Why Photoshop and Illustrator CS6 are so slow on my MacBook Pro early 2011?

So Far, no one has the asnwer as to why a machine like

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro5,1

Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 12

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB

Memory: 12 GB

Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s

Runs slow only when PHOTOSHOP CS6 starts???

For files as low as 72 Dip - 8MB files. The Beach Balls swirls every 5 sec without reason.

It seems as if someone is monitoring your machine via photoshop. Even the colors on tool bar dont toggle.

Just waste of time. Ive got two discs allocated for SCRATCH DISK each being 700 GB FREE.

It seems that APPLE is dieing and this is a BAD NEWS for all Apple Users!

As people represting APPLE here on the forum are tossing queries like Government Employees in India.

What i can say is my laptop with Windows is performing MUCH BETTER than this professional MACINTOSH PRO i have!

ANY ANSWERS??????

Proc and memory may be fast, but what do you have for drives and on what interface? Have you run performance tests on the drives to see what your machine is really getting in terms of throughput? Also, do the same with your whole system. Run the same performance tests labs and review sites run on the new systems as they come out and lets see where your machine stands. Also, remember the key details. Just because you have 12 cores deosn't mean an app will use them. If the app isn't written to take advantage of multiple cores and large amounts of RAM, it won't. Doesn't matter how much the OS wants to get it to do it, it won't do it efficiently or at all. Video card is the other aspect that will govern overall speed of the Mac system for the use you're describing.

Ultimately, you may even have other issues with your OS build that's causing the slowness, but without being there in person to see the problem at hand and actually use your system to get an idea of why you say it's slow, I can't tell you where to look besides giving you base points to look at.

Go with this http://www.primatelabs.com/geekbench/download/ and post your scores. Let's see what you get and if it matches up with what's been reported so far for your system.

Solved my case by using the Font Book's "Validate Fonts" function. More info here:

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-photoshop-cs5.html

Seems kind of strange that CS6 seems to be able to completely hang on some dodgy fonts. (I used exactly the same fonts on CS5 and never had a problem).

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 384 MB

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 512 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.8.2 (12C3012) - Uptime: 0 days 0:42

Disk Information:

APPLE HDD HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (202.21 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

Kernel Extensions:

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.accountsd.plist

[failed] com.apple.AirPlayUIAgent.plist

[failed] com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist

[failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist

[failed] com.apple.mrt.uiagent.plist

[failed] com.apple.tccd.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

[loaded] com.wacom.pentablet.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d637272d9d8109.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Mail

BambooCore

3rd Party Preference Panes:

PenTablet

Flash Player

Internet Plug-ins:

AdobePDFViewer.plugin

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

DirectorShockwave.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

WacomNetscape.plugin

WacomSafari.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Top Processes by CPU:

1% Adobe

1% WindowServer

1% EtreCheck

1% PhotoStreamAgent

1% iPhoto

0% PluginProcess

0% fontd

0% storeagent

0% Safari

0% syslogd

Top Processes by Memory:

343 MB Adobe

307 MB iPhoto

205 MB App

152 MB Safari

123 MB Mail

102 MB PluginProcess

102 MB WindowServer

78 MB mds

41 MB PhotoStreamAgent

29 MB WebProcess

kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'

Last login: Wed Mar 20 08:17:38 on console

Fiorellas-MacBook-Pro:~ Fiorella$ kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'

Fiorellas-MacBook-Pro:~ Fiorella$

4GB of RAM is going to cause a program like Adobe CS to drag. Like it or not, you will swap to the hard drive for VM usage and that's what will cause the slowness. 4GB on a 64bit OS and using Adobe design apps is a recipe for slowness in my book. There is just no way that's enough to make things run smooth (i.e. not page out all the time.)

okkk, I ll just sell my mac and buy two regular computers with the same carachteristics and play races between them, like wich one gets the job done in adobe faster... my old regular hp with 2 gb ram run perfectly.... so sad..

