Quality between printing RAW and TIFF

I've been using Photoshop Elements 2 for too long and feel I need to step up.

I'm printing mostly PSD and TIFF and wonder if I would see any difference if I were printing RAW. I'm spending a lot of money on ink for my i9900 and on 13x19 paper and feel it might be better spend if I'm using a professional program like CS2 or even CS3.

Can anybody offer and insight?

Thanks

You can't print directly from RAW, it has to be either converted to a raster RGB image in memory or saved out to the hard disc. If you do the former, edits will be done 12 or 14 bits (depending on camera). If the latter, you have the option of saving to 16 bit Tif or PSD. Of course, if you want to do further editing you will need an editor that supports 16 bit. In either case the advantage of the greater bit depth (in comparison to the 8 bit depth you are working in today) is the ability to make significant shifts in color or luminousity with relatively little worry of posterization and the ability to work in a wider color space, should you need to. In addition, you would enjoy all the benefits of RAW; greater dynamic range, noise reduction by shooting to the right, WB selection at time of conversion, etc.

The actual printing would be the same, but all that precedes it could be better done.