PPro CS4 with Windows 7 (64 bit) slow after upgrading to CS4.2.1

Question

I upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit recently. Before I worked with PPro CS4 (4.2.1) in Windows XP 32 bit and performance was fine. My system is not up to date (Opteron dual core, 4GB, ATI Radeon 3870), but performance was o.k. Since Windows 7 I had problems running HD footage natively (e.g. Sony XDCAM) in the timeline (it simply stops after two three seconds). I also had problems using vob-files (which under XP was very smooth). I reinstalled and figured out, that PPro runs better without upgrading to vers. 4.2.1. So for everyone who is suffering a lack of performance after switching to Windows 7, try this, it might help a little.

Answer 1

I had a somewhat similar experience with the 4.2.1 upgrade with my computer. With my Q6600 running at 3.2 GHz, Vista x64 and with PPro CS4/4.1 update, I ran the PPBM4 benchmark and scored an 83.8. I then installed Win 7 x64, clean install etc… and re-ran the PPBM4 benchmark, with the same 4.1 update and with all system configurations the same as before, my score improved to 68.8, fantastic! I was very impressed with Win 7 x64.
This was short-lived because I updated PPro from 4.1 to 4.2.1, re-ran the PPBM4 benchmark and my score fell to 83.1 seconds, not impressed with the 4.2.1 update as far as this benchmark was concerned. I replaced the Q6600 with a Q9450, also over clocked to 3.2 GHz and with Win 7 x64, ran the PPBM4 benchmark and scored a 68.1; I got back everything I had lost in system speed from the 4.2.1 update plus some.
The Q6600 does not have the SSE4 instruction set while the Q9450 does. Perhaps the 4.2.1 update benefited CPU’s with SSE4 while those CPU’s without it, took a performance hit, just a guess.