Just upgraded to CS3 and discovered that CS3 does not seem to recognize the extra memory (Edit – Preferences – Performance) that CS2 did. I have 4 GB of memory installed using XP Pro SP2 (32-bit) with the 3 GB switch enabled in my autoexec.bat file. CS2 sees a bit over 3GB of which I could easily allocate about 70%. CS3 only sees 1709 MB.
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The 3GB switch should be set in your boot.ini file. If your settings are correct, PS will be able to see/use almost 3GB. I can post my boot.ini file (with a working 3GB switch) if people are still having problems with this.
The problem is not how to use or set up the 3GB switch, but the issue of having had the option work perfectly is CS2 and not being recognized in CS3. One poster says his works fine, another along with me find that it doesn’t for some reason.
I understand the problem you’re seeing, and worked with a few users during the PS CS3 beta on this exact issue. In most cases the boot.ini file was configured incorrectly, and once it was changed it worked in both CS2 and CS3 without issue. Still unsure why in some cases (like yours) it would work with CS2 and not CS3… any clues would be appreciated.
Thanks for following up. Would you go ahead and post your boot.ini lines so I can check to see if a bit is out of order? If I understand you correctly, in all the cases you’ve seen, an incorrect boot.ini caused the problem, but would have caused the same issue with CS2, right? This "works on CS2 but not on CS3" is a new problem that you have not seen?
I just realized that in my first post I referred to having the 3GB Switch enabled in my autoexec.bat file. I meant my boot.ini file. Sorry for any confusion.
I did investigate reports of the switch working with CS2 and not working with CS3 during the public beta. In most cases, a quick re-config of the boot.ini fixed the problem.
I just checked on my system (quad Athlon 64 FX-72, 4GB RAM, Windows XP Sp2) and the switch is working with both CS2 and CS3 (though I see much less RAM available to CS3, but still much more than ~1700MB before enabling the switch).
My boot.ini file:
[boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /3GB
Contents of boot.ini: [boot loader] timeout=10 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /3GB /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptOut
Well I checked my boot.ini with those of Adam and Michael. Mine was the same as Adam’s except the /fastdetect and /NoExecute switches were in a different order. I used Adam’s order and got the same results as before. My bootup memtest shows 4096MB, CS2 shows 2694MB and CS3 shows 1709MB.
I then used Michael’s boot.ini and got the exact same results. CS3 does not see the extra memory that CS2 does.
I cannot figure this out!
Any other suggestions? I am on an Intel Core2 Duo processor, not that it should matter, especially when the 3GB switch works fine with CS2.
The problem could be processor specific, however I didn’t see this when I checked on a dual Woodcrest system (Xeon 5100). My Core 2 Duo system at home only has 2GB of RAM, but I’ll see about setting up a system tomorrow w/4GB to see if I can reproduce this.
You do of course realize that the 3GB switch is not a guaranteed work. And, just because you were lucky enough to get it to work with CS2 doesn’t mean it will work with CS3. Since CS3 has to deal with a new OS (Vista) you may not get it to work. No one Microsoft or Adobe makes any promises about the 3GB switch. I know this doesn’t help, but it is reality in all of its ugly glory. Maybe someone from Adobe will shead some light on this.
I just tried this on my Core 2 Extreme system (4 x 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR2 800 RAM, Intel Desktop Board D975XBX2, Windows XP Sp2), and I see 2699MB total available for CS2 and 2638MB available for CS3. I’m going to try once more on my E6600 (Core 2 Duo) system…
"Maybe someone from Adobe will shead some light on this."
I am part of the Photoshop quality engineering group at Adobe and I’m specifically interested in PS performance relative to hardware, so you’ve got my ear 🙂
Truth is using PS with the /3GB switch is not officially supported by us. Use it at your own risk as using the switch can cause system stability issues. If it works for you, and makes using PS a better experience, then don’t let us tell you otherwise 😉
I’m looking forward to the results on your E6600 Core2 Duo system since this is what I am running and cannot seem to get CS3 to see the extra memory. I hope it works on yours as it will give me hope on mine. I am running an Asus PB5 Deluxe WiFi board with my E6600. Are you on an Intel board with your E6600? Just tyring to eliminate all the variables.
Thanks for checking in on this one. I understand that the 3GB switch is unsupported, but it’s kind of frustrating to go backwards in performance from CS2 to CS3.
Looks like the /3GB switch does work on my Intel E6600 system (Intel mobo). I have another E6600 system with an ASUS mobo, however it only has Win XP 64-bit installed on it, and I don’t have time today to do a new XP Pro install on that box. If you still can’t figure out why the switch isn’t working, I’ll try to make time in the next few days to check the E6600/Asus box.
Thanks for following up. At least we know now that it’s not the processor. I really doubt it could be the motherboard, but if you find some time in the next few days, it would be great if you could eliminate that variable for me.
I really cannot figure out what else it could be. I have tried three variants of the boot.ini file to no avail. Does having CS2 and CS3 loaded on the same box be an issue? I really do not want to uninstall CS2 until I’m convinced that CS3 is doing everything else correctly.
