How Much RAM do you guys need to use PS flawlessly?

[Canon Soldier]

I was just wondering, how many gigs of RAM memory do you guys require to use photoshop or something with layers to run smoothly and not lag at all? Is it about RAM or number of processors?

[bakerbranded]

It takes 500mb to just be able to run CS3.

[Pete]

RAM?

4Gb will make it very useful, but Photoshop won't use more than 3Gb of it (but you'll need the extra for the rest of the system processes).

Processor power helps a bit, but giving the system more RAM will help more than anything else will.

[condyk]

I run with 2GB using XP x64 so I could actually use more if I needed to. I just don't need to, but maybe my Photoshop usage is not enough to stretch the 2GB. I think the answer will probably be 'it depends' ...

[Pete]

I run with 2GB using XP x64 so I could actually use more if I needed to. I just don't need to, but maybe my Photoshop usage is not enough to stretch the 2GB. I think the answer will probably be 'it depends' ...

Back when I had a Sony Vaio, I started on 2Gb and Photoshop was a bit sluggish when performing processing on full sized images. When I upgraded to 4Gb, things where a darned sight more smooth.

[René Damkot]

Depends on what you expect I suppose...
I've edited multi-layer, 16bpc, 39Mp images on my PB. That's a bit much though, and will lead to a high caffeine intake ;)

http://img.skitch.com/20080706-ktu5bc32mxtqn7229148jea3w5.jpg

My desktop has a bit more memory, and an even slower processor. Due for an upgrade (overdue actually)

[condyk]

Back when I had a Sony Vaio, I started on 2Gb and Photoshop was a bit sluggish when performing processing on full sized images. When I upgraded to 4Gb, things where a darned sight more smooth.

I just can't be bothered crawling under my desk to see what memory I put in the thing so I can buy some - pretty cheap though innit. My machine is fast as is ... but ya always wonder what difference that next upgrade would make don'tcha and then where does it all end :lol::lol:


My desktop has a bit more memory, and an even slower processor. Due for an upgrade (overdue actually)

Well maybe you can now invest some of that unexpected Moderationer salary in some new memory ;)

[overclicker]

I was just wondering, how many gigs of RAM memory do you guys require to use photoshop or something with layers to run smoothly and not lag at all? Is it about RAM or number of processors?

Memory is cheap, more memory is better than not. Fast processors are good, but if your system is semi-current, your main bottleneck could be memory, hard drive(s) defragmentation...

Get Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx), and see where you are now with things running in the background. You could then go to the Services guides for XP and Vista (http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/OSguides.htm#Windows_Vista) and find out what might be worth shutting down, or at least not have running when you boot up.

It helps if you are able to run Photoshop, or many other apps from a dedicated drive or at least a partition from a separate drive that your OS runs on. Once everything is set up, clean up your OS with CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) and run that regularly. After the gunk is cleaned out, defragment your OS drive and your "App drive". I think that PerfectDisk (http://www.raxco.com/home_office/home_perfectdisk_professional.cfm) is worth every penny, well worth the investment, but you can use the free defragmenter that comes w/Windows too. Also check out How to set performance options in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417).

hth

[Irreverent]

MBP running OSX 10.5.4 and CS3 with 2gb RAM here.

If I could add more to my machine, I definitely would.

If you can fit 4gb in your machine, and you work a lot with RAW files and layered documents, I'd definitely consider it given the price of memory these days.

[I26]

Running 4GB in my wifes Dell E1705 laptop. I am running 1.25GB in my Dell 8600 laptop. Both seem to run CS3 quite well.

[Irreverent]

I assume that the Dell 8600 is still running XP, or that you don't work with particularly large files?

I'm pretty sure 1.25GB would struggle under Vista and large image documents.

[bbulldog]

you dont need to crawl under your desk, go here lavalys (http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en) and download a trial version of Everest and see whats inside your computer. This proggy has taken over from Aida32.

[overclicker]

you dont need to crawl under your desk, go here lavalys (http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en) and download a trial version of Everest and see whats inside your computer. This proggy has taken over from Aida32.

+1

Kudos to EVEREST Ultimate Edition

[Canon Soldier]

ok cool. So my 3g ram should be enough. thanks all.

[tim]

2GB works fine for what I do.

[sadatk]

More is always better. I have 2GB and things get considerably sluggish when working on more than one full size raw image in Photoshop (tiff, 16-bit, prophoto) while also having Lightroom open with my entire library.

