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FB Eye · Aug 4, 2005, 10:27 AM

Hi there,

I'm a designer working with CS 2 and always have PS, AI and ID running at the same time. For the work I do, I keep going back and forth between the 3 apps.

The problem is that since upgrading to CS 2, the apps bring my Dual 1.8Ghz G5 (with 1.25 GB of RAM) down to a crawl. I'm running a plain-vanilla installation of OS X with a minimum of add-ons and gizmos. I often open up PS files of 100MB and more, and that's when things get nasty. Working on such files in PS and then trying to switch back to InDesign takes roughly 1 to 2 minutes. I get to InDesign quickly, but it takes all this time to try to redraw the palettes and other UI elements. Quitting Photoshop takes 2 minutes, and that's when it won't simply give up trying to quit. I often have to force-quit Adobe apps because they won't quit. Even after quitting all Adobe apps, the whole system is stuck in molasses. The only way to fix this is to restart the Mac.

Since the very nature of my work implies opening up large PS files and going back and forth between InDesign Photoshop and Illustrator, I have to reboot my Mac 10-12 times a day to get things rolling again.

I can't believe CS 2 can bring a G5 down to its knees, but so far it's been a disaster. Anyone knows how to fix this? FYI, I don't have VersionCue installed at all and I don't use Bridge either.

Thanks!!!

Randman · Aug 4, 2005, 10:31 AM

What are your preferences set for? If you have PS to take the lion's share of the ram, it'll slow the others down. More ram could help for professional stuff. I have 1.5GB on my PB17 and am thinking of going to 2GB just cuz I like giving PS as much ram as I can.

JMII · Aug 4, 2005, 04:38 PM

We have dual 2GHz G5 with 3GBs of RAM here at work and do the same thing (all CS2 apps open all the time, big PS files, lots of switching) and don't have this problem. The only thing that seems to slow stuff down is Suitcase and various fonts opening/closing. We ran one of our systems at only 2GBs of RAM for awhile and had it was fine, so maybe 1.25GB is just not enough. OSX is a RAM hog so more RAM would not hurt. Check how much memory PS is set to take, the default is 70% and that might be too much with your system. Also make sure you have enought free HD space, between the swap disk and virtual memory if your low on HD space it could really slow things down I'd guess.

Thinine · Aug 4, 2005, 05:31 PM

Are you running Tiger or Panther? CS2 in Tiger has different memory use than in Panther.

FB Eye · Aug 8, 2005, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Thinine

Are you running Tiger or Panther? CS2 in Tiger has different memory use than in Panther.

I'm on Tiger. 10.4.2

I've made PS to use only 50% of available RAM and it helped alot (from the default 70%). Now switching back and forth is snappier, although still a bit slow for a G5.

But I still have the long quitting delays for all CS 2 apps. InDesign takes forever to quit, and that's when I don't have to force-quit it...

What I have done to deserve this?