PSP 2021. Have they fixed the problems?

[jungleexplorer]

Like all new additions of PSP, they hype a bunch of bells and whistles nobody was looking or asking for. The real question is, Have they fixed the problems that have plagued the last several additions?

Problem 1: Extremely slow startup.
Problem 2: Sluggish in program operation.
Problem 3: Refusing to fully shut down (Memory Leak).

Have these problems been fixed?

[Kathy_9]

Well, numbers 1 and 2 are subjective and number 3 doesn't currently impact me but that's not to say it won't at some point. My suggestion would be to download a trial and see what you think. You are the best judge of what's fast, slow or sluggish for you and your workflow.

[jungleexplorer]

Well, numbers 1 and 2 are subjective and number 3 doesn't currently impact me but that's not to say it won't at some point. My suggestion would be to download a trial and see what you think. You are the best judge of what's fast, slow or sluggish for you and your workflow.

All of these are Well Known problems that have been covered in numerous posts by countless users. But good try at attempting to push the focus off of Corel fixing issues by blaming the customer. Got protect that BRAND at all cost. Right! Cancel Culture at it's best.

[LeviFiction]

1) That's not what's happening, no one here works for Corel (well almost no one but Corel's people rarely show up) so no one is proctecting the brand. We like the software we use and we acknowledge the flaws.

2) That's now how you use "cancel culture" nice try.

3) Sluggishness has been reported by many users, it's also not universal and is in fact subjective. That's not blaming the customer, I hate the paint brush tool on large images becuase yeah it's sluggish for me, while it works well for others. That could be down to the image size, the computer it's running on, or the perspective. PSP definitely doesn't have the fastest brush system in the world but it's not lagging tremoundously. And as a general rule "sluggishness in program operation" shows up in different places at diferent times for different reasons. So...yeah it is perspective. I don't have to blame you for that to be the case. Kind of hard to pin down "sluggishness in program operation" when no one can quite agree what that is.

PSP attempted to speed up start up times by delaying loading of modules and libraries until after the program started. Which means some tools are sluggish upon first use because PSP is no longer pre-loading everything into memory at the start and is now loading them on demand. That includes the caches. So by attempting to deal with one area they affected another. But after that initial slow-down it works well on average and does a lot of things very quickly.

One area that I do experience frustration with sluggishness is the "New Image" window when it tries to grab data from the templates store. It's always very slow to start up, so I bypass that by holding Shift and clicking on the new image button to use my last used settings, and use the canvas resize command to get the image size I want.

Once PSP has been loaded into memory once, restarting it is pretty speedy as well. And start up times differ depending on which computer I'm using. Though, usually I'm ready to go in about the same amount of time as Photoshop and Affinity Photo on my computers so I have no complaints on initial start up times.

See? Acknowledge the flaws while still admitting that, yeah most of the appearance of "Sluggishness" is on me and what I think is a reasonable amount of time.

So here's an idea, how about you ask about the areas of frustration you experience, what you think a reasonable experience is, or just suck it up and download the trial and see if it works for you?

[jungleexplorer]

As expected, a TLDR response.

All three issues are well know and covered ad nauseam on this forum So, you can make all the excuses you want but you are not talking to a new comer here that is wet behind the ears.

Certified computer technician here, with 30 years experience. Been using this product for 20 years through so many versions I lost count. I know what is what. Go spin your patronizing yarn to someone who doubts what they know to be true.

[LeviFiction]

How is 450 words too long? It would barely qualify as a high school essay. And if you didn't read it how do you know I'm patronizing you?

I am IT Sys Admin who has also been using PSP since 2000. My first version was PSP 7. That's roughly 17 versions depending on whether or not you count the 12.5 Ultimate edition to be its own version. Go have a pissing contest somewhere else.

Fine I'll make it short and sweet. Since you're too lazy to be bothered.

1) Slow startup times - Depends download it and see for yourself. Even on your own topic about start-up times and lag no one could fully agree on how fast or slow it was. It wasn't universal.
2) Sluggish performance - Depends, download it and see for yourself. I don't see the extreme lag you mentioned in your topic on the matter. And it's clearly not something everyone sees.
3) Not shutting down - No there was no mention of this in their release notes and no reason to believe it's been addressed. I used to see it constantly, though I haven't seen it since upgrading my build of Windows 10.

I hope the 200 words weren't too stressful for you.

[migf1]

Like all new additions of PSP, they hype a bunch of bells and whistles nobody was looking or asking for. The real question is, Have they fixed the problems that have plagued the last several additions?

Problem 1: Extremely slow startup.
Problem 2: Sluggish in program operation.
Problem 3: Refusing to fully shut down (Memory Leak).

Have these problems been fixed?

1. Not true for everyone!
PSP vs Ps launching on my 3.5 years old, Win8.1x64 computer (Ryzen5 1600, 16Gb RAM, Nvidia 1050Ti/4Gb, plain HDD@7200rpm:
https://imgur.com/a/bZ4xHk0 (1st Launch = nothing has been cached, 2nd Launch = stuff have been cached from previous launch)

2. On average PSP operations are definitely slower compared to Ps, and definitely faster than Gimp. Compared to Ps I would use "sluggish" for PSP mostly when it comes to big images (say bigger than FullHD), but even then not for all operations.

3. For me this has been reduced significantly in PSP 2021, but still happening occasionally.

[jungleexplorer]

Like all new additions of PSP, they hype a bunch of bells and whistles nobody was looking or asking for. The real question is, Have they fixed the problems that have plagued the last several additions?

Problem 1: Extremely slow startup.
Problem 2: Sluggish in program operation.
Problem 3: Refusing to fully shut down (Memory Leak).

