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blicked · Oct 22, 2008, 11:27 AM

Hi there—

I have a Mac Pro 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon with 7GB of RAM... I keep getting odd slowdowns when switching applications (I'm a hardcore multitasker).. I just wanted to make sure that my RAM configuration is optimal— I always get confused as to which 'riser' to put these suckers.

I do tons of graphic design work often using very large image files and switching back and forth between InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, plus running iTunes, Firefox, iCal, TextEdit, and iChat— usually all at once plus some.

I recently used a friend's workstation with the same load and with less memory, and the thing FLEW— What am I doing wrong?

Danke schön!

seanc · Oct 22, 2008, 11:45 AM

What hard drives do you have in your system? There have been some known compatibility issues between certain hard drives and the disk controllers used in Mac Pros which can cause slow downs.

blicked · Oct 22, 2008, 11:53 AM

I think I've got the stock Seagate 250GB 7200RPM drive and two Maxtor MaXLine Pro 500GB 7200RPM drives in a striped 1TB RAID set... Is that an issue?

SierraDragon · 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by blicked

I have a Mac Pro... ...I do tons of graphic design work often using very large image files and switching back and forth between InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, plus running iTunes, Firefox, iCal, TextEdit, and iChat— usually all at once plus some.

First is how full are your drives and how configured (all internal SATA I hope), especially PS scratch? The impact of mass storage setup on graphics apps is HUGE. Unfragmented PS scratch should be on the RAID0 array, and try assigning PS memory to 95% Under Photoshop/Preferences/Performance while in PS. Keep drives underfilled for speed (less than 70% full at the most). Scratch available to PS needs to be at least 50 times the size of your largest file and must be assigned to a fast drive other than the OS/apps drive.

Second is that 7 GB RAM is decidedly suboptimal for the load you describe. For that work you should plan on adding at least 2x2 GB additional RAM via a third party; 4x2GB or even better 4x4GB preferable. Sets of 2 pairs of matched RAM (unlike your current mixup of small DIMMs) are best. OWC http://www.owcomputing.com/ is one very good source for RAM and they have videos of important proper installation protocol.

Note that "very large image files" are a special case. In addition to needing more RAM than normal special app setups are beneficial. Go to http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/w...0.sgQYiRaWXAX@ and search on "Bigger Tiles" and on "Forced VM Buffering plugin" for special large files plugins info.

-Allen Wicks

OreoCookie · Oct 22, 2008, 12:49 PM

We cannot make any recommendations, unless you tell us how much of your RAM is actually used. There is a simple and unambiguous way to find out. Restart your computer. Launch Activity Monitor (located in /Applications/Utilities). Select memory. Do not look at free memory! The relevant quantity are page-outs which are displayed on the right, the point above Swap. Write down that number. It should be close to 0 kB/MB.

Start working. When you experience slowdowns, switch to Activity Monitor. If the amount of page-outs has risen significantly (mind the unit, 1 GB is more than 500 MB), then you need more RAM. To estimate how much RAM you need, you should work for a little longer and check after a full day's worth of work or so. If you didn't really do any page-outs (e. g. just a few MB), you will not benefit at all from more memory. Only if this number is significantly larger than 0 (e. g. a few hundred MB), you need more memory. Once you have that number, post it here, if you're not sure how much memory you need. Keep in mind that things are getting cheaper all the time and unused memory = wasted money.

16 GB is definitely overkill, especially since all Adobe apps with the exception of Lightroom can only address between 3 and 4.

bearcatrp · Oct 22, 2008, 07:01 PM

I would suggest you swap the 1gb modules with the 2gb modules. Listen to what the others have suggested too. The pages outs is important to watch because when page outs happen, your data is being written to virtual memory (hard disk again).

OreoCookie · Oct 23, 2008, 01:41 AM

At the very least, he should swap the 512 MB modules

mduell · Oct 23, 2008, 02:44 PM

The configuration isn't the problem, the capacity is; buy more memory.

SierraDragon · 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

...16 GB is definitely overkill, especially since all Adobe apps with the exception of Lightroom can only address between 3 and 4.

Technically correct but totally misleading! Although (being 32-bit) such apps can only directly address ~3 GB of RAM, for years under OS X PS has shown much improved performance from 8 GB and more of RAM. And the OP describes a multi-tasking "very large image files" workflow that further mediates to benefits from RAM.

And as to CS4, Adobe engineer Adam Jerugim posted yesterday:

CS4 (running on OS 10.5.x) will take advantage of all the RAM you have in your system as long as VM OS buffering is active (up to 32GB - I haven't tested more than that).

RAM is cheap. Folks need to change their mindsets to "buy RAM and learn to take advantage of it" instead of "look for an excuse to avoid spending on RAM."

-Allen Wicks

OreoCookie · Oct 23, 2008, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by SierraDragon

Technically correct but totally misleading! Although (being 32-bit) such apps can only directly address ~3 GB of RAM, for years under OS X PS has shown much improved performance from 8 GB and more of RAM.

It's not misleading, it's simple math: the OP writes that he typically has three Adobe open (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop). Assuming all of these apps are maxed out on RAM, you have 3x3 GB = 9 GB -- which is a little more than half of 16 GB. Of course, the OS and other apps need memory, so you could add another GB. The OP already has 7 GB installed (although he'd have to remove at least 1 GB).

I've explained how to find out whether one needs more RAM or not. Then he can simply measure whether more RAM is necessary.

SierraDragon · 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

It's not misleading, it's simple math: the OP writes that he typically has three Adobe open (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop). Assuming all of these apps are maxed out on RAM, you have 3x3 GB = 9 GB -- which is a little more than half of 16 GB. Of course, the OS and other apps need memory, so you could add another GB.

No, the statement is totally misleading! App performance is about much more than what RAM is "directly" addressed. Adding up directly-addressed RAM is not the point, it is a silly exercise. OS X allows PS to take advantage of RAM beyond what is directly addressed by PS.

Like Adobe engineer Adam Jerugim posted yesterday:

CS4 (running on OS 10.5.x) will take advantage of all the RAM you have in your system as long as VM OS buffering is active (up to 32GB - I haven't tested more than that).

And: VM OS buffering is on by default with CS4 (and CS3) on 10.5.x, in which case users who want to disable it would want to grab the DisableVMBuffering.plugin.

-Allen Wicks