Cs4 saving files compared to CS3

[Dennishh]

I recently started using CS4 on a Vista 64 Machine with Raid 0 disks and 16gigs of memory and noticed that saving files to disk was very slow compared to CS3. I have tried all the optimization fixes I can find to no avail. A 120 meg file with no layers takes about 1.2 sec to save using CS3 and about 8 seconds in CS4. When I use layers CS4 is agonizingly slow. I'm using 64 bit CS4. Has anyone else noticed this and is there a fix?
Thanks,
Dennis

[greg8117]

I'm having similar issues on similar rig (i7 920/Vista 64/Raid 1tb).  All I have ascertained is that layers make a huge difference in the time it takes to save files.  While file size is greater with layers, the differential is well in excess of the size difference.  

12MP image, no layers, 69.6mb - >1 second.
Same image, 9 layers, 603mb - 55 seconds.

Any ideas ?

[greg8117]

Addendum:

2 images, both take up 600mb on disk.  One flat image, other layered (9) image.

The flat image takes 5 seconds to save.
The layered image takes 55 seconds to save.

The flat image takes 1 second to open.
The layered image takes 10 seconds to save.

Would seem like its a Photoshop issue dealing with layers...

[rcannonp]

What file type are you using? Saving TIFFs with ZIP compression can slow things down, especially ZIP layer compression.

[greg8117]

What file type are you using? Saving TIFFs with ZIP compression can slow things down, especially ZIP layer compression.

Sorry should have said - all PSD's.

[greg8117]

I recently started using CS4 on a Vista 64 Machine with Raid 0 disks and 16gigs of memory and noticed that saving files to disk was very slow compared to CS3. I have tried all the optimization fixes I can find to no avail. A 120 meg file with no layers takes about 1.2 sec to save using CS3 and about 8 seconds in CS4. When I use layers CS4 is agonizingly slow. I'm using 64 bit CS4. Has anyone else noticed this and is there a fix?
Thanks,
Dennis

Found the answer - CS3/CS4 uses only one CPU core for the save operation. The save can run only as fast as that CPU, so a fast hard drive makes little improvement.

The compression and other stuff (whatever it is) in PSD or TIF format is a killer: it takes 7-8 times longer to save a file than without compression. If your work is being held up by this factor, save as uncompressed TIF, and onto a striped RAID. Way faster.

File Format  Time to save (seconds) File Size (MB)
PSD, slow drive 48 secs 348.1 file size
TIF: ZIP/ZIP, slow drive 59 seconds 450.6 file size
TIF/uncompressed, slow drive 7.4 seconds 722.1 file size
TIF/uncompressed, 2-drive stripe 3.5 seconds 722.1 file size  

[Dennishh]

Thanks for the new information! I'm sure Adobe will fix this soon, seeing saving files is most important. I finally installed 32 bit CS4 because I mistakenly thought 64 bit would be faster, I was wrong 32 bit CS4 is better all around.