CS4 and CS5 Ultra Slow Performance

Question

CS4 and CS5 Ultra Slow Performance

Just curious if anyone has run into extremely sluggish behavior when running either CS4 or CS5 on a brand new i7 Macbook Pro.

I have a brand new, 2.66 i7 Macbook Pro with 4 gigs of RAM and CS4 installed. I had a 100 percent vector Illustrator file that was only 1.5 MB in size. I added a clipping mask and then "saved as" an EPS. I then received a progress bar that stated "Writing Illustrator EPS Format". It's been 30 minutes and the bar hasn't even reached a 1/4 completion. I then tried this same task on a different Macbook Pro i7, also brand new, also 2.66 i7, but with CS5 and 8 gigs of RAM. It wasn't any faster. Both machines are sitting with the bar barely moving. I estimate this task would take 2-3 hours to export which is totally unacceptable for a 1.5mb file.

Also, this problem is not unique to this file. Every time I have tried to save as an Illustrator EPS file, the machine becomes so slow it is essentially unusable. In Photoshop, I have experienced the same sluggish behavior when opening large files (over 100MB). What gives? I am a professional designer and I can't use either of these new Macbook Pro i7s for my work.

Does anyone know what is wrong?

Macbook Pro i7 17", Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jun 2, 2010 5:48 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 3, 2010 4:11 AM in response to Derek Doublin1

I'm having the same problem, exact same laptop. Got my macbook pro i7 yesterday, installed adobe master suite CS4 (just missed out on CS5 :[) and illustrator is running almost unusably slow. Im editing a blank A3 page with just four letters with a pattern brush applied. If i move even one letter a bit, the whole program freezes up and if i dont stop straight away and just leave it, i have to force quit it. Extremely frustrating since I was looking forward to a smooth workflow from this EXPENSIVE laptop!

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Answer 2

Jun 3, 2010 1:16 PM in response to Krisvanlog

Hi how can you 'just miss out on Cs5'
It wasn't a special limited edition release available for 3 hours!
It's available to everyone, in the shops ow.

And if you just bought CS4, you can get free upgrade to Cs5 if you contact Adobe with your CS4 receipt.

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Answer 3

Jun 3, 2010 7:54 PM in response to simon gamble

Yes, but most of the programs in CS 5 for the Mac are still plagued by the same slow issues and memory errors. In fact, most programs in CS 5 for the Mac are still 32 bit. There are only three 64 bit apps in the entire Mac CS 5 suite, and Illustrator isn't one of them.

I'm having the same problems with Illustrator CS 5 as I am with CS 4. Adobe is still writing programs for yesterday's Macs. The sad thing is, they seem to be 100 percent dedicated to the Windows environment as Windows received their 64 bit apps in CS 4, which was a full version before the Mac

It's looking more and more like the platform for graphic designers is WIndows.

I never thought I'd ever say those words.

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Answer 4

Jun 6, 2010 9:38 PM in response to simon gamble

Thanks for letting me know about the free upgrade! I wasn't aware. Hopefully they will honour it and my problems will be solved...

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Answer 5

Jun 8, 2010 10:51 PM in response to Krisvanlog

I'm having the same problem. Same exact Macbook Pro on Adobe CS5. VERY slow performance. Almost the same speed as my old 2005 Powerbook I just just rid of. Anyone know of any solutions?

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Answer 6

itsjeo

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2010 1:46 AM in response to Derek Doublin1

When you start the computer up, hold down 6 and 4. that starts the os in 64 bit mode instead of 32. All of the cs5 programs have been more "bearable" that way. ps and br are lightning fast. I've also noticed that temperatures stay lower in 64 bit mode.

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Answer 7

danegeld

Level 2

185 points

Jun 9, 2010 1:30 PM in response to Derek Doublin1

Something is very wrong. I'm running Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, both CS4 and CS5 versions on my MBP and they're all fast (the CS5 versions are extremely fast). How do you have your scratch disk set up? Is there enough free space on the drive you're using for it?

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Answer 8

eph3x

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2010 11:19 PM in response to Derek Doublin1

It's not the hardware, nor the OS, I'm pretty sure. I've had the same issue with Illustrator CS4 and CS5 on my windows machine. Everything else runs like butter, Photoshop x64, Indesign, Flash. Even Cinema 4d and Vue 8 Xstream handling masses of procedural stuff run just fine. Illustrator just gives up on this little 1.5 mb file though.

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Answer 9

Jun 23, 2010 12:08 PM in response to itsjeo

Holding down "6" and "4" worked for me. Better, faster and more fluid playback in After Effects so far. Thanks!

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Answer 10

raccoon2

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2010 10:06 PM in response to itsjeo

You can also switch between 32 & 64 Bit mode on a mac by downloading sixtyfourswitcher which is free from here http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32299/sixtyfourswitcher

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Answer 11

KXsig

Level 2

310 points

Jul 14, 2010 11:23 PM in response to eph3x

Hi guys,

Something is wrong. I used a 2,5MB, 6.000 objects file and got the save as EPS done in a bit, less then a minute. Reducing the original 10MB 13.000 objects mask clipped and stuff took me some 15 minutes in outline view and no highlights.

Following I used a 5 art boards 8MB file, selected some 4.000 objects with several effects including gradients, opacities and overlaying layers effects in one art board and this took me some 2~3 minutes.

I'm with CS5 here.

Someone want the 13.000 object file so we can make some real tests?

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Answer 12

KXsig

Level 2

310 points

Jul 14, 2010 11:54 PM in response to eph3x

So, here is the AI, the 10MB was the original PDF one, in the link the one that took me 15 minutes to reduce.
I'll choose another one with more elaborated artwork to run tests as this is simply 13.000 text objects colored, grouped and clipped.

http://rapidshare.com/files/407041830/Flower8.ai
MD5: 8C8029D595E93723B98F7A3F2D6CFB83

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Answer 13

Network 23

Level 6

12,339 points

Jul 15, 2010 12:31 AM in response to Derek Doublin1

Derek Doublin1 wrote:
In fact, most programs in CS 5 for the Mac are still 32 bit. There are only three 64 bit apps in the entire Mac CS 5 suite, and Illustrator isn't one of them...Adobe is still writing programs for yesterday's Macs. The sad thing is, they seem to be 100 percent dedicated to the Windows environment as Windows received their 64 bit apps in CS 4, which was a full version before the Mac

Not sure all of that's true. If I'm not mistaken, having three 64-bit apps is apparently three more than Apple has in Final Cut Studio even today...and it's known that Lightroom went 64-bit long before Aperture did.

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Answer 14

KXsig

Level 2

310 points

Jul 15, 2010 5:14 AM in response to KXsig

Hi there,

Updating, I got this file opened in Illustrator, unlocked main layer, released clipping mask, ungrouped bellow layer, distributed mixed objects into layers (build), selected previous clipper and previous ungrouped layers in a clipping mask and saved as EPS, transparent tiff 8 preview, embed fonts, thumbs, CMYK postscript and gradient. As I kept all the 13.000 objects it took long 10 minutes saving. Options saving were overloaded, the document don't have any gradient, my mistake. But it is a good material for running this test. Would somebody join? 🙂

Cheers, K.

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Answer 15

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Jul 15, 2010 5:28 AM in response to KXsig

To others reading this thread: we know from another recent thread that KXsig's machine is four years old, so the results he has posted here should be quite handily outperformed by any current Core 2 Duo or i5/i7 MBP model that is working well. If that isn't happening, then the newer machine has something holding it back.

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