Coupled with iTunes, Safari, Adium, and Mail running--things get awful. :(

[Swift]

I have 3gb of ram and let Photoshop use the max it can (in settings it asks how much ram can it use) and I still lag for things like photomerging or HD things.

[Bobster]

i used to run on 2GB, some of the 1.5GB photos i edit, took a little long to do some things as i'd run out of RAM doing them and have to streamline the file a little until it would let me run a filter, i'm now running on 8GB RAM and haven't had a memory message yet ;)

[dolfinack]

I've got 2GB... PS CS3 usually sucks out 650mb of my life in a computer killing spree. Actually it ain't all that bad. I can usually run several things at once, including the awful mem-hogs Firefox and iTunes.

[Bobster]

the way Photoshop works is that you take your image, average 24MB and multiply it by 5 (can't remember the maths behind it) and that's how much physical RAM you need to open that image with 100% efficiency, once you start working on it, you'll start chewing up more RAM..

[Moppie]

If you are just running photoshop then 2gb is most likely fine for most editing, but if you start running other programs at the same time, then the more RAM the better.

With lightroom and photoshop both processing images, and me surfing the web, or my better half playing a game all 4gb (or the 3 and a bit the system can see and use) gets used.


The best way to find out if you need more is to open the task manager and watch the Page file and memory usage.
If the memory is constantly being fully used, and the PF taking up the slack, then more RAM will help performance.

[badfish]

Having a multi-core processor would certainly help. But as far as memory I have 4GB and only let photoshop use 2GB of that.

[Excavator]

I noticed a difference in the speed of just about everything CS3 does when I upped from 2 to 4GB of ram.
Part of my workflow is sorting pics in Bridge then editing in PS, I also have a lot of other things open at the same time.
Specs:
* Lian Li PC-V2100B
* Enermax Galaxy 1000watt PSU
* Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6
* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz 8M L2 Cache 1066FSB (running at 3.0GHz)
* Artic Cool Freezer7pro
* 4GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1333MHz
* 2 150GB Western Digital Raptors in RAID0
* WD SATAII 250GB w/16meg cache
* Plextor 716A SATA DLDVD Burner
* Creative 16xDVD/Rom
* nVidia 9600GT w/512MB GDDR3 running dual ACER 24" AL2416W widescreens
* DTV/DSL Internet connection at 10 meg per/sec down and 768K per/sec up

[HokkaidoStu]

Up until last week I was running CS3 on my old G4 i-mac. That had only 768MB RAM and a 1 GHz processor. It worked of course and was only annoyingly slow when I tried some downloaded actions that used lots of layers(TLR sharpening I think it was). DPP was always slow loading RAW files too.

I got a new i-mac with 4GB RAM and a 2.66 GHz processor last week. Much faster (naturally!)..........

[Mike Bell]

I've resurrected this thread as it was the most relevant one I found when I did a search for "How much RAM".

I want to upgrade my desktop to process 5D2 RAW files in both Lightroom and CS4. Is 4Gb of RAM still enough in 2009?

[Moppie]

I've resurrected this thread as it was the most relevant one I found when I did a search for "How much RAM".

I want to upgrade my desktop to process 5D2 RAW files in both Lightroom and CS4. Is 4Gb of RAM still enough in 2009?


Depends on what sort of desk top you have :cool:

[HankScorpio]

When I was running with 2GB, CS3 and CS4 ran just fine on their own with files as big as 600MB (scanned MF negs) but having LR or C1 open at the same time was troublesome. Now I have 12GB I can have anything I like running and CS4 never notices.

[MX-ActionShots]

I am NOT a computer person by no means, and have a hard time even trying to figure out what all the tech talk means:(

Here is the system I have currently:

Dell Dimension 9100
Pentium 4
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Intel (R)
2.99 GHz, 512mb of RAM
Hard Disk Space-153GB--67.5GB used--85.8GB free


I have DPP, LR2.3, Photomatix(trial), and trials of CS4 + PhotoFramePRO 4 installed.

I can not use Photoframe because it starts and then says there is not enough memory.

My question is this:

Can I buy more memory(RAM) and install it into this current computer? If so- how much would you suggest to get, and is this something I could install(probly not but thought I'd ask;))

I don't leave my pictures on the hard drive(C), as I back them upto CD's and or my website, so they are not taking up memory or disk space?

