Have you tried all the different GPU options in the Photoshop - Preferences - Performance dialog (making sure to restart Photoshop for each test)?

-Noel

There is no 32 bit Mac version of Photoshop CS6.

-Noel

I am also experiencing very slow response from Fireworks CS6 on Mountain Lion. Interacting with items on the canvas seems ok, but any time I attempt to expand a palette or click on a menu item, the app takes several seconds to respond.

did you solve the photoshop issue please?

Guys, I suffered the same problem for 4 days.  I am on the new MBP Pro Retina Display + Mountain Lion 16GB Ram, etc...

I first thought it was to do with retina display however no, that is not the case.

SOLUTION (sounds odd but works):

The only way I found to fix it, is setting photoshop to use the East Asian text engine instead of the Middle East one. (Prefs -> Type -> East Asian). Then restart Photoshop.

I never experienced a problem yet using CS6. Actually, I like the specs of this latest version and I'm very satisfied when using it.

Any other solution? I have the same problem, but can't use this solution since I actaully use the midlle eastern text engine (I need to be able to write Hebrew).

Right now my PS is so slow it's unsuable- I get a beach ball after every action, even adding a layer.

Mac Pro Quad 2.66, 10 GB RAM

I've had similar performance issues since installing Mt Lion on a Mac pro with CS6.  Namely when using the brush function, INCREDIBLY slow performance, to the point it's unusable.

I've tried everything down the list from performance and GUI settings, to deleting caches and pref, to reinstalling.

Nothing seems to help at all.  I'd thought turning GUI off would do it...but no dice.

CS5 works perfectly fine.

CS6 Photoshop running extremely slowly since Mountain Lion - Already running on East Asian Text, so that fix isn't working for me.

Illustrator also throwing up some unusual problems with file corruptions.

Dear Adobe.

Photoshop is impossible to use after the Retina update under OS X 10.8.

It is so slow, so it's impossible to use. I am not exaggerating to make it sound dramatic. It really is that bad.

That cheap but very competent competitor Pixelmator is blazing fast in comparison.

Please fix it.

My only fix so far (which is not really a fix) is to open Photoshop in low resolution.

Go to Finder, cmd+i to bring up info on the Photoshop app. Click on Open in low resolution. Open it again.

Speed is then decent, but I like the retina display. So please fix this nagging bug... really fast.

How about giving us the means of generating a system log that is meaningful to you and then you do the digging? It's your software so you're in a much better position to find and solve the issue than me.

I tried to switch over to Middle east composer just to try it, and boy then it took the slowdown to new heights.

No software is perfect. It can always be fixed. But to just sit back and point elsewhere doesn't impress me very much.

Should I send you the my log? Is it a good place to start?

Thank you so much for suggesting that! I was having the same problem, basically a beach ball every few seconds when any document was open. Couldn't even hardly adjust Photoshop's preferences (with an image open in the background), because it would constantly hang and all the option controls were intermittently (most of the time) unresponsive. This is an a new iMac (late 2012 model); used Migration Assistant to move from my old 6-year-old Mac Pro, but reinstalled CS6 on the new machine just to be safe. It was like I was running CS6 on a computer from the 1980s. None of the performance settings helped, and I don't have any custom plugins installed. But the moment I changed the text engine to Middle Eastern, ta-da! Like magic it made everything run 1000x better.