View Full Version : CS4 and 64bit Vista


David Stoneburner
February 16th, 2009, 01:28 PM
I have read that CS4 really takes advantage and just smokes on 64bit Vista. Anybody care to comment and give their opinion?

Harm Millaard
February 16th, 2009, 01:49 PM
Anytime I see smoke coming from the PC, I get wary. Although Vista 64 is supported does not improve on the OS. It is still Vista and that means a memory hog with a giant footprint, a cumbersome UAC and - as a number of IT professionals put it - bug ridden. They tell me: "You don't want Vista on your system". Opinions differ, but from what I hear you may be better off with XP 64, or Server 2008.

David Stoneburner
February 16th, 2009, 02:27 PM
Harm, thanks for the reply. Personally I haven't had much problems with 32bit Vista. My kids got laptops for Christmas and I've kept Vista Home Basic on them, with no problems so far. They are only doing basic computing though, and are editing or making DVDs. On a side note, I've been playing with 64bit Win 7 and I really like it. I haven't done any video editing, but I have done some audio work with Audacity with no hick-ups.

Ron Evans
February 16th, 2009, 04:03 PM
I use Vista 64 with no problems. Most things turned off so it looks much like XP!!!! I have no problems running Edius 5, Vegas 8, CS3 etc.

Ron Evans

James Hooey
February 16th, 2009, 04:29 PM
CS4 is running quite well for me on a dual boot windows XP 32bit and Vista 64 bit system, quad core AMD 2.4ghz, 8 gig ram. I upgraded the computer with ram and the OS to take advantage of the extra ram and have been very happy. Vista runs very well, I have yet to see any bugs in over a month of daily hard use. The performance difference is readily felt as in After Effects I can get longer ram previews in Vista, have not had any sort of 'out of memory' warning, and performance is snappier and more responsive even with very high task loads. So while I have it on both OS's I prefer it on Vista 64. I have been able to use all my current plugs in both OS including Magic Bullet Looks 1.2, Boris FX9.2.1, Graffiti 5.3, and Trapcode plugins as well as a number of Video Copilot plugins like Twitch and his presets. All of these are installed in Vista's x86 program mode and work fine (although Boris might hiccup but I haven't worked much with it lately).

As has been mentioned around here most of the CS4 apps are not 64bit applications other than Photoshop Extended (which runs great btw). At least in the production suite...I think some of the Design Premium apps might also be 64 bit.

Having lived with XP for several years and relying on my computer for my videography business I was quite concerned with the bug rumours and issues that people say break Vista. Well, I won't say that anyone elses experience is wrong...but it hasn't been my experience. If I could just get 64bit (or at least Vista compatible) drivers for my RME Hammerfall 9653 audio card I would likely re-format the whole computer and just go with Vista. Given that the above mentioned audiocard is now 5 or more years old it will not be updated to Vista compliance. Down the road if I replace it then I can free myself of XP and focus more on a totally Vista 64bit machine.

Oh yeah...Premier seems to run fine as well but I use Vegas 8.0c for editing. I've worked with Premier but I don't like it as much.

Regan Robinett
February 16th, 2009, 09:32 PM
I do not have any issues so far with Vista 64bit and CS4. I've had the computer for over a month and have been using all aspects of the CS4 master collection from the night I got home with the PC. Even including a lot of video editing (nothing too intensive though) I have yet to have a hiccup at all.

*knock on wood*

Jiri Fiala
February 17th, 2009, 04:11 AM
If you want to use tons of RAM, Vista 64 is your only choice now. It runs very smooth and stable, does not have compatibility problems like XP64 and generally Vista is far cry now from what it used to be in late 2006, give it a break already!

David Stoneburner
February 17th, 2009, 10:05 AM
Thanks for all the information. I have another thread on the DVD delivery forum and what I'm looking at doing is building a DVD duplication/authoring station. I thought I had read that CS4 Premiere was designed for 64bit, so I just thinking of how I can get the fastest encoding to DVD. I'm not 100% sure which way I'm going to go, just doing some research.