What about /pae switch? I’m use it for CS2, for CS3 it’s not enough, so i’m add /3gb switch and now Photoshop seen 2639MB (4GB installed) – more than need under 32-bit OS.
I found this tread to be very interesting. I looked up the /3G switch on Microsoft’s site. It confirms the boot.in configuration that Adam posted. The MS site also mentioned PAE support which allows the 32 bit OS to address more that 4GB of RAM. I looked on Intel’s web site and found this very interesting application note on how to maximize system performance. Here is the URL <http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/28/13/281339_281339.pdf> It talks about disk and memory issues.
Interesting that the page referenced in Bill’s post said that the improvement due to /3GB is much less than the improvement due to /3GB and /PAE with a 4 GB system. I’m going to try the /PAE switch.
It is possible that it is a combination processor/Motherboard/CS3 issue. As I have stated, my E6600 Dual Core/Asus system works fine with the 3GB switch and CS2.
I was hoping Adam might get a chance, as he suggested, to test this on his E6600/Asus system with XP and see it it works for him. So far, his two Intel processors have worked on Intel boards.
I’ll have to see if he posts something in the next days.
First I added the /PAE /3GB and I didn’t get any option on the startup screen during reboot. Then I deleted the /PAE and it worked after I used just the /3GB (adding it to the end of the boot.ini string after fastdetect – ie…..fastdetect /3GB
The instructions say: "During startup, select the 3GB option. If you do not select the 3GB option, the system will default to the 2GB total memory setting."
…. but during start up I got a screen asking to chose between ‘Windows Media Center’ or ‘Windows Media Center’ 🙂 Since I kept the original string and added the second string with the switch I chose the 2nd one and it worked. I’m guessing if I delete the original string I wouldn’t get the startup screen option, but haven’t tried that yet.
Prior to switch: PS 1712 After the switch: PS 2651
I have Intel 975X, Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz 1066MHz FSB 4MB cache,non-HT), 4GB RAM, Windows XP Media Center Edition, 32bit.
Didn’t do any ‘timed’ experiment before, but I ran a 3MB file through Smart Sharpen – usually gives me a ‘progress bar’ for a few seconds and no progress bar at all, virtually instanteous.
I believe either at the start of this or some other similar thread there were a few talking about how they couldn’t get the 3GB switch to work on an AMD processor powered computer. So it could very well be CPU/Motherboard dependant.
I can’t say, I choose not to force things to do things that they weren’t designed to do. If Windows and Photoshop were designed to use 3GB of RAM they would without taking a hammer to them. But, I want stability over nearly everything else.
Agreed, Robert. The success of the 3G switch is very dependent on the motherboard manufacturer’s implementation of the BIOS and chipset. Mine works (Tyan K8E) flawlessly or I would not be using it. The last thing I need is instability when trying to beat a deadline.
As for the present topic, I will be very interested to see what the resolution is. I have no interest or need to use CS3 at the present, and if there is *any* question about the app’s ability to utilize extended RAM I will be using CS2 for the foreseeable future.
Sounds likes it could be more a motherboard issue than a CPU one. I have only built and used one AMD system and it had an ASUS motherboard. I had nothing but problems with it and compatibility both at the CPU level and the motherboard and bios level (VIA chipset also was a mess). I will never touch AMD or ASUS again after that. Worst system I ever had.
I use the /3GB switch with an AMD Athlon 64X2 4600+ on an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe MB with 4GB of memory, without problems. The MB has an nVidia chipset, not VIA.
My Asus board works perfectly fine with the 3GB switch and CS2.
I have both CS2 and CS3 installed. CS2 sees the extra memory, CS3 does not.
It appears that something has changed in the utilization of the 3GB switch within CS3 to make it ignore extra memory with my specific processor/MB combination or possibly the karma in my office.
I appear to be the only one that cannot get this to work in CS3.
I also use an AMD Athlon 64×2 on an Asus A8N-SLI Premium….also nVidia. /3GB seems to work like a champ.
I have some other problems with CS3 (Extended) such as the Shadow Illuminator filter not working properly and CS3 not seeming to properly release memory (leak???), but /3GB works.
I had to limit memory to ~2944 GB, probably due to video card (Parhelia). I did not try to optimize (enlarge) that number, it work, I was happy.
You are not alone. I too have the same problem. I have 4gb of ram in my Intel Pent D 2 core machine, with XP pro SP2 (of course for some reason Windows only sees 3 of this, but that’s another conversation). I too use the /3gb switch in my boot.ini file, and I also was able to see the full 3gb or so in CS2 and only 1.7gb or so in CS3. Both versions of PS are currently installed.
It does not appear to be MB or processor specific.
Sorry to hear you are having the same problem, but I’m glad I’m not the olny one seeing this.
