Max. useable Ram ME/Photoshop 7

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big files, can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME? I have 3 slots on the Athlon motherboard populated by just one 512mb chip. I would need a better reason to change from ME at this stage if that were the limiting factor.
I am getting conflicting techie advise on this so I thought that I'd ask the application experts.
Thanks
PS I've got the application and files on separate 7200 rpm drives for reasons I've 'accepted' without fully understanding the logic.

"Warren Jones" wrote in
news:3f9ed1ad$:

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big files, can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME?

Hell yes/hell no.

I have 3 slots on the Athlon motherboard populated by just one 512mb chip. I would need a better reason to change from ME at this stage if that were the limiting factor.

How about "everything works a damn sight better, especially Photoshop?"

I am getting conflicting techie advise on this so I thought that I'd ask the application experts.

I dunno why. Photoshop is a voracious consumer of RAM. You need between 3-5 times the size of the pic you're working on, above whatever your applications and Windows takes. In 512, you don't have huge amounts of overhead.

1GB is what I'd consider the smallest logical amount of RAM in a Photoshop machine (considering today's RAM prices), and you have to tweak ME to work with it at all. And then it does so poorly.

Thanks
PS I've got the application and files on separate 7200 rpm drives for reasons I've 'accepted' without fully understanding the logic.

It's not really difficult - if you've got more than one process accessing a single disc, there are going to be delays, like anytime you wait in a line.

Photoshop also uses a temporary or "scratch" file. This is best on yet another drive not used by the Windows, the application, or your data files.

"Warren Jones" wrote in message
[snip]

I would need a better reason to change from ME at this stage if that were the limiting factor.

There is only ONE reason not to: if you have legacy devices which you absolutely, positively, cannot live without that will not work in in either W2K or XP. That is the ONLY reason.

Please note: this is not meant to be a flame, rather it is just a simple fact. Don't walk away from ME, run!

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Warren Jones wrote:

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big files, can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME?

I believe you may use up to 2 GB - past that point the OS will not allocate it to running programs, though some of it may be used by device drivers. --

Mike Russell
http://www.curvemeister.com
http://www.zocalo.net/~mgr
http://geigy.2y.net

"Mike Russell" wrote in
news:LeCnb.17751$:

Warren Jones wrote:

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big files, can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME?

I believe you may use up to 2 GB -

This is true only for Win NT and it's derivatives - 2K, XP, 2K3 and the like.

Derivatives of the 95 line were *supposed* to be able to use this amount. They could not, in practice.

At 512MB and over, the disk cache program grabs so many memory addresses the OS runs out and locks up. You can correct this by limiting the amount of RAM Vcache can use.

At 1GB, assuming you got past the first hurdle, you can function fairly well but you run into the fixed "System Resources" problem, especially since Photoshop uses the little heaps so intensely. They picked at the problem, making slight improvements with each OS release, but only the NT line solves the problem entirely.

At 1.5GB, the Win95 line freaks and gives you a spurious "Out of Memory Error" during startup.

The 32-bit NT line can use 4GB - 2 for applications and 2 for OS use.

There are some oddball patches, like the AWE system, which will allow more, but the apps have to be written to use it.

Future releases will allow the use of obscene amounts, at least theoretically, but the apps have to be re-written to use it. Don't expect such to be available until some time after Win64 for the Athlon64 is released.

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 09:29:50 +1300, "Warren Jones" wrote:

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big files, can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME?

Yes with PS, no with ME. I don't mean you can't get ME to use more than 512 as long as you don't mind altering things in ME like VCache, but that it won't use it effectively.

I have 3 slots on the Athlon motherboard populated by just one 512mb chip. I would need a better reason to change from ME at this stage if that were the limiting factor.

How about everything will run better, you'll be able to make good use of memory over 512Mb and you crash every time you breath on your computer...

--

Hecate

veni, vidi, relinqui

Bottom Line: Windows ME is probally the WORST Operating System Windows ever made (CE sux too)

Get NT or XP, better OP's, they use all the ram you throw in the machine, and are a lot less hassle than ME.

My experinced $0.02

"Hecate" wrote in message

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 09:29:50 +1300, "Warren Jones" wrote:

With ram so inexpensive and looking to do stitched panoramas with big

files,

can larger than 512mb ram be effectively used by Photoshop 7/ME?

Yes with PS, no with ME. I don't mean you can't get ME to use more than 512 as long as you don't mind altering things in ME like VCache, but that it won't use it effectively.

I have 3 slots on the Athlon motherboard populated by just one 512mb

chip.

I would need a better reason to change from ME at this stage if that were the limiting factor.

How about everything will run better, you'll be able to make good use of memory over 512Mb and you crash every time you breath on your computer...

--

Hecate

veni, vidi, relinqui