CS3 or wait for CS4?

N

NukeULater

Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
917
If anyone could shine a light on this subject I'd be very happy.

What are the differences between CS3 and CS4? I know CS4 isn't released yet, but I'm just wondering if I should purchase CS3 now or just wait.

I will be getting the student package. I'll mostly be using photoshop, dreamweaver, and illustrator.

Thanks for any help given. :)
 
Seeing as how "CS4" is nowhere near to being a released product I would say that CS3 is your best bet. :)
 
I don't get the screenie on that compare page. "CS4" looks like the old palette version, and it sucked hard. I'm loving the new CS3 tab style, it's almost the only improvement anywhere (unless you count extra bloat and auth problems as a feature). I hope they don't modify all their apps to the same 'lol you're in a cave' dark theme they put on Premiere and AE. I know I'm in a pit of despair already by using Adobe apps, I don't want to be reminded of it. (Mildly j/k.)

Adobe tends to release only incremental upgrades, it's a revenue scheme more than anything for the user's benefit, so you're just as good (IMO) with CS2 or CS3 as you would be with CS4.
 
I personally like the new layout in CS4, but a final release won't be out for a while so just grab CS3 and be happy with it. If anything you can always upgrade later.
 
Thanks everyone. CS3 it is!

Oh and one more question. Does CS3 run well with Vista Ultimate X64?
 
where is the cheapest place to buy CS3? Also, I am a student so maybe there is a student discount somewhere?
 
college bookstores are usually the cheapest; mine was still $375 or so for the entire CS2 package so I didn't bother getting it (no real need for it though)
 
I think I saw it online for $300 w/ student discount.

However, I have read that you can only use the student version for school and NOT for business use.

Is this correct?
 
that's how academic software usually works; cheap to get you hooked but once you start making money with it they charge out the ass to keep your workflow the same
 
I know this post is very old but…

I have CS4 and love it. Adobe finally bridged the gap between Adobe suites and the Macromedia suite divide. Most everything has the same menu layout to keep the flow throughout the entire package. There has been debate over whether or not you can use the student package for professional use. There has even been someone to go as far as saving the entire Adobe website rights policy webpage where it stated that "you can indeed use the student package for personal profit after graduation". Adobe has since taken this page down in preference that you “upgrade” to a full standard version. I don't remember the specific rights were for Student CS4 when I purchased it. My question is how would anyone know - namely Adobe? They wouldn't. The student edition is the exact same as the regular standalone version.

CS4 is expensive as hell though. Adobe has drawn strong criticisms over the price considering students are usually broke. Adobe CS4 is close to $600 from the Adobe store. Places like Journeyed.com didn’t have CS4 posted when I went to purchase it.

Good luck with your purchase if you haven’t already picked it up!
 
Do you have yours set to utilize GPU acceleration? I currently only have a pair of 8800GT's but, will be upgrading cards soon. Just wondered if you noticed a boost or what.

I have CS4, but haven't done anything for GPU acceleration.
 
ADDICT76 said:
Do you have yours set to utilize GPU acceleration? I currently only have a pair of 8800GT's but, will be upgrading cards soon. Just wondered if you noticed a boost or what.

I have CS4, but haven't done anything for GPU acceleration.
Click to expand...

I don't have mine setup with GPU acceleration - and I may never. It seems that the GPU aspect is just for pan/scan/and zoom. It's not for things like rendering (weird) I know. There is another thread on here stating that this is indeed true. Items like brushes and strokes have even become slower under the GPU utilization on certain computers. I say try it and see for yourself if you really wanna know!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top