I was reading some threads yesterday and got the idea that it might be related to the CS3 preferences file since I think it pulled info from the CS2 file during install. I am not sure if this is correct, but I am going to try deleting the CS3 one and then have CS3 create a new one when it opens to see if that works. Won’t have a chance to try that until later today, but I’ll post results here.
As to why your OS only sees three MB, my motherboard bios has a "memory remapping" option which needs to be turned on for the OS to see the 4GBs. Perhaps this is what is happening with you.
Something I learned this weekend, which suprised me, came via booting my system with the /3GB switch enabled while only have 2GB of memory installed. I normally have 4GB installed, hence use of the switch, but while waiting to have a bad module replaced I am only running with 2GB. What I saw were two things:
1. CS2 reported 2661MB available…obviously incorrect, but nice to know I can create more memory by removing some! ha! This left me to assume that the /3GB switch doesn’t really allow PS to "see" more memory but rather just seems to tell it to add 1GB to what it otherwise assumes to be available. I suppose PS doesn’t really detect the memory itself but simply is told by the O/S what amount of memory remains unused.
2. I saw very odd peaks of the PS temp file on the scratch disk when running a benchmark that resizes the image up to 500MB in size. While the temp file normally reached a peak size of 3.3GB, there were a few occasions when the benchmark was excessively slow by an order of 3x or 4x slower, and I happened to notice those times were when the temp file swelled up to 7.5GB or more…one case being 9GB. I never saw that occur once I made the correction to disable the /3GB switch. Coincidence? Maybe. But, I’d not be too surprised to find this behavior connected to PS thinking it had more memory available than was truly the case.
There is at least one newer Microsoft reference (in a Feb 2007 article I think) that indicates the userva switch works with both XP Pro and Home now (not just servers).
Thanks for the suggestion, but I already use that switch to no avail.
Here’s my boot.ini in case anyone can see some small boo boo that I have overlooked. This is the boot.ini that works fine with CS2. I have both options available during bootup (3GB switch or without. I added two blank lines between options to make it easier to read here.
Of the multiple variables affecting memory useage:
1. it seems that the problem is probably not related to Processor type 2. the various threads are unclear about the SPECIFIC motherboard brand and model. 3. the various interations of PAE and 3Gb Switch instrucions in the Boot.ini file seem to show no consistent pattern. 4. the problems seem to be not related to XP vs. Vista.
In my view, the most likely sources of the problem may be related to: a) the specific bios version of a motherboard manufacturer b) the brand of memory being used.
The more specific the threads are about the hardware the more easily it may be to isolate the problem to one item.
Intestingly enough, for some reason, my machine now sees the same ram (1700mb in both versions of PS) The elitegroup people claim that it is OK to only see 3 of the 4gb of ram in POST (which I don’t believe) but I know that windows sees 3gb of it with no problem.
oh this is a pain in the a$$.
I seriously doubt it is a memory brand issue with anyone though. Motherboard _MAYBE_ but even that’s not likely. be sure to check and see if windows even sees the 3gb if you are using the /3gb switch (system properties under my computer)
eh, just one of those numerous adobe bugs I guess. add it to the list.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB Switch" /3GB /USERVA=2900 /fastdetect /NoExecute=Optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=Optin
This would not be correct because you are essentially telling the same installation of Windows to behave in two different ways. No wonder it doesn’t work. Delete the second line. And change your USERVA=2944.
It seems from a previous post that they were not getting a menu choice, in either case it would be better to simplify the boot.ini so that the OS will do one thing.
Ho was right. The two lines in my boot.ini provide me with a choice at boot up as to whether to engage the 3 GB switch or not. This example of having an option at bootup is a good idea in case the 3 GB switch causes some severe error. Next boot, you can open XP without it. I wouldn’t operate without the choice. This is documented in numerous places. Remember, that it works fine with CS2.
I will try changing the Userva setting, and report back. I have low hopes that it will make any difference. Thanks for the suggestion.
I don’t think that the 32-bit Windows OS can see more that 2 GB although other Windows applications can if they are designed to use it like Photoshop and CPU-Z.
Interesting that now you have lost the extra memory in CS2. Do you have a "Memory Remap" option in your bios that allows the system to read the extra memory. If I do not have this option engaged in my Asus bios, the system does not see the extra 2GB.
I am on Bios 0804. I think there have been two revisions since then. My system is perfectly stable and I hate to upgrade unless absolutely necessary. I killed a MB with an Asus bios upgrade once. I’m a litle gun shy.
If you have 4GB of RAM yet only 3GB is reported by the BIOS, then check to see if your BIOS has a Memory Remap Enable option. The AMI BIOS of my ASUS motherboard was reporting an odd value of 3200MB when I replaced a couple sticks of bad RAM some time ago. I don’t recall if it was during the period of waiting for the new RAM that I also updated the BIOS, but somehow that setting was disabled. Once I enabled it, the proper 4GB of memory was seen and reported by the BIOS.
yea, no memory remap option. but the "speedfan" software that I have that monitors the whole system (from within windows) actually sees all of the dimms (4x1gb) so i know they are at least functioning.
