Is my graphics card good enough?

Janice

Janice

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Janice
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My desktop PC is a few years old now, I got a nice shiny new laptop for Christmas last year... but do my photo editing on the desktop.

I have put the max amount of RAM in (2gb) and its processor is a Pentium 4 3.2ghz

Now I have upgraded to Lightroom 2, when I have that and CS3 running it is so slow and starts playing up.

Could I need a new graphics card? I have a Radeon 9600

Any ideas if this could help me with my problems?
 
I would doubt it.

Right click on the bottom taskbar and then Task Manager/Processes.

Count how mwny processes you have running, it will tell you bottom left, 40 is not too bad 50 or more needs looking at and will slow the PC down. I suspect there will be too much running in the background slowing the whole thing down.

Check this 1st before looking at graphics cards.
 
admirable said:
I would doubt it.

Right click on the bottom taskbar and then Task Manager/Processes.

Count how mwny processes you have running, it will tell you bottom left, 40 is not too bad 50 or more needs looking at and will slow the PC down. I suspect there will be too much running in the background slowing the whole thing down.

Check this 1st before looking at graphics cards.
Click to expand...

I always turn most of this stuff off when using those 2 programs together... to give it half a chance!

I end up with half open boxes and white boxes etc while trying to open photos
 
Graphics cards aren't hugely important unless you play games. It always amazes me how many processes go on without you realising or that you need. Made the world of difference to my old pc, well that and ditching Norton Anti Virus.

Your registry is probably all over the place too but don't fiddle unless you know what you are doing.
 
Sounds very much like a memory problem, or lack of.

What type of graphics card do you have, ie AGP, PCi or not shure?
 
How old's the hard drive Janice and how much room do you have left on it?
That can affect performance too.
Also do you have ccleaner installed, if you don't download it it's free and run it.
 
I doubt that a new graphics card would help.

Look at the processes running and check out the amount of memory being used. 2gb of memory doesnt go far when you're playing with big photos. How big is the typical image you are using? I would guess that your machine is spending all its time swapping memory back and forth to disk. Recognise the limitations and dont try to do so much at once or use smaller files, or buy a mac ;-)
 
To be honest, the average home user can turn off all non-microsoft services (and quite a lot of microsoft services, if you read up on which ones are unecessary), and all startup items with no issues. If you use any AV software or a 3rd party firewall, just leave them open.
 
The graphics card at the moment doesn't do much for photography. Games yes but not camera stuff.

However, CS4 will start using the powerful graphics processors on modern PCs and offloading the number crunching strain from the main CPU to the GPU.
 
I always stop all running stuff in the background except obviously explorer and systray.

New laptop can run an AVG scan with no noise at all, but the desktop with xp makes a really loud working sound when it scans.

Is it the dual core that makes the laptop able to cope and the desktop not?
 
How old is the Operating System install?
 
Gazza_DJ said:
How old is the Operating System install?
Click to expand...

I reinstalled XP about a month or so ago.

As its an HP computer the restore cd has all the other carp on as well as XP. But I uninstall most of that as soon as I put it on.
 
The 'extra' noise you hear, could it be the 2nd fan cutting in? Does it sound like a fan? If so, it's trying to keep the tower cool as it is overheating with all the hard work? CPU might be overheating.

Check that the vents are clear and air is circulating freely. If you feel up to it, and can use a hoover :D disconnect the power, remove the cover and hoover out the inside of the tower. The static in the tower attracts dust, especially if you're a smoker, which clogs up the vents and can cause pci shorting.
 
Thanks Jaco... good tips there!


admirable said:
The 'extra' noise you hear, could it be the 2nd fan cutting in? Does it sound like a fan? If so, it's trying to keep the tower cool as it is overheating with all the hard work? CPU might be overheating.

Check that the vents are clear and air is circulating freely. If you feel up to it, and can use a hoover :D disconnect the power, remove the cover and hoover out the inside of the tower. The static in the tower attracts dust, especially if you're a smoker, which clogs up the vents and can cause pci shorting.
Click to expand...

Im not a smoker but the tower does sit on the carpet so will give it a good hoover out... thanks! :thumbs:
 
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