What are your machine specs? CPU (brand, model and clock), graphics card, RAM (type and amount)?

Yes, Bridge, while running, is a resource hog, but you don't have to run it while running PS. Since I've got 4GB of RAM it doesn't slow much down, but I can still tell there's a performance hit. It's just easier for me to keep it running than load it every time I wanna open an image.

-Lew