Running Photoshop in 64-bit mode produces some big improvements when using large data sets (scenarios where you’d otherwise run out of RAM and have to hit virtual memory). Here are benchmarks from a 2 x 2.66GHz quad-core Nehalem Mac Pro with 12GB of RAM (OS X 10.6.3):<\/p>\n
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Running the Retouch Artists Speed Test<\/a>:<\/p>\n CS4: 36.09 secs<\/p>\n CS5 64bit: 14.78 secs<\/p>\n 2.4 times faster<\/strong>*<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Running the diglloyd benchmark Actions for Photoshop<\/a>:<\/p>\n diglloydSpeed1<\/p>\n CS4: 38.05 secs<\/p>\n CS5: 23.1 secs<\/p>\n 1.7 times faster<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n diglloydSmall<\/p>\n CS4: 56.01 secs<\/p>\n CS5: 26.48 secs<\/p>\n 2.1 times faster<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n diglloydMedium<\/p>\n CS4: 120.15 secs<\/p>\n CS5: 83.85 secs<\/p>\n 1.4 times faster<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Opening a large (3.75GB) PSB file<\/p>\n CS4: 80.33 secs<\/p>\n CS5: 52.43 secs<\/p>\n 1.5 times faster<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Obviously these are big, big wins for any Photoshop users working with large images. I do however want to be careful not to oversell the benefits of 64-bit. As I’ve said from the start<\/a>, 64-bit is a really big deal when you’re using large amounts of memory. Otherwise it’s not likely to make a very noticeable difference (e.g. your Web design tasks won’t run twice as fast).<\/p>\n What about other Creative Suite apps? As I’ve mentioned, After Effects & Premiere Pro are both 64-bit native on both Mac & Windows (64-bit only<\/em>, in fact, unlike Photoshop). I haven’t seen benchmarks yet, but given the data-intensive nature of video, the wins should be huge. Meanwhile Illustrator has raised the limits on RAM usage, from 2GB in CS4 to 3-4GB (depending on system configuration) in CS5.<\/p>\n