At this time I am open to suggestions, that will help me, so not looking for any smart a** comments;)

Thanks

Scott

[MattMoore]

I was just wondering, how many gigs of RAM memory do you guys require to use photoshop or something with layers to run smoothly and not lag at all? Is it about RAM or number of processors?

I run PSCS4 on an Intel i7 w/ 12gb of DDR3 1600 and a raptor HDD as my primary drive on Vista Ultimate (64bit), I don't seem to have any lag issues.

I usually have PSCS4, Bridge, Firefox, WinAmp (and sometimes uTorrent) running.

[carloman]

I run xp64 with 8 gigs installed with a dual core processor. CS4 runs absoultely flawless and its very snappy. In the 64 bit cs4 I let it use the default that it sees in my system at 60%(4335 MB) and in 32 bit mode I crank it up to 100% ram (3255) and windows knows to use the other memory that CS4 does not. The nice thing about using that much memory is it for what I do, it never uses the scratch disk, everything is done in the ram, very speedy and snappy that way.

[robertn]

note that windows 32bit systems can only use a maximum of 3gb, so if you're running a 32bit system don't bother upgrading ram.

[Mike Bell]

Depends on what sort of desk top you have :cool:


Well, (as I said) I am upgrading my desktop - probably to a 3GHz quad processor and 2 big fast hard drives. It sounds like I should get Vista 64 bit and 8Gb RAM - yes? :confused:

[HankScorpio]

Here is the system I have currently:

Dell Dimension 9100
Pentium 4
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Intel (R)
2.99 GHz, 512mb of RAM
Hard Disk Space-153GB--67.5GB used--85.8GB free


My question is this:

Can I buy more memory(RAM) and install it into this current computer? If so- how much would you suggest to get, and is this something I could install(probly not but thought I'd ask;))

Yes you could buy more RAM, you could get 4GB for less than $60 US.
Yes you could install it yourself.

Here is a site (http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%209100) that shows you the exact product you need and has a video to show you how to install it.

However, your PC is getting very old and it may be time to replace it, as a brand new, relatively cheap PC will eclipse your current one with speed.

[Moppie]

Well, (as I said) I am upgrading my desktop - probably to a 3GHz quad processor and 2 big fast hard drives. It sounds like I should get Vista 64 bit and 8Gb RAM - yes? :confused:

I missed that :)

If you get one of older Q series quad cores than 4-8GB will be fantastic.
I have 4GB, and have only had a problem with not enough RAM when trying to process a whole lot of large Tiff files into a stiched globe with filters on it.

If you get one of the new i7 chips, then they run on boards that use tri channel ram.
So rather than installing it in sets of two, you install in sets of 3.
6GB seems to be pretty standard.

[Joergen Geerds]

I have 16GB ram and 8 core... photoshop (32bit) can only use 3GB ram directly, and will use the rest (10-12GB) as buffer... there aren't many tasks inside PS that are multithreaded, usually you will see max 200% CPU load... so for the average user, 2-4GB ram and 2 cores are just fine. a fast scratch disks is far more important.

[Moppie]

I have 16GB ram and 8 core... photoshop (32bit) can only use 3GB ram directly, and will use the rest (10-12GB) as buffer... there aren't many tasks inside PS that are multithreaded, usually you will see max 200% CPU load... so for the average user, 2-4GB ram and 2 cores are just fine. a fast scratch disks is far more important.


CS4 on Windows 64bit gets around the 3GB limit, same with Lightroom 2.

The only features I have found in CS2 and 3 that are not multi-threaded, or able to be sent to multiple cores by the OS as seperate processes, are some of the old Filters, and these are RAM intensive instead. Fast bus speeds and lots of RAM are needed to run them quickly on large files.

Photoshop and LR both make full use of all 4 cores on my machine on a regular basis, and the benchmark thread in this forum makes it clear the quad cores are much better than the dual cores.

[MX-ActionShots]

Yes you could buy more RAM, you could get 4GB for less than $60 US.
Yes you could install it yourself.

Here is a site (http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%209100) that shows you the exact product you need and has a video to show you how to install it.

However, your PC is getting very old and it may be time to replace it, as a brand new, relatively cheap PC will eclipse your current one with speed.


