PC RAM for PP: CS2?

Those nice to know things about your DSLR will be found here. How to do this, and why you probably should not do that.

Moderators: Greg B, Nnnnsic, Geoff, Glen, gstark, Moderators

Forum rules
Please ensure that you have a meaningful location included in your profile. Please refer to the FAQ for details of what "meaningful" is. Please also check the portal page for more information on this.

PC RAM for PP: CS2?

Postby Oz_Beachside on Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:50 pm

Hi,

Just experiencing poor performance, particularly when processing RAW, or large files, on my PC.

My PC is about 12 months old, IBM T43, standard spec, think it is 512MB RAM.

Would increasing the RAM help, if so, how much is recommended? I am particularly interested to batch process files. WOuld adding another 512MB make much difference?

Graphics card upgrade possible on IBM Laptops?

Whats your expereince re. RAM and PP?

thanks
Oz
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby stubbsy on Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:55 pm

Adding more RAM will have a noticeable impact on your Photoshop work - in fact in terms of bang for buck it's hard to beat. PSCS2 really needs AT LEAST 1 Gb to perform best. Next best speed improvment is by having the scratch disk on a different physical hard drive to the OS
Peter
Disclaimer: I know nothing about anything.
*** smugmug galleries: http://www.stubbsy.smugmug.com ***
User avatar
stubbsy
Moderator
 
Posts: 10748
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:44 pm
Location: Newcastle NSW - D700

Postby Greg B on Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:56 pm

Oz, more RAM will help a lot.

Processing power too, but that is more difficult to increase.

I have 1 Gig on my desktop computer, and badly want 2 or better yet, 4 which will be the spec on my next comp.
Greg - - - - D200 etc

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
User avatar
Greg B
Moderator
 
Posts: 5938
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2004 7:14 pm
Location: Surrey Hills, Melbourne

Postby Oz_Beachside on Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:58 pm

stubbsy wrote:Next best speed improvment is by having the scratch disk on a different physical hard drive to the OS


Is scratch disk the HDD where I store my pics?

So if I move them off my laptop HDD, onto a USB external HDD, that may work better?
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby Greg B on Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:07 pm

The scratch disk is what the system uses as a temporary data storage when you run out of RAM, kind of a virtual ram on the hard disk. Obviously, significantly slower than RAM. More RAM is better than having the scratch disk arrangements kick in.
Greg - - - - D200 etc

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
User avatar
Greg B
Moderator
 
Posts: 5938
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2004 7:14 pm
Location: Surrey Hills, Melbourne

Postby stubbsy on Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:33 pm

The scratch disk Greg is referring to is the page file used for virtual memory.

What I am referring to is the PHOTOSHOP scratch disk which you specify in the PSCS preferences.

Ideally BOTH should be on a different disk to the OS, but if you don't have that choice it's better to have the PSCS scratch disk on a different disk to the OS since the virtual memory space is unlikely to be used when you have enough RAM (ie 1Gb or more).

Just to make this clear:

On your C drive you have Windows installed. The Photoshop program is stored there too.

On another drive which we'll call drive D you would try to keep a fair bit of space free and you'd tell Photoshop to use Drive D as the primary scratch disk (I don't have PSCS at work so I'm not sure of the exact wording, but it's in preferences).

If Drive D has lots of space you may also like to tell Windows to use it for virtual memory by putting your Windows page file there. If you don't know how to do this, just ignore this for now.

It's then up to you where you store your images. They have no impact on the process.

