[Bachs]

Just had to share this info with you!

My CS2 has been running painfully slow and on doing a search there are many people experiencing the same problem.

I have a very high specced machine but noticed 'effieciency' dropping as low as 20% in CS2.

Here are a number of tweaks that will dramatically increase the effiency and speed of CS2.

1> The most effective fix is to reduce your graphic cards' hardware acceleration by one notch. (right click desktop, got to preferences>settings>advanced depending on your driver)

2> The second priority is to disable Font Preview (Edit>Preferences>Type and untick the Font Preview Size checkbox)

3> Another resource hogger is 'Version Cue' To turn off 'Version Cue' (Edit>Preferences>File Handling and untick checkbox for Version Cue Workgroup File Management)

4> If you have more than one hard drive set your startup and scratch disk to the second drive (Edit>Preferences>Plug-ins and Scratch Disks)

5> In Edit>Preferences>Memory & Image Cache, increase the percentage of system RAM allocated to Photoshop. (I allocate 70% of my 1GB)

6> In Edit>Preferences>General reduce the number of History States and ensure the UI Font Size is set to small.

You will not beleive the difference in speed if you implement the above

Nice tips there Bachs,

1 > I can't do....need the acceleration for BF2
2 > Just done that (we'll see if I miss it, as I actually like the font preview..lol)
3 > Just done
4 > Already done (I have a spare HD in my machine purely as a scratch/temp/cache for apps).
5 > I had already upped it to 65% but I've just been brave and give it 90% (I don't do much else while chopping anyway)
6 > Again, I liked the increased number of History states, and the UI font size was already small.

Thanks for the tips thoug I'm sure there'll be many here who haven't done most of them.

What I would like to know though, is how people have their PSCS2's set up, in that I have a 19" TFT and I'm short on editing space, it's all taken up by too many toolbars etc, which just keep getting in the way. Yet I can't turn them off as I use them.
So I'm just curious to know how other people have theirs set up and how they manage.

[Bachs]

I have the same problem mate with toolbars obscuring the view.
I use a 19" CRT Monitor set to 1024X728.

One thing I do is to group the pallettes in the same windows...ie: I have Channels, Paths, Layers and Actions in one window and Navigator/Info in another.

I keep the Histogram in its own window so I can always keep an eye on it.

I usually view the image at 25% unless I need to use the zoom tool to home in on a detail.

EDIT 18:26:
Marcel...You can squeeze a little more desktop space by toggling with the 'F' key to get 3 options...Standard, Fullscreen with menu bar and Full Screen. The last option hides the PS menu bar and the windows taskbar.

[Dave]

Press "tab" to hide toolbars & same button again to re-instate.

Here's a link to a site that explains the settings in Photoshop.

I think it's for PS7 or CS, but mostly applicable to CS2 aswell.
It explains what each preference is for, what the differences betweent the choices are, and a recommendation to what you should use.

The link is to page 6 of the guide, which is what I'm up to so far (started nodding off..lol).
Although it has taught me quite a bit already that I didn't know
(Which TBH isn't that hard to do).

[Bachs]

Excellent link Marcel...and good tip DJW

[evilowl]

Originally Posted by Marcel

5 > I had already upped it to 65% but I've just been brave and give it 90% (I don't do much else while chopping anyway)

I would not recommend doing this unless you had at least 3Gb of RAM.

For people with 1Gb I would say to use a maximum of 75% for any particular app.

Well I run with 1.5gig in, and windows runs pretty 'clean' anyway (I hate unecessary things running).

While I'm in Photoshop I tend not to be doing much else anyway.
However since the above post I dropped it back to about 850meg maximum memory, which is more than enough. I try and keep an eye on the document size on the status bar, the scratch sizes, and the efficiency just incase.

So far I doub't I've worked on anything that comes even close to requiring most of my allocated memory.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by evilowl

I would not recommend doing this unless you had at least 3Gb of RAM.

For people with 1Gb I would say to use a maximum of 75% for any particular app.

After advice above put my 512MB to 80% on XP/MCE & no probs to date. Appreciate it could be a different matter if this was a Business PC with other Apps running all the time, but for CS2 with several IE windows , EMAIL etc. it's been OK.

[Bachs]

After using the suggestions in my original post, plus picking up some good tips an an earlier link/post, mine is still performing much, much better.

I've allocated 50% of my 1 gig RAM to Photoshop and tend to run little else whilst chopping.

[stepheno]

Thanks for the tips Bachs - what a difference

regards

[evilowl]

Forgot about this thread tbh

I should probably mention my background is IT support - 7.5 years in public and private sector, and I still stand by my statement that 75% should be considered maximum.

While it may run ok if you allocate that much memory to CS2, I feel you are skating on thin ice - while I do not use CS2 as extensively as some of you - you may find a side effect in that it crashes frequently and you lose unsaved work, but the choice, as they say, is yours.

[busterboy]

Originally Posted by stepheno

Thanks for the tips Bachs - what a difference

regards

Yes mate, I applied this when you first posted and its still running a treat and much faster..

Thanks mate..

[Steep]

A lot of these tips also work for elements.