No, so sad is that you were probably running a 32bit OS on your old HP and making it work. The differences in RAM requirement between 32bit and 64bit is undeniable. Get yourself some more RAM (16GB is under $100) from some place online like Newegg and fix your issue. It's not rocket science. And if you're thinking of telling me that you ran Windows 7 w/2GB of RAM on your old HP and had no slowness with the OS or anything on it, I'll tell you that you're crazy... because no way that's going to happen.

Having the exact same problem. CS5 worked like a charm. CS6 is virtually unusable. Super basic things like zooming, switching tools, single pixel nudging, etc. causing tremendous slow downs. I am working on a 60meg file which is rather small compared to other files i've worked on before in CS5 with zero problems. I clicked Save For Web and got the spinning beachball. I went to the kitchen to get a drink and it was still spinning when I came back. So unbelievably maddening.

AND these suggestions from the "experts" are making me even more angry. This is exactly why I stopped using PCs and migrated to a Mac in the first place. I HATE having to jump through hoops and fine tuning system preferences and so on just to get a very expensive piece of new software to work. It should just work. For the price, it should have been tested a million times over and be virtually bulletproof by the time its released.

Use ps in 8 or 16 bits... Let us know if it worked out

I too am having issues with CS6 slow downs. Similiar to CrofootN.

Nudging, moving folders of elements around, exporting web images, all have 30 secs of pin-wheel of death.

These are usually 32MB files or less.

Before you point me to the above non-sense responses and lack of actual direcitonal fixes.

I'm on a Fall-2012 Mac Pro w/Retina

2.7 GHz Core i7 - 16gbs DDR3 Ram - Solid State 512GB hard drive with over half available.

CS5 worked great. However this is a work computer and we are moving up to CS6, so this is not an optional installation for me. I've run through all of the possible fixes in the performance page here -> http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html

I can't figure this out. Why is it sooo slow do these functionally simplistic tasks. Does anyone know if this is a known issue with Adobe yet? I've been to multiple forms in search of solutions and no-one seems to indicate it as the problem that it seems to be. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, so there is one tip that I missed in the help page. It's "Minimize or turn off panel preview thumbnails". By clicking on the Layers > Panels Options. Turn the preview to none and it immediately helps move items around the page without delay. Helps with loads, speed and overall efficiency.

I hope this helps someone else.

Snipeathome, This ABSOLUTELY solved my problem. I've been struggling for MONTHS with this beachballing/pinwheel BS. I'm on a 2010 MBP with 2.4ghz C2D, 16GB RAM and a 256SSD lappy... this has been a big pain in the *** since I upgraded to CS6. I so wish Adobe would get their **** together and optimize these programs. Another issue that shouldn't happen albeit it does is when a browser is open you can't use the cursor in a text block. It's INSANE... this has been noted for 2 years now and NOTHING has been done about it. So, I thank you for figuring out the Panel Options piece. Its users like you who make rotten Adobe experiences smoother! 🙂

I have the same problem you mention with a Macbook Pro. 2.6 Core I7, 8 GB of Ram, Nvidia graphics, and 100GB of free space. Sooo... It's not a Hardware problem... just Photoshop and Illustrator CS6, *****!

I'm a Graphic Designer and I been used all the version of adobe suite so far. Cs6, specially Photoshop are some kind of black hole of ram and resorces.

It's increible that people with experience in this forum only said "Get more ram". More ram will not fix the terrible bad job adobe it's doing!

Sorry for my english, BTW...

Mauro

Exactly!

I got 32GB ram, 3TB Fusion disk and 3,4ghz Intel Core I7 in my iMac... And Adobe CS6 *****!!

It is not supposed to take several minutes to save a simple pdf from Illustrator for example..

maybe a ram issue of a different kind 😟

I also experienced the issue on a mac pro from last year with 64 GB - illustrator works fine but photoshop makes the funny wheel spin for 30 seconds even without a file open. After following some pointers from this thread, I checked graphics card settings. According to the panel, PS was supposed to take 103% of available graphics RAM. Turning the slider to about 50% seems to have cured the problem (Well, need to test with some big files)