Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD

brettjrob · 13th of July 2011 (Wed)

I am currently running a 96 GB SSD as my OS and app drive. I also have two fairly fast HDD's in my tower (WD Black). The way I see it, I have two options:

1. Set the scratch disk to my SSD, which is very fast but also where PS resides.

2. Set the scratch disk to my second HDD, while keeping all my image files on the first.

Does anyone know which is likely to give me better performance?

YP5 Toronto · 13th of July 2011 (Wed)

Everything on the SSD.

DisrupTer911 · 15th of July 2011 (Fri)

Get another ssd for the scratch disk use.

tim · 15th of July 2011 (Fri)

If you have enough RAM then scratch is used, but I think it probably pages history to disk in the background.

Remember once Photoshop's loaded the disk isn't really touched again, so your SSD will be idle.

I have an SSD for and programs, and another for scratch/swap/cache.

hihohito · 16th of July 2011 (Sat)

How much memory is Photoshop using for scratchdisk? I have a ssd vertex3 120gb drive for windows and photoshop. Should I use a second ssd drive for scratch? Memory on board is 16 gig.

tim · 16th of July 2011 (Sat)

Try with the existing ssd hi ho.

hollis_f · 16th of July 2011 (Sat)

Quote:

Originally Posted by YP5 Toronto

Everything on the SSD.

This.

It's recommended to have your scratch disk on a physical drive that is different from the drive where PS exists. But that recommendation dates back to the dark ages when it took forever (nearly 10 ms) for the hard drive to even find the right place to get some data. So the continual switching from one physical location to another, as the CPU demanded PS data from one bit of disk, then data from the Scratch Disk, could cause perceptible delays (close to 100's of ms).

But an SSD has access times a lot faster than any HDD. So those dreadful delays of a half a second, or so, are cut down to about one hundredth of a second. Of course, you could spend a couple of hundred quid and get a second SSD - just for the scratch disk. And get those delays down to around 1 thousandth of a second. And then you can spend more money on some super-duper benchmarking software to measure those differences and bask in your self-satisfied smugness.

Mayniyak · 16th of July 2011 (Sat)

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollis_f

But that recommendation dates back to the dark ages when it took forever (nearly 10 ms) for the hard drive to even find the right place to get some data.

10ms was the dark ages?? Heh, tell that to my first computer (170ms).

Bobster · 16th of July 2011 (Sat)

minimum scratch that PS uses is the same as you have allocated to the app -so if you give it 8GB, you need a minimum of 8GB of Scratch..

btmlinedan · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

think 64gb of SSD would be enough?

DisrupTer911 · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

My understanding on PS scratchdisk is that It works like a virtual memory setup like windows however, in PS, every action you make to a photo is registered within memory.

So if you're working on a 25mb image file, and do 2GB worth of processing to it, then you need 2+GB of scratch space.

if you're working on a 100GB pano and do like 100GB of editing to it then you need 100GB of scratch space on top of 100GB of storage space for teh file itself.

btmlinedan · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

so you need just enough to hold PS, and however much you're working on at 1 time?

btmlinedan · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

also ; how do you set the scratch disk?

tim · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

Quote:

Originally Posted by btmlinedan

think 64gb of SSD would be enough?

For cache? Yes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by btmlinedan

also ; how do you set the scratch disk?

It's in edit -> preferences -> performance (or similar)

btmlinedan · 18th of July 2011 (Mon)

thanks tim (in both threads )

13th of July 2011 (Wed)	#1
brettjrob Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Norman, OK USA Posts: 166 IMAGE EDITING OK	Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD I am currently running a 96 GB SSD as my OS and app drive. I also have two fairly fast HDD's in my tower (WD Black). The way I see it, I have two options: 1. Set the scratch disk to my SSD, which is very fast but also where PS resides. 2. Set the scratch disk to my second HDD, while keeping all my image files on the first. Does anyone know which is likely to give me better performance? __________________ Canon EOS 6D \| Canon EOS 450D Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L \| Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L \| Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Manfrotto 055XPROB + 488RC2 \| Hoya PRO1 Digital CPL 77mm Flickr \| 500px \| skyinmotion.com Feedback

13th of July 2011 (Wed)	#2
YP5 Toronto Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Markham, Ontario Posts: 466	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD Everything on the SSD. __________________ Canon 7D Gripped \|Tokina 11-16 \| Sigma 30mm F1.4 \|Canon EF 24-70L \| \|Canon EF 70-200L F2.8IS MKI \|Sigma 530DG \| Giottos 9360 \| Giottos MH-1301 \| Giottos MH656 \| Spyder2Pro \| Kata 3IN1-20 \| Kata Bumblebee UL-222

15th of July 2011 (Fri)	#3
DisrupTer911 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 1,934	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD Get another ssd for the scratch disk use. __________________ myFlickr : myModelMayhem : my500 : myGear :

15th of July 2011 (Fri)	#4
tim Light Bringer Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Wellington, New Zealand Posts: 47,934 IMAGE EDITING OK	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD If you have enough RAM then scratch is used, but I think it probably pages history to disk in the background. Remember once Photoshop's loaded the disk isn't really touched again, so your SSD will be idle. I have an SSD for and programs, and another for scratch/swap/cache. __________________ NZIPP Qualified Professional wedding photographer. Camera and Lens Reviews ~ Wellington Wedding Photographer Wellington Wedding Photographer (site2) ~ Wellington Wedding Photographer (site3) Read all my FAQs (wedding, printing, lighting, books, etc)

16th of July 2011 (Sat)	#5
hihohito Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 208	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD How much memory is Photoshop using for scratchdisk? I have a ssd vertex3 120gb drive for windows and photoshop. Should I use a second ssd drive for scratch? Memory on board is 16 gig.

16th of July 2011 (Sat)	#9
Bobster Goldmember Join Date: May 2006 Location: Dorset, England Posts: 4,548	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD minimum scratch that PS uses is the same as you have allocated to the app -so if you give it 8GB, you need a minimum of 8GB of Scratch.. __________________ Robert Whetton Dorset Portrait & Events Photographer \| Photoshop Guru DIY Monitor Hood \| Gear \| Tweet \| Google+ \| Get your focus spot on

18th of July 2011 (Mon)	#10
btmlinedan Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: ohio Posts: 1,508 IMAGE EDITING OK	Re: Photoshop Scratch Disk: SSD vs. HDD think 64gb of SSD would be enough? __________________ dan l Flickr l cars: dkfx Photography l weddings: Blue Martini Photography l YN622C tranceiver review 16-35 f2.8 FS: $950*

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