One final note - Drive D in this scenario must be a physically different hard disk to drive C, not just another partition on the same disk.
Last edited by stubbsy on Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Peter
Disclaimer: I know nothing about anything.
*** smugmug galleries: http://www.stubbsy.smugmug.com ***
User avatar
stubbsy
Moderator
 
Posts: 10748
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:44 pm
Location: Newcastle NSW - D700

Postby Aussie Dave on Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:33 pm

I'd concur with Stubbsy. I don't think you'd want anything under 1Gb, but more is always better (isn't it always) :wink:

I have a P4 3Ghz running 1Gb ram and my scratch disk is on two hard drives (connected as one RAID drive). Seems to chug along quite nicely, although another gig of RAM would make it so much better again....
Dave
Nikon D7000 | 18-105 VR Lens | Nikon 50 1.8G | Sigma 70-300 APO II Super Macro | Tokina 11-16 AT-X | Nikon SB-800 | Lowepro Mini Trekker AWII
Photography = Compromise
User avatar
Aussie Dave
Senior Member
 
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 1:40 pm
Location: West. Suburbs, Melbourne [Nikon D7000]

Postby Digidegs on Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:51 pm

Hi
1 Gig will make a big difference above the 512k you have. I have just bought an extra 1Gig for my T43 IBM on Graysonline but this guy seems to have good prices and quick response. http://upgradeable.com.au/parts/UB1319.html
I still use an old IBM A21m laptop as well that runs well because of the extra Ram whilst it has on a 800mhz processor. BTW on the T43 it has 2 banks of Ram and you can mix the Ram sizes in each bank. If you have 512 on one bank you can add 256, 512 or 1G on the other. It has to be the correct type however.
Cheers
Albert
User avatar
Digidegs
Member
 
Posts: 84
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:42 pm
Location: Perth

Postby Yi-P on Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:41 pm

When processing ultra large images (130 MPixels) CS2 just put its knees down on your RAM and swap space...

I wish I had 2GB when processing my picture stitches... :P


Yes, more the better, at least 1GB if you plan to do some serious PP work :)
User avatar
Yi-P
Senior Member
 
Posts: 3579
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:12 am
Location: Sydney -- Ashfield

Postby amarkin on Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:23 am

Greg B wrote:Oz, more RAM will help a lot.

Processing power too, but that is more difficult to increase.

I have 1 Gig on my desktop computer, and badly want 2 or better yet, 4 which will be the spec on my next comp.


I have 1G of RAM on my computer. I close most applications when I edit images in CS2 my Athlon 2600. I think 1G just enough, 2G is required to run this monster of an application.
Nikon D50, 18-70mm F/3.5-4.5 AF, 85mm F/1.8D AF, 50mm F/1.4D AF, Zorki-4, Jupiter 8 50mm F/2.0.
amarkin
Newbie
 
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:31 am
Location: SA, Australia

Postby Wocka on Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:39 am

Here at work we use Amicroe http://www.amicroe.com.au/ for our memory upgrades ( both server and laptops ). I dont' know if you need to be a business, but their prices have been fantastic for us.

Order and the RAM arrives the next day via courier.

Cheers
Warwick
=======
Canon 40D : 350D
Canon 18-55mm : Canon 75-300mm IS USM : Sigma 30mm EX HSM DC 1.4 : Sigma 10-20mm
User avatar
Wocka
Member
 
Posts: 472
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2005 6:05 pm
Location: Northern Beaches

Postby fishafotos on Sun May 06, 2007 3:39 pm

I have found that with photoshop it really doesn't matter how much RAm you have, that beast of a program just gobbles it all up in 2 seconds flat! I have used it on a computer (some awesome Mac) with 16gb of ram!! the guy said he had to program it so that it only had access to 8GB of it because otherwise it will take up all 16 is a heartbeat. Then again, I was working on a 100mp image which was 990mb!
That said - My laptop (only thing I own) has 512mb and it is not too far behind things with 2gb. Still going to definatley get another gig in mine, it really shows through when you are trying to do pp and soemthing else at the same time!
Nikon D80, MB-D80, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8, SB-800, Sigma 18-200 f/3.5-6.3
Various bits of borrowed/stolen glass/speedlights etc. - zero style or taste.

http://harryfisherphotos.smugmug.com
User avatar
fishafotos
Member
 
Posts: 271
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:48 am
Location: East Fremantle, W.A - D80

Postby Reschsmooth on Sun May 06, 2007 6:10 pm

Disclaimer: I know very, very little (which means I know bugger all) about computers.

