Suitable amount of RAM for Photoshop elements?

ian-83

ian-83

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Just wondering what people think is a decent spec of ram needed to run photoshop elements ok?

My pc has 2gb of RAM and when running the above program I find it slows up a bit. Is it worth doubling up to 4gb?
 
What OS are you running? As per Neils request what does the memory graph do when you're running it? Is there lots of disk activity going on?
 
Ram is so cheap nowadays.

easy boost in performance on most tasks especially multi tasking, just picked up 8gb for my macbook for 30 pounds on amazon so for a pc it should be even cheaper
 
ikeaaxel said:
Ram is so cheap nowadays.

easy boost in performance on most tasks especially multi tasking, just picked up 8gb for my macbook for 30 pounds on amazon so for a pc it should be even cheaper
Click to expand...

It depends on the type of RAM, some DDR RAM is anything but cheap these days!
 
neil_g said:
i would point out that if the OP only has 32bit windows only 3.2gb (ish) will be usable.
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That's quite interesting as my laptop has 4GB of ram but is only running 32bit Windows XP. I find it quite slow at times, especially when editing photos using Nikon's own software.
 
neil_g said:
what does the memory graph do in task manager when youre running it?
Click to expand...

By this do you mean if i go to task manager and click on the performance tab?
Not sure to be honest never looked while it seems to bog down and struggle but next time I will have a look. It does say I have 2045MB of memory and with only this webpage and the usual few things that run in the back ground it says i am using about 58% of this.

arad85 said:
What OS are you running? As per Neils request what does the memory graph do when you're running it? Is there lots of disk activity going on?
Click to expand...

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium edition 32bit
 
If you are on Vista, definately get another 2Gb.

Vista needs 2Gb
XP needs 1Gb

Doubling the RAM for each OS will really help :)
 
you should be able to run vista on the min recommended, you just need to turn all of the "pretty" bits off.

ian-83 said:
By this do you mean if i go to task manager and click on the performance tab?
Click to expand...

yup. if its running high then it will be running over into the page file so writing to the temp file on the hard drive slowing things down (you might see the hard drive light flashing away).
 
Vista is your biggest problem here.
 
Don't forget you're running Vista 32bit so will only see an extra 1.2G if you put 2G in. It will probably help though... Personally, I'd look at upgrading to Win 7 64bit too...
 
I would recommend 64bit, but make sure you have the drivers available for your printers etc. as some haven't released 64bit drivers and meant we had to roll back to 32bit Windows 7 for a while until hardware was replaced.
 
neil_g said:
not really, it just needs a little more juice
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Yeah, about 6gbs more. 32 bit Vista is awfully labored.
 
Looks like I have started computer wars here :lol:

The spec sheet from when I ordered my computer says it's 4 x 512 so I am guessing if I fit four 1 gb RAM instead I should see a marked improvement?
 
Find the system scanner on www.crucial.com/uk and it will tell you what type of RAM you can fit and the limit.
 
Vista isn't that bad. The main thing wrong is the uac.
 
Okay, I admit to be demonstrating a fair amount of bias, compared to win7 its pants.
 
The issue is not having enough RAM to run Photoshop, it's having enough RAM to work on the size of document you have open. If you're only working on small, lo-res images you won't need a massive amount of RAM. If you're working on hi-res, multi-layered images, you'll need a lot.

I've heard it said that you need a minimum of 3 times the document size in RAM. In reality, I think you'll find you need more than that for it to run smoothly.

If you think it's running slower than it should, make sure you check how much room there is available on your hard drive(s) too. Photoshop runs like a dog if your drives are full.

I hope this is helpful.
 
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