Anyone using vista yet and how much ram do you reckon is adequate for processing 1.3GB image effectively without running into memory shortages. 16GB?
I'm think in terms of adequate for photoshop editing.
Anyone using vista yet and how much ram do you reckon is adequate for processing 1.3GB image effectively without running into memory shortages. 16GB?
I'm think in terms of adequate for photoshop editing.
Last edited by Rob Champagne; 19-Jul-2007 at 09:55.
Vista - how much memory is adequate?
All of it, I think. From what I hear, no matter how much memory you can stuff into your computer, Vista is able to use it so your programs can't...
Vista, whats that? The view of your money sailing off into the distance and just before it falls off the edge of the earth, it explodes.
*************************
Eric Rose
www.ericrose.com
I don't play the piano, I don't have a beard and I listen to AC/DC in the darkroom. I have no hope as a photographer.
Dunno about Vista, but the classic advice for Photoshop is that each adjustment requires memory from the Photoshop swap file (not to be confused from the Windows swap file).
Photoshop lets you specify more than 1 drive to host the swap file. So let's say your machine has 4 GB of RAM. That memory is used for the running applications, like Photoshop, your network connection, the operating system itself, etc.
If you don't tell Photoshop anything, it will use your RAM and then your C:/ drive for its own swap file. So the same disk is hosting both the program and the data that the program needs.
If you install an external hard drive (such as a USB drive - let's call it the D drive), you can tell Photoshop to use the D drive for its swap file. Now, your C drive and available RAM can be used for the program, while the D drive can be accessed at the same time. Photoshop can read and write to each drive asynchronously. BOOM: Big performance improvement.
In fact, Photoshop allows you to specify several disks to be used for swap files - so real "power users" use tons of RAM and AND an array of fast drives for swap.
With vista you can install 128GB of ram if you have the correct version and let PS use ram and not disk for swap files. Ram is a lot faster than disk. So my question is how much ram is good for vista and photoshop.
I guess that if you haven't got vista then you will only be guessing which isn't what I'm looking for.
Even if Vista will support 128 GB of RAM, it may not be true that all PCs will let you install that much.
I am using vista and it flys. I am running 4 gigs but vista can only see 3.2 of it unless you go the 64 bit route which I think can recognize up to 8 gigs; I am also using a duo core.
You need to make sure no matter what you do your motherboard will support up to at least 4 gigs.
Photoshop is extremely fast and it feel pretty stable. There are a few aps that do ton work but none of the main ones. You will have to mess with the security settings to get everything working. The reason why most people cant get aps to work is not because of Vista but because of the security policies MS put in place. Once you tweak everything is really rocks.
Kevin - Are you working on files that are over 1 GB in size ?
I routinely work with files that are 1/2 that size, but not 1GB.
I,m looking at building a new 64bit PC so memory limit won't be a problem. Cost will be because 16GB of ram is pricey. If 8GB is good enough then maybe that would do but I reckon that for big files, i.e. 1.3GB which is what my scanner will produce at native resolution, then 16GB may be necessary for max speed of processing and editing with a few layers.
64bit Vista with the correct version of 64bit vista can handle at least 128GB of memory. The home versions are limited.
Better still, get yourself a Mac Pro; it will accomodate 16GB of memory and can hold 4 hard disks which, at the moment can be as big as 1TB each.
However, I am running Photoshop an a Macbook Pro 17" laptop with only 3GB of memory and a 400GB external eSATA drive. Not as fast as a desktop machine but fast enough to make CS3 eminently usable.
What's more, if you really insist on using Windows, then you can always run it as a virtual machine under Parallels on the Mac, only access the internet via OS X and you can forget about having to install a virus checker; now that really does make Windows fly
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks