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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> RAM and image handling speed
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 03/24/2008 12:00:01 AM · #1
Would doubling the RAM from 2GB to 4GB increase the speed how quickly those 14MB images are handled by the Capture NX and Adobe CS2? I feel it quite sluggish sometimes.

I think my processor cannot be upgraded to faster (>3.2GHz dual pentium) with my current PC.

Thanks anybody with better PC knowledge.
 03/24/2008 12:04:18 AM · #2
Hit google but I THINK windows 32bit can only assign 3Gb to a single appl (i.e.PS) and you have to set the 3G switch in the config somewhere to get it past 2Gb. Not 100% sure.... as I'm not a windows person. Having said that more faster memory would help, as would faster drives and putting the scratch space off the main drive.
 03/24/2008 12:11:27 AM · #3
Redpanda,

I really depends on how much memory you are using. I upgraded to 4 gigs and noticed a difference with Capture NX. However, I multitask quite a bit and usually have several images open at once.

The only "speed" increase from upgrading memory is if it prevents it from using the disk cache. If you are not running into issues on running out of physical memory with 2 gigs, 4 gigs will not make it faster. Also note, the more tweaks/editing steps you do in capture can cause the memory to balloon quite quickly. You should be able to use task manager in windows to see if you are starting to use virtual memory.

I use capture nx on mac osx myself, and 4 gigs did help my situation.

Message edited by author 2008-03-24 00:11:51.
 03/24/2008 12:26:43 AM · #4
Originally posted by robs:
Hit google but I THINK windows 32bit can only assign 3Gb to a single appl (i.e.PS) and you have to set the 3G switch in the config somewhere to get it past 2Gb. Not 100% sure.... as I'm not a windows person. Having said that more faster memory would help, as would faster drives and putting the scratch space off the main drive.


I have been told this same thing by the computer gurus at work.... it will only see 3G

03/24/2008 12:39:26 AM · #5
You need to run Vista 64 bit to have use of 4gb.
 03/24/2008 04:29:52 AM · #6
Here's a real-life experience that I went through just yesterday. I am HDR Merging using Photoshop CS3 Extended version. I have two computers that I use.

The first computer (#1) is:

Notebook computer running Vista 64-bit, 4Gb RAM, dual core processor with each core running at 2.2 GHz, 4Gb ReadyBoost on an SD card (in a built-in slot).

The second computer (#2) is:

Notebook computer running Vista 32-bit, 2Gb RAM, dual core processor with each core running at 2.0 GHz, 4Gb ReadyBoost on an SD card (in a built-in slot).

I'm merging anywhere from 6 to 10 exposures. On average, just to merge takes approximately 2 to 3 minutes on computer #1. On computer #2, it's been taking me about 20-30 minutes! (really)

Besides the obvious hardware differences, the other major factor is that on computer #2, there is about 8Gb disk space free. On computer #1, I have about 70Gb free, giving it a bit more "elbow room".


03/24/2008 04:53:05 AM · #7
Originally posted by Sunniee:
Originally posted by robs:
Hit google but I THINK windows 32bit can only assign 3Gb to a single appl (i.e.PS) and you have to set the 3G switch in the config somewhere to get it past 2Gb. Not 100% sure.... as I'm not a windows person. Having said that more faster memory would help, as would faster drives and putting the scratch space off the main drive.


I have been told this same thing by the computer gurus at work.... it will only see 3G

Yes and no - it will see a full 4Gb, but chunks of that will be taken up with various other hardware. Quite what memory Windows will have available for applications will vary depending on your hardware, but you'll probably get something between 3.2 and 3.5Gb

While it's true that (without tweaking) applications can only get 2Gb, if you currently only have 2Gb of physical memory then Windows will already be grabbing a chunk of that (my machine 'idle' seems to lose about 250Mb!) so you'll still gain with more memory.

The short answer is, yes, it will make a huge difference to memory hungry applications like Photoshop.

Originally posted by faidoi:
You need to run Vista 64 bit to have use of 4gb.

No; you need to run a 64 bit OS but it doesn't have to be Vista - 64 bit XP will handle it too.
 03/24/2008 04:57:27 AM · #8
I upgraded from 1gb to 4gb (Windows XP SP2 reporting 3.25gb) and the speed improvement in all graphics apps is truly amazing. Lightroom runs like a dream ,swapping between images is near instantaneous in `Develop` mode and Photojunction Remix (Album designing software) is blisteringly fast. Oh, and of course Photoshop is hugely improved as well, the best thing is, I can have multiple images open at once at full-res AND have lightroom running smoothly at the same time, sometime I could never do with 1gb of RAM... Pound for pound the best upgrade you can get your PC is more RAM, and its so cheap at the moment there is NO excuse not to upgrade, I cant believe I put it off for so long.
 03/24/2008 05:31:22 AM · #9
I just bought a quad core q6600 2.6 ghz, Nvidia 8800gts card and 2 500 HD. I am running vista home 64bit and I upgraded the RAM to 8gb. It is very fast but I open up the performance tab on the task manager to see how much RAM is being used and I can not get it up over 3.5 do I need to change my setting somewhere? Im sort of lame with computers and want to make sure im utilizing all my ram.
 03/24/2008 05:47:24 AM · #10
Try reading this first..

MS KNOWLEDGE BASE LINK

Bear in mind that Microsoft restrict more than 4gb as default as it can cause some drivers issues in Vista.

DISCLAIMER..

I am only passing on this snippet of knowledge from another forum I frequent, please bear in mind it is a Microsoft hotfix, so if it causes more problems than it fixes then dont shoot the messenger..

Message edited by author 2008-03-24 05:52:49.
 03/24/2008 02:14:52 PM · #11
Originally posted by Simms:
Bear in mind that Microsoft restrict more than 4gb as default as it can cause some drivers issues in Vista.

The real issue is trying to use 32-bit drivers in a 64-bit environment, especially when "physical address extension" is used on computers that do not have processors that support hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP). DEP is security feature that is intended to prevent an application or service from executing code from a non-executable memory region. This helps prevent certain exploits that store code via a buffer overflow, for example.

The bottom line is that if you have a 64-bit machine with a 64-bit OS (2003, XP, or Vista), then try to use all 64-bit drivers, if possible.


03/24/2008 02:27:10 PM · #12
Dual core and quad core with a system board that will dual channel the memory can share up to 8 gigs of ram with xp 32 bit version. Splitting the ram 4 and 4.
 03/25/2008 12:30:12 AM · #13
Thanks guys/gal,

I have learned a lot from this thread.
I will go ahead and stretch the RAM to 4GB. Probably I also have to examine existing stuff on my PC, since my base file usage without any particular program running is ~600MB.
When I launch Capture NX and change image parameters, my CPU usage ultimately jumps to 100% for minutes and the base file usage to ~1.5-1.6GB.

I have just upgraded to the D300; if I tried to get a whole new PC now, I could probably look for a new home too (and family:)).
 03/25/2008 03:05:11 AM · #14
Originally posted by coronamv:
Dual core and quad core with a system board that will dual channel the memory can share up to 8 gigs of ram with xp 32 bit version. Splitting the ram 4 and 4.

Umm... no, sorry that's simply not true. Dual channel is just a technique for increasing bandwidth between the memory and CPU and multi cores just increases your CPU count. Neither technology allows 32 bit operating systems to get around the restriction on their address space.

I can only assume that whoever told you that was trying to sell you a lot of memory you couldn't use!
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