Trying to determine if I need more RAM.....running slow.

I've had my computer 2 years and I'm not ready to upgrade. I have a Dell XPS Studio 420, Intel Core 2 processor and 3.0 gb of RAM. I have pscs2 and back all my pictures up on my 2 external hard drives. Since I use photoshop the most that's when I notice it running slow. I have an airbrush filter that I run and it seems to take forever. Lately I cleaned up everything on my computer but it's still running slow.

Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bridget

Probably best to move to computer talk forum.

If running XP (and I think 32 bit Vista also) can't make use of more than 4 gig of RAM anyway so difference unlikely to be huge if you moved to 4.

May not want to hear this but I'd suggest a clean reinstall of the OS - just make sure you back everything up and have all the drivers etc. that came with your system. Plenty of good instructions on how to do this if you google. Systems slow down over time and this is usually best way to bring them back. Pain in the butt though.

Defrag of hard drives may also help if not done.

You don't say what your OS is, can we assume Vista 32 bit? Regardless you need at least 4 of RAM.
To get an idea of what's going on, open your task manager>performance in Windows while PS is running, it will give you an indication of where your resourses are being used.

3gb should be enough provided you are not running alot of other programs at the same time. I have 4gb in my Quad core machine (running Windows 7 64bit) and I only notice it slow down if I'm running LR and PS and IE with several tabs open, and usually more. But I really don't need to have all that stuff running when editing photos.

You can check how your computer is running with the Resource Monitor (in accessories>system tools in Win7 anyways)

As mentioned you might want to consider a clean re-install of the OS.