Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0

For our Photoshop Elements test, we used a selection of 400 3-Mega Pixel photographs taken in a variety of surroundings using the batch file processing function in the Elements Editor. We performed all of the auto fixes, including Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Colour and Sharpen before resizing the image to 640x480 and saving as a high quality JPEG.


The Formula's performance is better than the other X38 boards with the Maximus Extreme's performance being particularly slow, but it was really no slower than the Gigabyte boards in general. However, all are practically no match for the Abit IP35 Pro which features the cheaper P35 chipset. It's strange and disappointing - the memory timings are the same, the results are consistent over three separate runs, so shouldn't the X38 chipset be faster as it costs more?

File Compression & Encryption:

Our file compression and decompression tests were split into two halves to cover a broad spectrum of performance. The first test we ran was to compress and encrypt the MPEG-2 source file from our video encoding test with the highest quality compression ratio. Secondly, we compressed and encrypted the folder of 400 photographs used in our Photoshop Elements test with the same compression settings.



The Extreme fairs far better in the large compression and encryption tests with both single and dual card, and in a turn of the tables the Formula comes out as one of the slower boards here. In small file compression it swings back again and the Formula is again far faster and the Extreme is slower, but not really as slow as the Gigabyte boards on average. While the Formula matches the Abit IP35 Pro in single card performance, yet again on average the Abit comes out faster.

File Decompression & Decryption:

The two RAR archives created during the compression and encryption tests were then decompressed and decrypted.



Like with the compression side of things, the Formula likes small file decompression almost as much as the Abit, while the Gigabyte X38 boards and the Maximus Extreme are nearly 8-10 seconds slower. However, in large file decompression the opposite is true and the Extreme is quite fast (but not the fastest) and the Formula is a few seconds slower.