Have these problems been fixed?

1. Not true for everyone!
PSP vs Ps launching on my 3.5 years old, Win8.1x64 computer (Ryzen5 1600, 16Gb RAM, Nvidia 1050Ti/4Gb, plain HDD@7200rpm:
https://imgur.com/a/bZ4xHk0 (1st Launch = nothing has been cached, 2nd Launch = stuff have been cached from previous launch)

2. On average PSP operations are definitely slower compared to Ps, and definitely faster than Gimp. Compared to Ps I would use "sluggish" for PSP mostly when it comes to big images (say bigger than FullHD), but even then not for all operations.

3. For me this has been reduced significantly in PSP 2021, but still happening occasionally.

1. My system specs are over on the side. Anyone responding to my question would be well advised to read an understand those specs, before assuming that I am talking about 2020 PSP's performance on a 10 year old budget laptop. I said before, and I will say it again. I am a certified Computer technician with over 30 years experience. I have owned and used every version of PSP for the last 20 years. I know what I am talking about. You are not talking to a child. If I say there is a problem. THERE IS A PROBLEM. I don't make idle claims about things I have not done tons of research into. I am not here to debate whether the problem exists. It does! I am asking people if the problem have been addressed in 2021.

2. Thanks for this insight.

3. This is same as 2020, so it has not been addressed.

[Jean-Luc]

On my system, PSP 2021 opens in 9 seconds (clicking on the icon in the Taskbar and displaying the Complete workspace).
PSP 2020 opens in 12 seconds.
On the same computer, my Lightroom 6 opens in 10 seconds.

Could you give a sluggish operation? I will make a comparison test.

On my system, PSP releases its memory in 10 seconds after closing (I must say 10 seconds before to be able to open again).

[Ken Berry]

FWIW, on my freshly opened computer, PSP 2021 takes 33 seconds to open fully. I consider that to be very sluggish, though I have gotten used to it. On restarting it in the same boot session, it takes 14 seconds, which is more acceptable but still on the slow side. And I don't think this is because the program is checking the database, and I don't have many images stored on the computer in any case.

I can, however, go into Task Manager > Details, with PSP open. In Details I right click on Corel PSP 2021 and set the Priority to Real Time. I then close PSP, and when I next reopen it, it is near instantaneous taking near 1 second to open fully. That seems to last for 2 or 3 boots, but after that I need to set the Priority again. Easy enough to do, but as I say, I've just got used to the sluggish opening time, so usually don't bother.

So no, for me at least opening is slow unless I tweak it. I accept, though, that for others it is much faster.

[migf1]

1. My system specs are over on the side. Anyone responding to my question would be well advised to read an understand those specs, before assuming that I am talking about 2020 PSP's performance on a 10 year old budget laptop. I said before, and I will say it again. I am a certified Computer technician with over 30 years experience. I have owned and used every version of PSP for the last 20 years. I know what I am talking about. You are not talking to a child. If I say there is a problem. THERE IS A PROBLEM. I don't make idle claims about things I have not done tons of research into. I am not here to debate whether the problem exists. It does! I am asking people if the problem have been addressed in 2021.

Oh boy! Not sure why you get like that. I made absolutely no assumptions about you, your system specs or your tech background. I only said not everyone is experiencing the problem you described as universal, and I presented a mini-vid proving that on MY computer the launching times of PSP 2020 and PSP 2021 are comparable and sometimes even faster than Ps 2018 and Ps 2015.

Never said it will be the same for you or anyone else. I'm adding today that the last time I had issues with PSP launching times was a rather old version (don't remember which one, X maybe or X2, something like that) where it was taking ages for it to cache the photos for the Organizer, and we had to go and manually delete the database file from our hard-disks.

In any case, for me PSP 2021, PSP 2020 and PSP X7 all start in about 13-15 secs un-cached, and in about 8 secs cached (and I don't even have an SSD). I've read lots of ppl complaining about it, but it's just not the case for me.

PS1. It would be nice of you to tell us how long it takes for PSP to launch on your system, and how long it takes for other programs in the genre (PS, Gimp, Affinity Photo, maybe even Krita, etc). Btw, you are not the only one around here with a tech background

PS2. I do have long standing gripes about PSP which Corel refuses to address, launching isn't one of them (but that's for another topic).

[lata]

Ok
and for me the first launch this morning for PSP 2021 took 12 seconds.
Closed the program second launch took 11 seconds
That is timed from hitting the desktop icon to the splash screen disappearing, the program is then active.

[Ken Berry]

For me, the splash screen disappearing does not mean the program is active and usable. It usually takes another 5 or 6 seconds after the splash screen disappears for all the stored photos (only about 12 of them) to appear in the Organizer across the bottom of screen. Only then does the program become usable. The above figures I gave are measured to when the program becomes usable.

[migf1]

Ken, have you tried without using the organizer?

[lata]

Hi Ken
Sorry if I was not clear
From the splash screen closing there is a small delay of less than 1 second and the organiser shows, I am able to use the program straight away with no delay
I tried with the organiser holding 300 + images, then less from the PSP samples there was no real difference in the times.
I closed the organiser although did have the navigator open, again 12 seconds

I did try to take a screen capture, now things slowed down and it took 22 seconds to launch the program, so would seem my other programs have a bearing on psp launch times, to be expected I suppose.
I would normally have Outlook, Video Studio, Chrome Browser, Word open
I also tried with the internet disconnected which made no difference in launch times, just a thought.

I have to say that when I close PSP it is removed from Task Manager almost immediately,
So fast that I cannot open TM and view PSP, I have to have TM open.

As PSP 2021 I have no problems with the program hanging in TM Background Processes