Adobe 'Stonehenge' Photoshop CS4 uses the GPU - Graphics Cards 2GPGPU is getting a big boost today as the latest Adobe’s Photoshop, version CS4 previously known as Stonehenge, is announced and will be on sale in Octoboer.  For now the features that use the GPU are a bit limited: image rotation, zooming and panning are all done in real-time with even the largest of source files.  Apparently a patch will be coming very soon to enable addition performance benefits with Pixel Bender that will enable special effects – and the patch will be free.  

Adobe will use the GPU to allow more fluidity in zooming in and out on an image, rotating the canvas, and displaying and manipulating 3D objects. CS4 will also use the GPU to handle color correction.

John Nack, product manager for Photoshop told CNET News, “It’s not lost on us that when you look at the rate of GPU power advancement, there’s an enormous wealth of cycles we can take advantage of now. The rate of price drop and performance gain has been off the charts.”

Not all features and functions of Photoshop CS4 can take advantage of the power offered by the GPU according to Adobe. A feature that will take advantage of the GPU processing power called Pixel Bender didn’t make the final version of Photoshop CS4, but will likely be offered as a free download at a later date through Adobe Labs. The feature allows users to create their own special effects quickly.

Nack also said, “Typically, when folks were building a big Photoshop rig…we never had to really concern ourselves with things like which video driver they were using. We had a very light integration. Anything was fine. Now that we’re doing actual processing on the GPU, we have to be a good deal more stringent.”