why is my photoshop slow?

[troutweed]

Hi all.

I'm using an iMac 11,1 2.8Ghz i7 running OSX 10.6.8, with 8GB RAM, no other upgrades.

While using my usual three programs - Adobe PS, ID and LR, plus Safari and stickies etc, I'm noticing a lot of lag in seeing the effect on screen when I'm adjusting levels or curves in PS (on an adjustment layer)

Happens most when I have about 10 images open, each about 40-80MB.

Wondering if it's GPU or RAM that's causing the problem?

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[NeoCracer]

Hi all.

I'm using an iMac 11,1 2.8Ghz i7 running OSX 10.6.8, with 8GB RAM, no other upgrades.

While using my usual three programs - Adobe PS, ID and LR, plus Safari and stickies etc, I'm noticing a lot of lag in seeing the effect on screen when I'm adjusting levels or curves in PS (on an adjustment layer)

Happens most when I have about 10 images open, each about 40-80MB.

Wondering if it's GPU or RAM that's causing the problem?

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Check you activity monitor and see if you're running against the limit of 8GB when editing your file in PS.
PS tends to use a lot of RAM, especially when you have a few images open that are quite big (like your files of 80MB).

I don't think the GPU would be a problem... I guess it's more like a RAM problem.

 

[jordanm86]

Check you activity monitor and see if you're running against the limit of 8GB when editing your file in PS.
PS tends to use a lot of RAM, especially when you have a few images open that are quite big (like your files of 80MB).

I don't think the GPU would be a problem... I guess it's more like a RAM problem.

Yep, I agree, most likely RAM. In activity monitor, click on the system memory tab and have a look at page outs... how much is it?

Your iMac should support up to 16GB RAM (maybe more if the firmware has been updated) - another 8GB RAM will speed things up a fair bit when working with larger files.

Also, in photoshop preferences, there is an option to edit the amount of RAM made available to photoshop and also you can change the size of the scratch disk.

 

[maflynn]

Happens most when I have about 10 images open, each about 40-80MB.

If its not occurring when you only have one or two apps open, or only a couple of images, then its probably ram as mentioned by the others. Until you upgrade the ram (or confirm it is the ram with page outs) try to reduce the number of images open so that performance can be acceptable.

 

[troutweed]

Thanks guys. It's what I suspected, but it's interesting that it seems to be worse lately, just the last few months. Maybe an "update" has stuffed something up. Has also been freezing trying to access external FW800 drive, but I suspected the drive in that case.

I've been using the machine for exactly the same task with the same external display (Eizo 22") for 4-5 (?) years since new (pre-press for our magazine, need all images in an article open together to get consistent colour across the article) and it's never been this laggy. Might look into firmware, and will def' get some new RAM (only about $120AUD for 2x4GB I think).

Have considered pulling it apart and fitting an SSD. I have one in my Mac Pro 1,1 at my home-office and it's great. Maybe I'm just used to using that!

Thanks for replies, will have a play.

 

[jordanm86]

Thanks guys. It's what I suspected, but it's interesting that it seems to be worse lately, just the last few months. Maybe an "update" has stuffed something up. Has also been freezing trying to access external FW800 drive, but I suspected the drive in that case.

I've been using the machine for exactly the same task with the same external display (Eizo 22") for 4-5 (?) years since new (pre-press for our magazine, need all images in an article open together to get consistent colour across the article) and it's never been this laggy. Might look into firmware, and will def' get some new RAM (only about $120AUD for 2x4GB I think).

Have considered pulling it apart and fitting an SSD. I have one in my Mac Pro 1,1 at my home-office and it's great. Maybe I'm just used to using that!

Thanks for replies, will have a play.

Interesting, what version of OSX are you on? I'm on ML 10.8.5 and since upgrading it, my FW800 Time Machine is going crazy! Also, the machine occasionally hanges/freezes up :-/ My page outs are fine but I cannot back up my time machine drive (very slow, like a couple of MB's an hour... was estimating 19,000 days at one point).

 

[troutweed]

Running 10.6.8 (I can't imagine that running today's software on a 4-year old machine will end without any tears, so haven't upgraded).

Had similar issue with previous external drive (Ice-cube I think) and similar thing happening again. Admittedly it runs all day, four days a week, and holds most of my data, transferring big files (folders of 20 images 50-100MB each) fairly frequently.

Time machine does some weird shiz too, like not making room for a few new files. Had to format both my TM drives a few times and start afresh. C'est la vie. I'm usually too busy working to worry about it or investigate too much.

----------

Also, just did some research on here and found that I can run 32GB RAM! Woo-hoo!


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1327771/

 

[jordanm86]

Same here,

not enough time to look into it so have resorted to backing up all of my clients' work manually...

Running 10.6.8 (I can't imagine that running today's software on a 4-year old machine will end without any tears, so haven't upgraded).

Had similar issue with previous external drive (Ice-cube I think) and similar thing happening again. Admittedly it runs all day, four days a week, and holds most of my data, transferring big files (folders of 20 images 50-100MB each) fairly frequently.

Time machine does some weird shiz too, like not making room for a few new files. Had to format both my TM drives a few times and start afresh. C'est la vie. I'm usually too busy working to worry about it or investigate too much.

----------

Also, just did some research on here and found that I can run 32GB RAM! Woo-hoo!


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1327771/

 

[troutweed]

I had a freak-out one day when in the middle of deadline week I noticed that the TM icon in the toolbar had been spinning for a while. Opened TM preferences and it was stalled on something. Checked the TM drive and it hadn't backed up for two weeks!

I manually back-up everything important onto an external drive every couple of days now (or daily during important times), and still let TM do its thing with my fingers crossed.

Hey, I just realised I hijacked my own thread!

 

[troutweed]

RAM upgraded, new RAM question

Ok, so I bought 2x8GB DDR3 1333mhz Ram sticks (not for this model, but they work, see link above) and it seems to have solved my problem. (Got OWC ones if it helps anyone else considering this upgrade)

My new question is this:

I have 2x8GB in two of the slots. I have 4x2GB sticks left over, but they're the original 1066Mhz ones. Will I get better performance putting two of those in to make 20GB at 1066Mhz, or just run 16GB at 1333Mhz?

Thanks

 

[jordanm86]

Ok, so I bought 2x8GB DDR3 1333mhz Ram sticks (not for this model, but they work, see link above) and it seems to have solved my problem. (Got OWC ones if it helps anyone else considering this upgrade)

My new question is this:

I have 2x8GB in two of the slots. I have 4x2GB sticks left over, but they're the original 1066Mhz ones. Will I get better performance putting two of those in to make 20GB at 1066Mhz, or just run 16GB at 1333Mhz?

Thanks

I would say check whether you are using all of the 16GB (are you getting page outs in activity monitor). If not, I wouldn't add the other stuff in as it will decrease performance.

 

[troutweed]

Thanks, that's what I figured. Seem to have plenty of headroom in memory now, so will just leave it at 16.

cheers