Should I get more ram?

icnoble

icnoble

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Iain
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I have just upgraded my desktop to the following spec.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630, Quad Core, S AM3, 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 95W,

Motherboard: Asus M4A77TD Pro, AMD 770, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1800(OC), SATA 3GB/s, SATA RAID, ATX

Memory: CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

If I upgrade to 8gb of ram will I notice a big difference when using lightroom and photoshop cs4?

I am using windows 7 64 bit
 
Any difference will be minimal I would have thought.
Hard to tell though as you haven't said what OS you are using.
 
If your not using a 64 bit OS, any more than 3Gb is pretty much useless, as the OS can't see it effectively

Paul
 
Hi. I w'll put 2 or 3 hdisks in RAID 0 and if you use a 64 bit OS like said by Taztastic then 8 GB w'd be better, but if you are using a 32 bit OS then 4 GB is enough. I hope this helps.

Americo
 
Windows 7 64 bit is ace..same OS here...very fast and I have had very few problems, none major at all.
I am on CS4 which is very quick with my 4Gb fitted, not sure how 32 bit applications react with more RAM, the system will be quicker but not sure if a 32 bit app will benefit or not.

Must be some geeks on here will know, be interested myself in the answer

Paul
 
Given that CS4 has a 64Bit version, and CS5 will be 64Bit only, it will be able to utilise all of your RAM (or as much as you allow it) given that you're running Win7 64Bit.

More memory is always going to help, especially if you have other things running in the background. Firefox with a few tabs open, Bridge, Photoshop, all the other crap that sits in your windows system tray, it all takes up RAM, and the more you have, the less your machine will need to swap to the hard drive.

The machine I'm using now I built up about 18 months ago with 8GB with Vista Home Premium x64, and it's great. The only time it ever really goes to the hard drive for virtual memory is if I'm doing crazy stuff to 1080HD video footage in AfterEffects. In photoshop it's plain sailing all the way, no matter what I throw at it.
 
How much RAM does your graphics card(s) have onboard?

I thoroughly recommend 8GB or RAM on W7 64Bit, I am greedy and run 12GB but use VMWare a lot for work.

If you run LR and PS together you can easily use 1.5 to 2 GB of RAM between these two apps let alone the OS and 3d party Windows services so in my opinion the more RAM the better.
 
simple answer. NO. (not just for lightroom at least).

LR2.5 uses about 1gb of memory tops when its open, it really does chomp processor however. mines a quad 2.83 and it does like to run at 80% when batch exporting etc.

advaz said:
Hi. I w'll put 2 or 3 hdisks in RAID 0 and if you use a 64 bit OS like said by Taztastic then 8 GB w'd be better, but if you are using a 32 bit OS then 4 GB is enough. I hope this helps.

Americo
Click to expand...

gains from raid 0 are minimal compared to cost to be honest.
 
But who *just* has lightroom loaded?

Firefox can easily eat up another gig of ram with only half a dozen tabs open, 1-2Gig for the OS itself, another gig for media player, quicktime, msn messenger, printer monitors, anti virus software, and all the other crap that's continually running in the background. With a 64Bit OS, I wouldn't go any less than 6Gig.

Right now, with just Outlook, Media Player and FireFox loaded it's sat at 3625MB used, 8189MB total, as soon as I fire up Photoshop CS4 64Bit with a single 12mp NEF file, it's 3972MB used, and that's before I've started doing any editing and creating a history. With only 4Gig total RAM, it'd be going to the hard drive as soon as my pen hit the wacom tablet.
 
advaz said:
Hi. I w'll put 2 or 3 hdisks in RAID 0 and if you use a 64 bit OS like said by Taztastic then 8 GB w'd be better, but if you are using a 32 bit OS then 4 GB is enough. I hope this helps.

Americo
Click to expand...

in raid 0, the '0' stands for the amount of data you'll get back if one drive dies... ;)
 
neil_g said:
who said that? the OP asked if more memory would help LR..
Click to expand...

neil_g said:
simple answer. NO. (not just for lightroom at least).
Click to expand...

ummm, you did? or at least implied it. More memory will help *any* application if you have other things loaded at the same time, which is the case more often than not.
 
Kaouthia said:
ummm, you did? or at least implied it. More memory will help *any* application if you have other things loaded at the same time, which is the case more often than not.
Click to expand...

youre not reading the bit in brackets..

not JUST for lightroom. to clarify LR uses about 1gb memory irrespective of what other apps are open. as i say its processor time LR needs.
 
neil_g said:
youre not reading the bit in brackets..

not JUST for lightroom.
Click to expand...

Obviously I *was* reading the bit in the brackets, hence my response, and your apparent issue with it.

But whatever.

To the OP, just get more RAM.
 
i think we're talking cross purposes a tad.. granted my post may not of been worded very well in hindsite.

for example my system has 8gb and like the OP has windows 7 64bit.

LR is using 1gb memory.

i open a few other apps.

LR is still using 1gb memory.

adding more memory is not going to speed LR up. personally i dont think the OP needs more than 4gb even with other apps open at the same time.
 
If my last post wasn't clear enough, I'm done with this thread. :)
 
incidentally appologies to Kaouthia about the whole "JUST" lightroom bit, re-read the passage and i mis-read what was being said.

im standing by my comments however that throwing RAM at the computer without actually checking whether its using a lot is a tad daft just to see if it speeds up LR unless youve got money to burn.
 
Memory is cheap today. Time is limited... Get as much as you can afford.
However if you never find yourself waiting for any process to complete, you have enough.
 
Only you can answer that really, do you need more RAM?

As mentioned above, see what your memory usage is with your normal programs open
Then try to do something memory intensive in lightroom/photoshop and see if the usage is 100%
If so, buy more RAM
If not, why waste money on something you dont need

I run 2gb RAM in a crappy Pentium Dual Core VAIO and lightroom and photoshop seem to handle most things without too much worry
4GB should be enough in my opinion
 
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