in size, fully soft.

    BrushSize.jpg

     

    4.  Set the foreground color to something other than white and brush quickly from the upper-left corner of the image to the lower-right.  Roughly how many seconds does it take for the actual on-canvas stroke to get all the way to the bottom (i.e., how far behind does it get)?

     

    Is it:

     

    • Nearly instantaneous?
    • One second behind?
    • Many seconds behind?

     

     

    On my system with this big brush and huge image, it gets about 1 second behind.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    30. ForeKeith,
    May 30, 2012 1:57 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    11 seconds?

     
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  • metallicfist
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    31. metallicfist,
    May 30, 2012 1:48 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    1 second here.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    32. Noel Carboni,
    May 30, 2012 1:54 PM   in reply to metallicfist
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    Sounds like metallicfist is seeing a more or less typical delay because literally millions of pixels have to be manipulated.  Should it be faster than 1 second?  Maybe, but that's the state of the art.

     

    But 10x slower than that, as is being seen by ForeKeith, indicates a problem I think.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    33. ForeKeith,
    May 30, 2012 2:05 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Noel Carboni wrote:

     

    (...)as is being seen by ForeKeith(...)

    You can call me darling.

     
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  • metallicfist
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    34. metallicfist,
    May 30, 2012 2:34 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Yes i believe that 1 sec is pretty normal so that's fine but the brush* still feels so laggy when using it.

    you can almost see every brush point is creates.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    35. ForeKeith,
    Jun 1, 2012 12:34 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    I'm still looking for a solution to this problem.

     
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  • jworthin
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    36. jworthin,
    Jun 1, 2012 8:55 AM   in reply to ForeKeith
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    There is a team of engineers working on the problem here.

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    37. ForeKeith,
    Jun 1, 2012 1:20 PM   in reply to jworthin
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    I don't know if this is related but yesterday PS crashed when I tried to use the color selection tool.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    Dec 23, 2006
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    38. Noel Carboni,
    Jun 1, 2012 1:35 PM   in reply to jworthin
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    Jworthin, you don't realize how positive it is for users to hear something like that.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • ForeKeith
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    39. ForeKeith,
    Jun 2, 2012 12:22 AM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    So true.

     
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