Hardware needed for Photoshop CS

DE
Posted By
Daniel_E_Moerman
Aug 22, 2004
Views
248
Replies
9
Status
Closed
I am doing a lot of work with large 6-meg RAW images in CS. On my machine, p4-1.8Ghz, it can really crawl when I’m in a directory with 30 or 40 images. I need to replace the machine for other reasons, but as long as I’m going to do so, I want to get something that will be more responsive with those big raw images. Any experience out there with this? What components should I particularly watch to get top Photoshop CS performance with large files?

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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Aug 22, 2004
Daniel,

There’s no reason your machine should crawl, not even at 300 Meg files.

What is the RAM?

Is "high quality previews" ticked in the browser? try it with off.

Just installed PS? It has to generate all the previews for the first time. Have your pc run overnight, so it will do the job without annoying you.

Rob
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 22, 2004
Daniel,

Rob’s right, your machine shouldn’t be "crawling", but it’s a relative term.

What components should I particularly watch to get top Photoshop CS performance with large files?

The issue for photoshop is that it doesn’t work like many other windows programs. It depends heavily on the scratch disk. That means read/write to disk. So, assuming that you have 256 RAM or better, if I were trying to focus on optimizing a unit for PS, I would be focusing on hard drive real estate and hard drive I/O. So, basically, size and type of hard drive, all other things being equal.

Just my two cents.

Peace,
Tony
DE
Daniel_E_Moerman
Aug 22, 2004
Thanks much to Rob and Tony.

I guess it may well be an issue of what "crawl" is. I have a gig of ram so that shouldn’t be the problem. But when I open a directory of family snapshots (in jpg format, maybe 1 or 2 meg files), and if I click on one, it snaps into the preview window, and snaps open in the blink of an eye. If I am in a directory of the RAW flower pictures I am taking for a book I’m writing, everything crawls (there’s that word again!). To go thru the directory for the first time with 30 or 40 images takes a minute or more (indeed, my browser is set for "high quality previews" — I shut it off, but didn’t care for the look of it that way.) When I then click on a thumbnail, there is a noticable lag when I open it into the RAW plug-in; I just counted off on a file I hadn’t opened yet, and it took 5 seconds to open. That seems slow to me. When you save the file, again the "what’s happening" thermometer jiggles along. I guess I’m just not used to waiting for things any more. A decade ago, I knew it would take an hour to index a database, and I planned ahead. But today, everything I use seems to operate instantly.

I guess I’ll just make sure I have the fastest bus I can get, and maybe one step back from the fastest processor when I upgrade.

Any other suggestions much appreciated.

Best regards, Dan.
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 22, 2004
I just counted off on a file I hadn’t opened yet, and it took 5 seconds to open. That seems slow to me.

<nodding> I’d agree with that.

I never use RAW images so I can’t say.

I guess I’ll just make sure I have the fastest bus I can get, and maybe one step back from the fastest processor when I upgrade.

That’s what I’d do.

Peace,
Tony
ND
Nick_Decker
Aug 22, 2004
Dan, we’ve been told that anything around 2.6Ghz or so is plenty for the CPU. Aside from that, speed comes from FSB and RAM. If you’re gonna upgrade anyway, be sure and get at least two fast HDs. PS likes that for its scratch disk.

Nick
DN
DS_Nelson
Aug 22, 2004
maybe one step back from the fastest processor when I upgrade

That’s what I generally do. The "fastest" processor on the market generally commands quite a price premium, and one step down from "fastest" (which changes every week of course) is often the sweet spot for price/performance tradeoff.
DE
Daniel_E_Moerman
Aug 23, 2004
Query: is there some way to specify the "scratch disk"? I don’t know how PS deals with these issues. But I’m sure it wants lots of disk space somewhere. In my case, if the C drive is the default, that could be problematic. . .

AGain, thanks for the counsel here.

dm
ND
Nick_Decker
Aug 23, 2004
Sure, Edit>Preferences>Plug-Ins and Scratch Disk. Just point it where you want, a second hard drive is best.
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 23, 2004
<nodding>

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