3gb RAM enough for LR3?

I built an older system (it was free and works decently) for my main system. it's a

Random DFI industrial board
Pentium-D 650 3.4ghz / ginormous heatpipe cooler
3gb DDR2
GeForce GTX285 1gb GDDR3
6x 400gb SATA
1x 250gb SATA
1x 2TB backup
dual DVD-RW

It really is a decent machine for its age and LR3 runs pretty nice on it quite honestly, but I've considered doubling to 6gb or maxing out my RAM to 8gb and was curious if this is all for nothing or if that much more RAM will make a difference. The CPU is maxed out for the time being, I'm probably going to get something that will run a Core 2 Duo and takes all my peripherals. I do believe the CPU is the bottle neck in this equation.

why so old? I paid nothing for it and was entirely free from a local electronics surplus warehouse, why buy new when you can recycle

If it's running a 32-bit OS then 3GB is fine -- the OS won't use any more.

If, though, it's running a 64-bit version of XP. Vista or Win7, then adding RAM can help.

It's a 32 bit OS but I'm going to step up to 7 in the very near future.

j-dogg wrote in post #14139625
It's a 32 bit OS but I'm going to step up to 7 in the very near future.

Well, if you get Win7 64-bit, then it can use more RAM than the 32-bit can.

It runs OK in 3GB. It will run a little faster if you put your cache, and possibly your catalog, on a separate drive.

For the price of RAM these days I don't see why not to max out your OS?

I am running 8GB on both my iMac and MBP and it is next to nothing.

I Would definitely recommend the most possible for you're OS!

I have 20GB in my imac and it's great. Ordered it with 4GB and it was a turd in lightroom. load times were horrible. Much better now, thank you.

Another gigabyte of memory won't hurt, and will probably reduce your paging overhead. The more memory you have, the smaller your paging file will be. My XP windows machine currently recognizes 3.6 GB, and is has 3.1 GB available, but since it will also have WIndows 7 on it soon, has 16GB installed.

There are other ways to speed up your machine as well. One way is by providing an I/O cache. WIth XP I use EZBoost, which allows the system to cache (by application name) either on USB sticks or an SSD, or, though I haven't tried it yet, by using excess RAM beyond the amount used by the OS. Having your applications cached in a fast I/O device can really speed things up.

BTW, the previous platform that this system was on is a 2.4 GHz Hyperthreaded P4 (Socket 478) with 4GB of RAM, a really fast OS drive, and an SSD. I ran it for years as a digital audio recording system without a paging file (even before the SSD), and it never crashed, I never ran out of resources, and it was fast enough to run 24 audio tracks, and as far as I could tell, unlimited MID tracks.

Thinking about getting LR3 now and I have 1MB... yikes. On a 3.2GHz P4. I'm using CS3 so maybe I just don't know any better. Time to look at those RAM slots!

AntonLargiader wrote in post #14151041
Thinking about getting LR3 now and I have 1MB... yikes. On a 3.2GHz P4. I'm using CS3 so maybe I just don't know any better. Time to look at those RAM slots!

I think you mean 1GB

AntonLargiader wrote in post #14151041
Thinking about getting LR3 now and I have 1MB... yikes. On a 3.2GHz P4. I'm using CS3 so maybe I just don't know any better. Time to look at those RAM slots!

328iGuy wrote in post #14151052
I think you mean 1GB

Heh! Yeah, I'd imagine, but back in the old days we only needed 64KB of RAM!

But yeah, I'd definitely up your RAM to 3GB, because you can, your system can use it, and both CS3 and Lightroom will make use of it and be happy!

Oops, yeah... 1GB. Like we'll ever need more than 640k anyway.

I have been wondering about the advantages of a ram upgrade myself. I have a core 2 duo with 4 gigs of 800mhz ddr2 on my laptop and when I load an HDR image or a panorama from my t3i it takes foreeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvv​vvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr​rrrrr. Stock 3 exposure hdr is ok but magic lantern hdr with 9 exposures is a pain. So are panoramas beyond 4 or 5 images. The task manager always shows my cpu is at like 12% and my ram is at 99-100% while loading an HDR image. I really wish I could figure out how big of a difference it would make because there are a few things I need to purchase and RAM is on my list.

calypsob wrote in post #14153999
I have been wondering about the advantages of a ram upgrade myself. I have a core 2 duo with 4 gigs of 800mhz ddr2 on my laptop and when I load an HDR image or a panorama from my t3i it takes foreeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvv​vvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr​rrrrr. Stock 3 exposure hdr is ok but magic lantern hdr with 9 exposures is a pain. So are panoramas beyond 4 or 5 images. The task manager always shows my cpu is at like 12% and my ram is at 99-100% while loading an HDR image. I really wish I could figure out how big of a difference it would make because there are a few things I need to purchase and RAM is on my list.

What OS are you using?

I'm asking because a 32-bit OS won't be able to use more than 3 GB of RAM but if you have, say, Win7 64 then yes, adding to your RAM will benefit you. And yes, HDR, panorama stitching and multiple layers can definitely "tax" your resources!