Adobe Photoshop CS4 - First Thoughts

Just got around to loading the new CS4 onto my studio machine. This computer looks like a mini-refrigerator and my neighbors kid me (I think) that their lights dim when I turn it on. I've got a Dell Precision 690 running quad core 3.00GHz and for now 8 GB RAM, I also have dual NVIDA Quadro NVS 285 display cards that have two Dell 24' monitors as well as a Wacom 1200 attached; I won't even go into the storage space. I configured this computer about 2 years ago and was running it on Win XP Pro 64 before making the move to Vista Ultimate 64 late last year.

As a side not I had what turned out to be a minor problem but I went to our local computer geek store while as I was explaining the system their eyes rolled into the back of their heads - they did admit it was beyond their level until one person stepped out from the back. I figure they kept him chained in the back as he really didn't have very good interpersonal skills but he knew computers and that's all I wanted.

Running a system like mine is no piece of cake as I found out. Yes it's fast and yes it delivers what I ask of it so long as I feed it the proper software.

What's the point of all this? Simple, as I said before I just completed the install of Photoshop CS4 64bit. I've had it up and running now for less than 30 minutes but I can tell you this sucker is sweet! It recognizes the RAM I have available which is well past the 4GB range. I've gone to the preferences and set what looks like will be good for me and opened a normal size file. This is a 60x30 inch panorama at 300 ppi which is 1.02GB in size. The file opened in way less time than it's ever done before - very fast indeed.

Finally a 64bit image processing software! What a great tool to accompany Capture One 4.5 Pro in 64 bit. Looks like people have listened to those of us who operate 64bit.

I'm very impressed and happy!

Thanks for letting me share the news.

don