Gaming Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Slow image processing speed

[Raiser]

I use Photoshop quite a bit, but I'm getting sort of irritated now.
I was editting an 1152pix X 864pix image today and (like always), when I use the scroll bars or move anything around be it renders or other images, it's choppy, laggy, etc. Basically what the topic title is.

My specs:
Windows XP HE SP3
Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
2.00GB of RAM
Sufficient HD space
DirectX 9.0c
(Display & Sound drivers are up to date)

I doubt graphics card has anything to do with it but:
ATI Radeon HD4830 (512MB)

Anyone know why my problem occurs? It's fine with small pictures, but when they get larger... ugh.
Is it my computer? Or what's goin' on? xD

Thanks for any help given!

 

[Deleted member 35947]

More then likely your computer I say. Your processor is rather outdated. When working with large images in photoshop it will require more processing power and also more ram.

 

[ProjectVirtue]

1100x800 isn't very large... my old computer was able to crunch out 11x14 at 300 DPI and its specs were much less impressive than this.

does the problem occur in CS3 or any other version of photoshop?
do you have background processes running?
was your computer left on for a long period of time before photoshopping?
have you tried resstarting/giving it a RAM dump?
do you have faulty ram?

give a run through those first.

 

[Raiser]

@GreyAlien -> I know my processor is a bit dated, but I still believe that it can definitely handle Photoshop. o.o It can handle CoD4, CS:S, L4D, and can sort of run Prototype although it usually lags.

-I believe it did occur with CS3 as well.
-No other background processes besides Windows Media Player, explorer windows, etc. Nothing too substantial.
-Whether I leave my CPU on and photoshop, or turn it off for a few days and then photoshop, the results are still the same; slow processing.
-Restarting/RAM dump? What's that? o.o
-Faulty RAM as in.. it's NOT 2gigs? I check the My Computer properties -> 2GB of RAM, and I run dxdiag -> Memory: 2048MB of RAM

 

[Joe88]

those games run fast because of your gfx card, cpu has very little to do

photoshop however isnt a game, and depends heavily on the CPU as well as some ram
getting a better CPU would fix the problem most likely

 

[Raiser]

But how do you explain ProjectVirtue's situation? He says he had a less impressive CPU, but was still able to do what I can't. o.o

 

[Joe88]

it may depend what you have running in the background

like for instance you, itunes, firmwall, anti-virus, and some other programs running taking up CPU resources which leaves not that much for photoshop

btw your P4 is not 2 CPU's
alot of people get confused by this because they see 2 in the task manager
it is because the P4 has hyperthreading enabled
in reality there is only 1

 

[Raiser]

Yeah, but the thing is that I don't have any processes taking up much of the CPUs memory. FOr example, right now.. all I have running is Kasp. Anti-Virus, MSN, Windows Media Player, and some minor processes, and that is still less than 10% of my CPUs usage. Leaving 90% for Photoshop, and still, Photoshop doesn't even use all of that. o.o

And I know that my P4 is really only 1 core and about the hyperthreading thing. I just copy what it said in dxdiag to be more specific. xD

EDIT:
I convinced my parents to upgrade my processor.
So now I am a proud owner of an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.8GHz and I must say.. I've been missing out a lot on the computer world without this upgrade. xD
Photoshop will now run nice and smooth. (:
Thanks for the help everyone!