Just to clarify PSP does not work with 16 bit images, unless PSP9 has had a recent update I am not aware of. I tried the demo of PSP9 ( I own PSP8 and have used PSP since v5). On of the things that convinced me to upgrade PS instead of PSP was the 16bit mode and CS has a much better RAW conversion than PSP. I also did some speed test on my machine (P3 1ghz 1 gig ram) and PS CS was faster on many operations. There some nice features in PSP9, but PS CS tools just work a little better. Side note I was able to purchase the Academic version of PS 6, so the cost for me wasn't as steep.