We have a laptop which is about 3 years old. Once bub is born, we are going to upgrade computers to a desktop, but would probably want to keep the laptop.

Is it easy/affordable to upgrade the RAM in a laptop, and if so, is it generally worth it for one that is 3 years old? I don't have it here so don't know how much is on it at the moment.

Cheers

P
Regards, Patrick

Two or three lights, any lens on a light-tight box are sufficient for the realisation of the most convincing image. Man Ray 1935.
Our mug is smug
User avatar
Reschsmooth
Senior Member
 
Posts: 4164
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:16 pm
Location: Just next to S'nives.

Postby Oz_Beachside on Sun May 06, 2007 7:20 pm

depnding on what files size images, and applications you run, it is the best bang for buck upgrade.

I have been very very happy spending $600 to upgrade my RAM from 512 to 2GB.

Performance is delightful.
User avatar
Oz_Beachside
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2227
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm
Location: Black Rock, Victoria. D200

Postby radar on Sun May 06, 2007 11:16 pm

Patrick,

Reschsmooth wrote:Is it easy/affordable to upgrade the RAM in a laptop, and if so, is it generally worth it for one that is 3 years old? I don't have it here so don't know how much is on it at the moment.


It is well worth adding memory, it can make a big difference in running applications like Photoshop.

Be aware that laptop models will have limits as to how much memory you can have in them. Look at the original specs on the manufacturer's web site as to how much max ram you can have.

cheers,

André
Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. Ansel Adams

(misc Nikon stuff)
User avatar
radar
Senior Member
 
Posts: 2823
Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:18 am
Location: Lake Macquarie (Newcastle) - D700, D7000

For what is worth...

Postby zafra52 on Mon May 07, 2007 7:25 pm

For what is worth my PC has 1.5 GB of RAM and normally it works find with an 8MB RAW file. When I noticed it going slow is when I scan old photographs at large resolution and it generates files up to 300MB, but regardless of how much RAM you have to consider another factor. It is how fast the processor can perform the calculations, so a faster processor will be more efficient. Now that RAM is cheap I think you will benefit with at least 1.5 to 2MB of RAM, but consider the processor and how many files you have open at the same time. :roll:
User avatar
zafra52
Senior Member
 
Posts: 4786
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:22 pm
Location: Brisbane

Postby jamesw on Mon May 07, 2007 7:29 pm

i have a 1.8ghz laptop with core duo processor and 1 gig of ram, onboard graphics card(bout 3 months old); and a 2.8ghz core duo desktop with a 256mb graphics card and 2gig of ram. i also have a dinosaur 2ghz p4 or p3 (cant remember, its probably a few years old) that has about 512mb memory.

the laptop is ok for post processing, although it slows occasionally. the desktop is awesome; it deals with raws like the laptop deals with jpgs (very fast). the dinosaur is extremely painful with raws but deals with jpegs and processing in photoshop reasonably.
User avatar
jamesw
Senior Member
 
Posts: 771
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:36 pm
Location: norwood, adelaide

Postby jamesw on Mon May 07, 2007 7:29 pm

the two newer comps are on vista, old is on XP, btw.
User avatar
jamesw
Senior Member
 
Posts: 771
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:36 pm
Location: norwood, adelaide

Re: PC RAM for PP: CS2?

Postby watchtherocks on Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:03 am

Have been running CS3, and CS2 for years before that, on 256MB RAM. My new 2 1GB sticks are coming next week!!
watchtherocks
Newbie
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:29 pm

Re: PC RAM for PP: CS2?

Postby AndyL on Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:16 am

Also, have a look at what processes and services are running and how much memory they are consuming. A lot of software adds itself to HKLM.../Run these days when there is no real reason for it other than to bog the system. Lightweight firewall and AV helps.

Andrew
AndyL
Member
 
Posts: 126
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:37 pm
Location: Nhulumbuy


Return to Tips and tricks

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests

cron