The problem is only with Nikon D300 NEFs and Bridge CS3.
Any folder containing Nikon D300 NEF files, being viewed from Bridge CS3, has performance and stability problems. The performance is very, very slow - almost a screen freeze, but Bridge will catch up if left alone for about 30 seconds.
The thumbnails, when resized, lose their rendered color (the NEFs have been processed in ACR 4.3.1, Custom WB, exposure - saved in XMP), and again Bridge just struggles to manage the files.
The slideshow doesn't work, or if it starts its performance is too slow to actually use.
I have uninstalled Photoshop CS3, re-installed everything without any change.
I have uninstalled trhe NVIDIA drivers, upgraded to a new driver, had to profile the monitor again - but still everything with Bridge CS3 and Nikon D300 NEFs is still wrong.
Any other folder, with Nikon D200 NEFs, works great with fantastic performance. Any folder with JPG or TIFF copies works great as well.
On Adobe's Forums there are postings on this problem with Nikon D3 NEFs.
Any insight on this problem would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.