512 mb System too slow for Photoshop CS2...

[mysticpixels]

I have a pentium 4 windows 2000(S4) system with 512 mb memory and i am a graphic designer who needs to work a lot on photoshop(cs2) and other multimedia tools....But my system performance is too low for this version of photoshop..?? what can be the problem? should i upgrade my system to a further more memory??

This is consuming a lot of my time...and i am a very fast phtoshop user who relies on a lot of shortcut keys. When this low performane hits me , i cant work in my usual style. Its degenerating...........

Any one please help...!!!!!!

[gerbick]

Without stating what all you have running at startup doesn't really help things. 512mb for a lot of people is enough. However, the second you start adding things like: Real Player, Qtask.exe (Quicktime), AIM, and other stuff running at the same time; your machine will lag regardless of how much RAM you have.

I have a P4 as well, Windows 2003 Server SP1; but I'm running 2GB of RAM. Most of the images I make though tend to use about 300mb or more of active RAM and are mostly 40mb to 60mb in filesize.

Oh yeah... get used to using Purge a lot too. If you're copying/pasting stuff into memory, you'd might want to release that from time to time too. A lot of beginner designers tend to overlook that one option within Photoshop.

[mysticpixels]

But i dont have many items in my startup. But yes i have installed quick time and real player in my system.

And how can i purge, or free memory from PS-cs2. Please help..!!!!!

[gerbick]

Edit > Purge.

I'd read the manual if I were you a bit closer.

But if you can do it, I'd say get more RAM. 320mb is the baseline. 512mb is barely above that. And I'd gather that you've not optimized your services and/or system processes at all.

At boot, I have 14 processes running. And I'm using less than 15% of my memory.

[mysticpixels]

Thank you gerbick..Ill try upgrade my memory....and try optimising system processes.services....

[mysticpixels]

Gerbick, how according to you can i optmise the system process / services. Can u give me a brief idea on that..? It will be very useful to me....

Cheers...

[gerbick]

Google would have turned up plenty of "Windows 2000 Optimization Guides", here's one and the like, that I've used before.

Allow me to be very blunt. If you're unsure on how to properly administer your OS/machine, I truly suggest finding somebody that's a lot more OS savvy than yourself. Going in your registry and/or services to trim things down might create an error you'd not know how to troubleshoot.

I'll search around. But the majority of the optimization is dependent upon common sense... such as killing the print server spooler service if you don't have a printer hooked up. Or not running IIS if you're not running a localized website/webserver.

[mysticpixels]

Thank you Gerbick ....Once its done ...ill get back...
Cheers..

[mysticpixels]

Its all over and ive upgraded my memory to 1gb. PS CS2 is running pretty smoothly...

Cheers...

[dloblaw]

ram ram ram!

down the road you might want to have a look at a mac (when they put the intel chips in the G5) macs have a long history with the graphic industry, and they know the industries demands quite well. and you might just end up working even faster in osx. allot of pro designer seem to like them.

thought the cost to switch, may make it a short term lost, you'll make it up
in faster productivity over the long run.

even a used later gen. g4 can handle your needs now.

later

[mysticpixels]

thank you dloblaw...yep, mac is a favorite among designers, but the cost is what sets them back...:-(