Thanks again.

Wade Spencer
February 17th, 2009, 10:16 AM
In the CS4 Master Collection, the only program that installs a 64 bit version is Photoshop.

However, I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 on an AMD quad core system with 8gb of RAM. Everything FLIES. I can have several programs open at once and experience no lag or problems at all. My system is rock solid stable.

To the people that complain about Vista...have you used it, or are you just regurgitating what you read? I guess the latter every time I hear UAC mentioned...it's about 3 clicks to turn it off.

On a semi-related note, I'm running the Windows 7 beta as well, and that runs CS4 perfectly also.

Harm Millaard
February 17th, 2009, 10:43 AM
To the people that complain about Vista...have you used it, or are you just regurgitating what you read? I guess the latter every time I hear UAC mentioned...it's about 3 clicks to turn it off.


Yes, on two machines and both users begged to get it off ASAP. No, from personal experience and the experience of IT professionals, so that last may qualify as regurgitating. However, there is no denying the triple footprint, the memory requirements and tests all over that show a DECREASE in performance in comparison to XP64.

Pete Bauer
February 18th, 2009, 02:32 PM
Battle, I realized that the troubleshooting of your 32 bit system is really a separate topic, so moved the applicable posts to their own thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/high-definition-video-editing-solutions/144076-crashes-vista-32-system.html

Battle Vaughan
February 18th, 2009, 02:54 PM
OK, thanks, I realize I was getting OT from CS4 there, but grateful for the help! /bv

Randy Johnson
February 18th, 2009, 08:43 PM
The big thing about CS4 and VISTA 64 is CS4 will use up to 2 gigs of memory per app. 64bit or not so if you are doing a project that has Premiere open, AE, Photoshop and Encore and you have 8 gigs of ram everything still runs fast. I have VISTA 64 and it runs much better than VISTA 32 I am running CS4 on it with no problems.

Peter Manojlovic
February 18th, 2009, 09:08 PM
I'm seriously thinking about installing Win XP Pro 64bit, alongside the XP Pro 32 bit OS, and allowing for dual boot (since it's already paid for).

There's enough documentation on the net, proving a 64 bit O.S. is the only way to go for seriously large ram requirements (ie CS4).

Question:
Is there anything inferior using XP Pro 64 bit vs. Vista 64 bit?

John Miller
February 18th, 2009, 09:10 PM
Vista 64 is my OS of choice - it is very stable, responsive and not at all buggy in my experience. I develop video-related software on it and so it takes a lot of abuse. Same goes for 32-bit Vista which I periodically put through the wringer only for it to come out unscathed.

Since the majority of CS4 is 32-bit , the only real benefit of 64-bit Vista over 32-bit is that each CS4 application will get a full 2GB of memory to play with (possibly 3GB if ye olde 3GB trick is used and Adobe still code for it). You may also notice a modest (a few percent) increase in speed due to all the I/O stuff (especially hard drives) being 'thunked' to 64-bit and then 64-bit drivers used (this is all behind the Vista scenes).

Peter Manojlovic
February 18th, 2009, 09:12 PM
Thanks, although i don't want to highjack the thread, my question essentially is........

As far as CS4 is concerned (Dynamic link, AE, PPro etc...), will it make a difference whether i use Vista 64 bit vs. XP Pro 64 bit?

John Miller
February 18th, 2009, 09:14 PM
Question:
Is there anything inferior using XP Pro 64 bit vs. Vista 64 bit?

Yes - lack of hardware drivers and likely incompatibility of software designed for Vista 64 bit. And a general lack of 64-bit software. Otherwise the same benefits apply regarding 2GB space per 32-bit process etc. One other issue - there's no retail version of XP Pro 64 so obtaining a license and media may be tricky.

BTW, I often use XP Pro 64 and believe it hits the sweet spot for Windows - very nimble and stable. It shows its pedigree with Server 2003 (as does Vista).

