[ceruleanvii]

I've had my trusty Intuos for about 3 years now, and it was probably 2 or 3 years old before I got it. I've never had a problem with it before, but now suddenly it is lagging - meaning, I make a brushstroke, and sometimes what I've drawn takes awhile to catch up with where my pen is, and it doesn't catch up smoothly, leaving a crappy looking stroke.

I know I have the latest driver installed, we did that recently as I had to get a new machine with (pew) Vista. Wondering if this is more Vista aggravation? Or is it a Photoshop Problem? Or do I need to think about a new tablet?

[nationpoo]

Itīs on Vista? Turn Aero mode on. Windows color and appearance -> Open classic appearance properties.

Simple as that.

[ceruleanvii]

wish that was it, but it's already set up that way. any other ideas?

[jeffsimpsonkh]

weird I just had that problem, with my CS2....re-installed and updtaed and everything, nothing worked. Had to switch to cs4 (which works but is SO SLOW UGHH) ....never found the solution

Could it maybe be your video card dying? (try updating the driver for it)

[darrellzilla]

I've had this problem with various computers operating systems and versions of PS over the years. When it seems like photoshop just cant keep up with you the solution is either upgrading processors, increased ram or any of a number of computation saving techniques.

Try closing all other programs except photoshop (music, bridge, firefox... or anything that's running in the background or on you taskbar) Increasing you scratch disk under preferences might evenhelp.

[jrtist]

Could be more related to RAM, or memory is taxed with many other vices. Such as music, photos, various artwork. Your program is looking for all the available memory it can muster to keep up with you. If you perhaps take off all images and music and put it onto an external device. Either a external harddrive, or some discs (or both) perhaps you'll get more memory for your program.

Sounds elementary, but it may work. (However, I'm rather sure you've already tried that too.)

Good luck with your situation tho!

[ceruleanvii]

Well, I decided to buy a new tablet. My old one was an Intuos 2, a hand-me-down so I'm not sure of its exact age, but I'm thinking it's at least 10 years old. Darn cats have chewed halfway through the wire, the face is gouged and scratched, figured it was time to treat myself to something better. So I got a spiffy new Intuos 4, pretty much same working area as my old one, but slightly bigger tablet, came with a bunch of fancy nibs I love it! But... I was STILL having some lag.

So this is what I've tried. Updated all drivers. I've been closing out all other apps when I run Photoshop. I've been trying to have as few windows open as possible in Photoshop. I have allocated more memory to Photoshop. I have disabled "Press and Hold" in the Pen and Input Devices in the Control Panel, because this was suggested to me elsewhere.

Overall, the situation has improved, but occasionally the pen will still lag. I'm convinced Vista is at the root of the problem (cause it usually is) but am not quite ready yet to deal with moving to Windows 7. So I'm just living with it for now. I'm still open for suggestions though, thanks!

[DaveNeale]

I found a solution that works for me.

Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES > PEN TABLET > DOUBLE CLICK DISTANCE
AND REDUCE THE SLIDER TO EITHER MEDIUM, SMALL OR IN BETWEEN.

It has to do with the pen thinking your double clicking when your not-definitely Vista's fault!!...think when computer buying comes round next time it's a mac for me.

[Sellis]

I had the same laggy problem as you even on cs2, turned out that the problem for me was the response time of my crappy monitor. I recently bought a new monitor and didn't realise that this was the case until then but now it's all cool. :S Dunno if you got a new monitor with your new machine but it's worth checking out the response time, anything above 5ms seems to be a prob.

hope this helps.

[TwoListen]

It has a lot to do with both the size of the image (width, height) and the resolution of the image (dpi) in relation to your system hardware.

If your low on RAM, or have a processor that's not quite up to speed, you're going to notice significant slowdown when painting at anything over say...500x500 and over 72 dpi.

It also has to do with the size of your brush.

Try this:

2,000x2,000 pixels. 300 dpi. Brush size 300. Swing your brush around a bit.

Taking a good two or three seconds for your brush to actually do what you just did with your pen? Yeah. That'll do it.

Now try taking that same image, but try taking a simpler brush (if you were using say, a textured one). Basic round. 10 or 20 pixels in diameter. Swing it around - and what do you know? Not so laggy?

That's really all there is too it. Resources, what your computer has to do the calculations for, and your system hardware in relation to it.

My old computer, running crappy DDR ram, a mighty 2GB running at low speeds - an old Pentium IV processor, and a mediocre video card (a radeon x850xt pe, but still mediocre by today's standards). The computer was probably 5 or 6 years old easy. Photoshop 7. I couldn't paint at anything over 800 pixels in width or height, and anything over ~130dpi would result in major lag. Especially if my brush was over 50 pixels.

New computer, with a quad core 3.0Ghz processor, 4GB of quality DDR2 running at 1100, Radeon HD 4890 Toxic from Sapphire. And I don't start getting lag until I'm painting at something say...3,000 pixels, 300 dpi, 300 pixel brush.

Anything that causes your computer to use more resources in that stroke is going to cause you lag, proportionate to your hardware and available resources. You will get less lag if you free up some resources (though probably not very noticeably), you will get less lag if you lower the dpi, you will get less lag if the canvas size is smaller, if your brush size is smaller, if there's less texture or variation to the brush, if the brush's spacing is farther apart (resulting in less of the "brush" image being replicated and painted as rapidly), etc.

There is no quick fix, to my knowledge. At least, the above is my findings on the situation.

Though, because yours just now is happening so suddenly. I'd run a check for viruses and take a look at your page file/running background processes. Make sure nothing's popped up that shouldn't be. it's probably safe to assume you didn't magically lose half your RAM or make any major changes to the computer. So check for viruses and look through your active processes and if you still find nothing unusual - run a memory test and make sure you're not having any RAM issues.

[JeremyCanton]

Yo yo,

I FIXED this same problem.

I bought a new super computer Windows 7 64-bit, photoshop CS4, Wacom Intuos3

So I'm all excited and I go into photoshop (thinking MAN THISGUNNABESOFAST!). I'm painting for like 30 seconds and then I realize it's working like GARBAGE! Every brush stroke had to load.

SOLUTION: It was the Wacom Intuos 3 driver. The newest driver from Wacom for Windows 7 DID NOT WORK. I rolled back to one of the earlier versions for Windows XP and TADA everything is normal again.

In short: Try rolling back to an OLD wacom driver, worked for me.

[nayR]

It could be the drivers conflicting try this:

To disable Input Services:
1. Go to the Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click the Services shortcut to open the Services window, which lists all the services available through Vista.
3. Scroll down the list and right-click Tablet PC Input Service.
4. Select Stop from the menu provided. Input Services is now disabled and your Wacom driver takes over.

I hope this was some sort of help to you.

[ApocalypsenoW]

Originally Posted by JeremyCanton

Yo yo,

I FIXED this same problem.

In short: Try rolling back to an OLD wacom driver, worked for me.

Yap, this also always worked for me. Not all the wacom updated drivers are working properly, especially for old models, so try instilling and uninstalling drivers till it works.
Updating the graphic card also works, and dont go to Windows 7, it maybe a bit faster but a lot more difficult to work with
XP is the best so if you can, go back to it

Good Luck

[ChrisBjors]

I've had this issue before and for me it was either due to a too large brush on a too large canvas (i.e hardware issue)

Or it was the input services on Vista and Win7
Before doing anything on a newly installed PC I instantly go to services to turn off the tablet PC service.

nayR has a detailed description of how to do it.