CS4 issues at 100% screen view

[Paul_F_Caldwell]

I have installed CS4 on a older XP 64 bit machine, video card is a nvidia GEFORCE 8400 GS. Machine is about 1 1/2 years old, 8mb of ram and a dual core, not core duo processor.

The installation went fine and CS4 seems to run fine and process files, however when I view an image a 100% view and try to move it aroundthe image tiles as you move, and gets very jerky.

This happens in both the 64 bit and 32 bit versions.

I looked under the performance tab and my GPU settings are greyed out. CS4 says myvideo card drivers or card may need to be replaced. I have upgraded the drivers, but not the replaced the card.

It's been a long time since I saw this type of problem on CS4 and I can remember some type of setting on tiles that used to fix it, but can't find anythingspecific in CS4.

From my reading, I thought that that the GPU had issues with XP64 bit, with the 64 bit edition of CS4 and assumed the 32 bit would be OK. I also thought that the GPU and Open GL was more to do with the 3D stuff, which I didn't plan to use.

I have not loaded CS4 on any other 32 bit machine, XP or Vista to see if the issue is only related to this one box. CS3 works fine, no issues with moving an image around.

From doing more reading, it appears my issue is due to the Open GL design. I realized that the XP 64 bit OS, had no support for the CS4 OPen GL extensions, but thought you could turn them off or not use them. From reading some of the info and open ticket information on Adobe's site, I found more info.

Adobe states that you need to want to have a video card with at least 512mb of video ram if you are going to use the Open GL. They talk about upgrading the video driver so that it supports Open GL 2.0 and a certain version of shader. They also recommend turning off the Open GL Extension if you still have problems after upgrading your driver. From that I would assume that you could still get a smooth transition on a 100% view without the Open GL turned on.

Does anyone have CS4 setup with the Open GL turned off on video card with 256mb of ram and get a smooth transition when you move around your image at a 100% view? Not a view that breaks up into blocks as you move around?

Thanks
Paul Caldwell
www.photosofarkansas.com

[Noel_Carboni]

Hi Paul,

For a while I ran CS4 with the OpenGL features disabled, as I was having problems of my own with my older nVidia card. I have recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate x64 and I have not tried CS4 on XP x64.

I put countless hours into downloading old drivers, new drivers, trying different settings... Turns out the only solution that yielded results was to buy an ATI Radeon HD 4670 card with 1 GB of onboard DDR3 memory. Now I am using the full OpenGL acceleration.

I'll try deconfiguring the OpenGL now that I am using this card and let you know how it works.

-Noel

[Paul_F_Caldwell]

Hi Noel,

I just realized that since I had not yet applied my serial number, I had CS4 Extended running. Apparently
until you load the serial you get extended to try, which has the GPU functions.

Net, I now am current with just CS4, and all the GPU functions are greyed out stating not available unless
you are running extended. So all that is correct.

I still get a real slow jumpy issue when moving around a image at 100%. These are P45, 1ds MKII, 5D, MKII images
all tif. However a simple jpg also causes the same problem.

All the same files are fine in CS3.

Paul Caldwell

[Noel_Carboni]

No, it's not correct. Even the standard version offers the GPU functions if the system is up to it (I'm running Standard and have GPU functions). The error message is what's wrong.

I have to run now but in the next few hours I'll try running without the GPU stuff turned on and let you know if it seems choppy.

FYI, I did enable the "Bigger Tiles" plugin. As I recall it's not as easy as with prior versions of Photoshop. I may have had to download it from Adobe. It was weeks ago and my brain is a bit like a sieve.

-Noel

[Paul_F_Caldwell]

One more update.

I reached adobe support. They told me that even though I don't have extended, you still need to use OPen GL even though it's greyed out "not supported in this standard version of CS4".

Tech had me open the software and hold down Shift, cntl & Alt at the same time. This gives you the option to reset prefs. I did this and now the images still tile but about 50% faster. Making it OK. However it's pretty evident, I will need to get Vista 64 bit and reinstall the software since there is no open GL period for XP 64 bit.

Paul C

[Noel_Carboni]

Have you tried the "Bigger Tiles" plugin?

For what it's worth, I turned off OpenGL Drawing support, and can scroll nicely around a 20 megapixel image at 100% zoom. It takes an eyeblink to paint in the stuff being scrolled onto the screen, but it's not bad by any means.

I'm not saying you shouldn't upgrade to Vista - I rather like it myself - but it's a MAJOR step, insofar as Vista x64 will NOT upgrade XP x64; you have to do a clean install and put in all your apps again. I actually bought another computer just to be able to get through this step - which actually ended up taking about a month - without losing access to my working environment.

-Noel

[Paul_F_Caldwell]

Noel, Where can you get the bigger tiles plug-in. That was what I was trying to remember but can't find it now. and where does it go.

You are so right, I really didn't want to have to load vista as I knew it would be a total reload. I have had this license of XP 64 bit for almost 2 years, and wanted to at least use it a while before moving to Vista.

Thanks
Paul