Thanks Hank. What do you consider relatively cheap PC???? I have talked to Dell a few weeks ago, and told them what I did and what programs I need to run and this is what they suggested, a $1100 tower :

Studio XPS featuring Core i7 processors

[Erik G]

I currently have 4GB of RAM on my computer. It seems to run fine for all of my photoshop stuff (CS4 + Lightroom). It gets a little sluggish at times for my CAD programs though (Inventor 10 and Solidworks).

[Bearmann]

Scott,

More ram will definitely help you. You can go to support on the Dell website and find out how much ram your particular Dell will hold. Putting pictures on your hard drive will not affect your ram needs. Do leave about 20% of your hard drive free so it will work more efficiently, however. I would get about 3-4 GB of ram total for your Dell-you may have to trash the 512 MB you have now to open up those slots for larger capacity ram.

[HankScorpio]

Thanks Hank. What do you consider relatively cheap PC???? I have talked to Dell a few weeks ago, and told them what I did and what programs I need to run and this is what they suggested, a $1100 tower :

Studio XPS featuring Core i7 processors
Wow, Dell really love selling the most expensive. But you can get a Studio Desktop from them with this configuration:

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 4DIMMs
HARD DRIVE: 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD: Integrated Intel® GMA X4500HD Graphics

for $624 and it would be more than enough for several years considering what you are using now.

[Bobster]

only thing that bothers me is the integrated graphics and the performance hit CS4 would get..

[HankScorpio]

OpenGL acceleration doesn't speed up CS4 though, just makes certain drawing functions smoother and prettier. Besides the X4500HD is more than capable of running CS4's OpenGL features, it's no slouch for an integrated.

[Titus213]

I could stuff all the memory available into my machine and I still couldn't run Photoshop flawlessly. The problem is ME.

[Zepher]

I have 2GB on our Dell 3.0ghz Pentium 4 CS1 machine that we bring to onsite events.
I work with and print 8x10 300dpi images with up to 20 layers and it runs great.

[MaxxuM]

note that windows 32bit systems can only use a maximum of 3gb, so if you're running a 32bit system don't bother upgrading ram.

Actually, it can address up to 4GB, you just need to minus ROMs and video - so getting a 1GB video card is pretty useless for 32bit owners as it will only leave them with about 2.8GB. If you have a 512MB video card then you'll have around 3.2GB free and if you have a 256MB video card then it will be around 3.5GB free.

[MaxxuM]

I could stuff all the memory available into my machine and I still couldn't run Photoshop flawlessly. The problem is ME.

LoL... 13yrs and still cannot remember the keys to fill in backgrounds/foregrounds :rolleyes:

[imahawki]

I'm running a pretty wimpy dual core AMD laptop but I have 4GB of ram. LightRoom and PSE can be slow but my main issue is actually hard drive... right now all my images are stored on a USB2.0 drive, attached to an Apple Airport Extreme which I'm accessing via gigabit ethernet.

I just ordered a new desktop though. Intel Core2 Quad, 6GB of RAM and SATA II hard drives. I'll be moving all my images to a local SATA II hard drive, I expect that to make AS MUCH of a difference as the new processor/RAM. I guess we'll see though, it hasn't arrived yet.

[Zepher]

Actually, it can address up to 4GB, you just need to minus ROMs and video - so getting a 1GB video card is pretty useless for 32bit owners as it will only leave them with about 2.8GB. If you have a 512MB video card then you'll have around 3.2GB free and if you have a 256MB video card then it will be around 3.5GB free.
That isn't entirely true, and I have no idea why certain systems show more or less ram.
My machine with XP32 and 4GB of ram showed 3.25GB while running these 3 different cards (not at the same time), 9800GT 512MB, GTX260 896MB, GTX285 1GB

I built a machine recently for a client with a 9600GT 1GB and it showed 3.5GB.
Now that is a strange one.

[Faolan]

It's also down to BIOS/Mobo manufacturers I believe. Some BIOS will allocate the RAM differently.

I just avoided the whole issue in the end and went 64Bit... AMD Opteron with 16Gb RAM!

[MaxxuM]

That isn't entirely true, and I have no idea why certain systems show more or less ram.
My machine with XP32 and 4GB of ram showed 3.25GB while running these 3 different cards (not at the same time), 9800GT 512MB, GTX260 896MB, GTX285 1GB

I built a machine recently for a client with a 9600GT 1GB and it showed 3.5GB.
Now that is a strange one.

The more modern cards do not let the BIOS address the video memory above 512MB. If you have an old video card with 256MB toss it in and you'll see your memory go to 3.5MB. For the most part, this is true.