I don’t know why a GPU would improve very much in Photoshop. GPU’s are generally used for games and other such products that do a lot of 3D stuff. Now that PS CS3 Extented handles some 3D stuff it may make use of a GPU there, but I would guess that a GPU for the rest of the 2D just isn’t happening.
Robert
Go to Preferences>Performance. There is a GPU Settings which states there is no GPU Options available on Windows XP with Photoshop.
Probably for Vista?
GPU’s are generally used for games and other such products that do a lot of 3D stuff.
there’s a kind of buzz in computing circles going on about using the high power and speed of gpus on todays graphics cards to offload some tasks from the main processor.
Windows Vista Ultimate, ATI Radeon 1650 video card (512MB RAM) I can check the check box. I don’t know if this is because of Vista or because of the video card I have.
Robert
Robert, do you have the extended version? Can you tell wether the brushes or something else thats not related to the extended version are faster with the checkbox turned on?
Would be interesting to know wether the checkbox is there in the standard version, too. Can any engineer tell us wether it makes a difference if Photoshop runs under Vista or XP?
Stefan
chris cox mentioned it in response to a question i posed right after the beta was released. a search should turn up the thread if interested…
Chris Cox said in the beta forum:
"GPUs aren’t being used in CS3.
We are continually working with the GPU makers to improve their cards and drivers to address the needs of applications like Photoshop".
But obviousely it does use the GPU (the beta did not).
So the question remains wether only the extended version uses the GPU and wether there are differences between Vista an XP.
Stefan
Yes. I have the Extended version. I don’t notice any speed difference with things like brushes. I suspect that since this option deals with a GPU which is designed for 3D in games and possibly for modeling and rendering that you won’t see any change until you start working with 3D objects in PSCS Extended. However, this is only a guess and Adobe will have to clear this up.
Robert
And, Stefen what parts of CS3 are using it. I really can see a graphics processor design for 3D doing a whole lot of what is mostly 2D. I wish someone from Adobe would spill the beans on this. It is an interesting question.
Robert
Anyone here uses the extended version under XP? Do you have the GPU option as Robert does under Vista?
I`d also appreciate a comment from Adobe.
Robert, is the GPU acceleration acctually working on your system? I`m asking, because I tried the extended version on a friend`s PC (WinXP SP2) and it does not make any difference if the 3D checkbox is checked or not when you rotate a 3D object. Also the GPU core temperature does not go up at all which indicates that it doesn`work. I´s a Geforce 6 with 256 MB. Hmmmm….
Stefan
I’ve got hte box and checked it. Seems pretty fast anyway so hard to tell if it makes much difference. xp sp2. cs3 ee.
Dave, you could try a model with MANY polygons. Then you should be able to tell a difference. BTW. does the GPU field indicate what card it detected on your system?
Stefan
I have it checked and I don’t notice a thing. As I said before I suspect it is only going to have an impact when you deal with 3D models. That is what the GPU of most video cards are designed to handle. That is why it is fairly easy to find a video card that will do 3D really well but kind of suck for 2D. That is why I always went Matrox, because they worried less about 3D performance and more about 2D performace. However, Matrox hasn’t kept you so I ended up with my last upgrade going with an ATI Radeon 1650.
I believe someone in the know at Adobe talked about this before. Basically, if I remember correctly there is very little in Photoshop that can make good use of or needs 3D. 3D is done with a different form of math. So this is what leads me to believe that you won’t see much until you work with the 3D models in Extended.
Robert
You`re right, Robert, but I did test it with a 3D model and it doesn`t seem to work. Stefan
Thank you Dave! Looks the same on mine.
Stefan
Here is the exact quote from Martin Evening’s preview pages.
"GPU settings – Instead of relying on the Central Processor Unit (CPU) for the graphics processing, some Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) are capable of providing faster graphics
rendering. Where a GPU type card is detected, checking the Enable 3D Acceleration box will improve the image display performance. The 3D support will also improve the performance of the brushes. When using a pressure sensitive pen, the brushes response will feel much
more sensitive and responsive."
If only someone from Adobe would respond – many people would be able to make decisions about what graphics card type would best be used in CS3.
I will try to get in touch with Martin and see if he can shed some light on this issue – since Adobe so far has chosen not to be of any assistance. I think the subject of DirectX10 is part of the discussion along with the fact that there was some discussion about Adobe putting some "experimental trial" items into Photoshop that would be used in later updates or versions.
My guess is that the Preferences dialog box might be for a future version or update (or the extended version) that uses the GPU along with DirectX10 functionality – but the programming is not yet ready for release.
In the PsCS3 beta forum, Chris Cox said that the GPU checkbox would be removed from PsCS3 standard; it’s not present in my standard edition, although the pane is there. Chris said that the GPUs in use didn’t really help much. My guess is that they made this determination based on the machines used by early beta testers, who were likely to have pretty minimal 2D graphics cards, which were all that older versions needed; if they had tested with people who are also gamers and have moderately advanced 3D cards, they would have found useful GPUs.
The only feature that uses your GPU card is the 3D feature in Photoshop Extended. If for some reason your PS does not like your GPU card or there is a driver issue PS will drop back to software rendering when you open a supported 3D file in PS. You will not see any acceleration of 2D images using the GPU check box in PS extended preferences.
We recommend for best results using a Geforce 6000 series or higher GPU card or an ATI 1000 series or higher GPU card for usage with the 3D feature in PS extended.
Hope this helps.
Dave @ Adobe
very useful info david. thanks!
dave
PS extended detected my nVidia GPU automatically and the "Enable 3D Acceleration" checkbox is apparently checked by default. Note that it does say "3D Acceleration". I take this to mean that’s what it does, not layer, brush, or other acceleration. John Nack made a comment a while back in his blog about problems utilizing GPUs with Photoshop, because they don’t return data to the program fast enough. (You can get from the program TO the GPU fast, but apparently it’s an asymmetric channel that’s way too slow on the return path. I don’t know how current this information is, but his post was only a few months ago. Adobe folks were working with the GPU manufacturers to address this issue as of when he posted the info.)
Once a 3D object’s data is loaded into the graphics card, the built-in 3D rendering functions would make manipulating the object a whole lot faster than trying to re-render constantly inside Photoshop.