John Miller
February 18th, 2009, 09:17 PM
Thanks, although i don't want to highjack the thread, my question essentially is........

As far as CS4 is concerned (Dynamic link, AE, PPro etc...), will it make a difference whether i use Vista 64 bit vs. XP Pro 64 bit?

32-bit applications designed for XP (32-bit) will most likely run on XP Pro 64. It is 64-bit applications written for Vista 64 that may not run on XP Pro 64 because Vista has features/functions that developers may use that aren't available in XP Pro 64. But 64-bit applications are still few and far between.

Chris Davis
February 22nd, 2009, 09:36 PM
I'm looking at moving to CS4 Production Premium with the upgrade special good until the end of next week. If I do, I'm considering putting another 4GB (total of 8GB) into my Dell XPS 420 and installing the 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate.

Will I see a noticeable improvement (i.e. worth the total $650+ upgrade) or would I be better off saving the cash and living with CS3 on a 32-bit system?

John McQuiston
April 8th, 2009, 06:42 AM
32-bit applications designed for XP (32-bit) will most likely run on XP Pro 64.

I have XP Pro 64 and Premiere Pro 2.0 will not burn a DVD from the timeline as it used to on my old system. I'd upgrade to CS4 if I wasn't worried that the program would not work properly. XP Pro 64 is not listed as being supported by CS4.

Jiri Fiala
April 10th, 2009, 04:39 AM
Problem with XP64 is that it`s FAR less compatible than Vista X64, there are LESS drivers for less devices. XP64 is more of an afterthought, Vista 64 is better suited for everyday use, including video production. Believe me, I`ve worked with all of them, on variety of machines and variety of applications.

After all, it`s 2009. Don`t go with OS that has been designed in 2000 for 1999`s hardware.

Graham Hickling
April 10th, 2009, 01:23 PM
Personally, I'm using XP64 with CS3 and CS4 while I wait for Windows 7. And I've had no compatibility problems at all (its a video machine not a general use one).

Alex Diaz
April 10th, 2009, 02:50 PM
Hey guys,

Any recommendations for which version of Vista 64 to get that will bog down CS4 the least? I'm leaning towards Vista Business SP1 64bit, because someone mentioned that there's less extraneous programs going on in the background.

thanks

Gary Bettan
April 10th, 2009, 05:09 PM
So far we have had excellent results running CS4 and Vista64 on our DIY 7 machine. Core i7 with tons of ram

Videoguys DIY 7 article is now posted Videoguys Blog - Videoguys' DIY7: Intel Core i7 with Vista 64 (http://tinyurl.com/chd6w6) Intel i7 running Vista64

It's official - Videoguys now recommend Vista 64 for video editing. Check out our Vista 64 Tips & Tweaks Videoguys Blog - Videoguys Tips & Tweaks for Windows Vista 64 (http://tinyurl.com/dhor9s)

And finally an Adobe white paper on running CS4 64bit Videoguys Blog - Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium 64-bit - Accelerate your HD workflows with 64-bit optimization (http://tinyurl.com/ce35da)

Gary

Graham Hickling
April 10th, 2009, 05:58 PM
Some thoughts here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/high-definition-video-editing-solutions/146719-vista-64-bit-version.html

Brett Griffin
April 10th, 2009, 06:11 PM
Having recently moved from a dual core system Vista 32 3gb RAM to a Core I7 Vista 64 bit 12gb RAM, all I can say is WOW. The interface is extremely responsive, no 'Out of Memory' warnings, rendering times have been slashed and not a single crash. I have mine set up as the Hidden Super Administrator account, which by default turns off the UAC and have followed Adobes own recommendation re the paging file size (search the Adobe site and you will find it) and haven't experienced any issues what so ever.

Alex Diaz
April 13th, 2009, 05:42 PM
Hey guys, thought that this was interesting on the premiere products page at adobe, they are advocating the 64-bit systems. It doesn't seem to say specifically Vista 64, but you know...

video editing software, digital video editing | Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/)