Expert: LizaL - 5/28/2005

Question
The official specifications on Adobe's site say that CS (and I guess CS2 now as well) will only work on Windows XP or Windows 2000 machines (operating system wise).  In reality though many of use have used lower than recommended machines for software for years and had no problems.  I was just wondering if you know if there is any reason that one couldn't run CS on a 98se computer (is there some aspect of XP or win2K that CS relies upon)?  

Hardware wise I have an AMD 900 mhz w/ 384 ram.  I know that could prob use a little boost but has held up fine for 7.

Cheers

Answer
Hi Matt,

I don't know of any specific technical aspect of CS or CS2 that will force you into needing XP or win2K, but there are some proven reasons why you won't get optimum performance with older machines and newer software. Two of the biggest hardware-related reasons for poor Photoshop performance on older machines are RAM and video.

Photoshop requires a LOT of RAM -- in fact, if you're working in Photoshop on a regular basis, it's suggested you max out the RAM in your machine, whatever that capability is. When Photoshop opens and processes a picture as you're working on it, it writes temporary information to a "scratch" disk (sort of like virtual memory). This swapping of information from the scratch disk to your hard drive as you make changes and modifications (and thus build a working history for the image) requires some power. A rough rule of thumb is that for any given image size, you should have double that amount in RAM. For instance, if you're working on an image that's 250MB in size, you should ideally have at least 500MB/RAM installed in your machine. And lots of older computers just won't let you install as much RAM as newer machines.

Ditto the video card. You're not going to get the best video performance (i.e. truest color, best video refresh rate) from an old video card, and new software.

Plus, a lot of the features that are new and/or improved in CS and CS2 won't work as well on an older OS. When Adobe upgrades the program, that means they upgrade the tools as well and increase their capabilities. Some of the filters, for instance, now require more processing power than can be had with an older OS and/or hardware.

Photoshop 7 may work well on your machine as things stand, and that's good. If you don't see a reason to upgrade your OS and/or hardware, then don't. But you have to weigh the factors and determine how crucial it is to you, and to what you do. If you have a job that requires you work in Photoshop all day, I'd suggest upgrading your machine to suit the specs of the new software. If you're a more casual user and can get by with just using 7 and your current setup, then do that.

So that makes the word "problems"  a relative term. What you consider having "no problems" might drive someone else crazy, and force them into upgrading their machine in order to get better performance from CS or CS2. But if it's not an issue for you, then you'd have no need to upgrade.

It all pretty much boils down to how much you use Photoshop, and what you're using it for.

Hope this helps!

Lisa