Photoshop CS5 differences

[Nimitz]

Ok, so I just got CS5 installed on my new laptop where I had been running CS3 before & 2 difference icons appear on my desktop ... a 64bit version & 32bit version. So can anyone tell me the difference bewteen these 2? When woukld I use 64bit vice 32bit & can I jump between the two with an image? Thanks

 

[UUilliam]

64 bit is better but it requires you to have a 64 bit system

I haven't used 64 bit.

but it is supposed to be quicker and uses ALL ram (I.e. i have 4gb ddr2 but my comp only uses a max of 2.85 gb.)

and stuff like that.

basically, heavy editing = 64 bit
light touch ups = 32bit

I do both on a 32 bit system, just takes longer.

 

[Garbz]

It's not actually quicker, but yes it does give you access to more RAM which becomes rather important when you have a large file open with many layers.

As for the original question, this will tell you about everything in a nice bullet pointed way:

Adobe - Photoshop CS5 : Version comparison

 

[Vautrin]

So, in an overly simplified explanation.

Computers do everything in terms of math -- that transform in photoshop is just a series of addition subtraction multiplication and division by the computer.

32 bit numbers are 32 digits long (in binary)
64 bit numbers are 64 digits long (in binary)

It's faster for your computer to make 1 math operation on two 64 bit numbers then 2 operations on four 32 bit numbers (this is a very simplified explanation)

In addition, as Garbz mentioned, 64 bit computers can use more RAM (32 bit processors have a 4GB limit).

So if you have a choice of the 32 bit or 64 bit version, use the 64 bit version.

But you need to have a 64 bit motherboard and processor combo to make that work. If you don't have that, the 64 bit version will refuse to run.

You'd have to look at your computers specs to determine if it's 64 bit

Also, you may see in some programs the option to use GPU / use graphics card. Basically your graphics card / GPU, is an additional processor, and some image editing programs can take advantage of it to speed up processing

 

[MrsMoo]

I use the 64 bit version, as we just updated our computer. I'd say it was worth going for that one over the 32 bit

 

[KmH]

The reason 32-bit computers can only have 4 GB of RAM, is addressability.

The range of integer values (addresses) that can be stored in 32 bits is: 0 through 4,294,967,295 or 4 GB. (1 byte = 1024 integer values.)

 

[Garbz]

: - minus system reserved space of around 700-800mb so you can in reality only address 3.2GB without PAE (Physical Address Extension) enabled in 32bit mode, and when you enable PAE you take a performance hit.

 

[Nimitz]

perfect, thanks ... my new laptop is 64 bit so I'll just use that version

 

[MohaimenK]

if you can use the 64 do that. btw, how are you liking the content aware feature??

 

[sovietdoc]

content aware fill is the best thing ever to happen in photoshop. I don't really know about anything other "content aware" besides the scale feature, which is useful at times, but not as much as CA fill.

 

[Garbz]

Content aware fill is hit and miss. It works better than the old spot healing brush tool, but I still find myself reaching for the healing brush. When it works it works well, when it doesn't the healing brush may work.

It doesn't seem better in that regard in my opinion, just different and between the two tools you get a pretty high success rate.