Processor lag with 2 Gs of RAM? What am I doing wrong?

[Guest]

Hi guys,

I recently switched from Mac to PC and I'm hoping this is due to some inexperience on my part.

Bottom line, I simply cannot get my Dell 8300 3.2 Ghz with 2 GIGs of RAM (Radeon 9800 Vid Card) to perform as well with graphics as my Dual 1 Ghz Mac w/ 1.5 GIGs RAM and 64M vid card did. And the difference is significant.

The processor lags as a general rule. Slow to open folders, windows, hyperlinks, etc. It's particularly hurting me in professional-level graphics apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, etc. The processor cannot keep up with the cursor - there's a 2 or 3 sec lag. What's really strange is that it can barely even run Photoshop...with nothing else running. It takes forever to open a file and forever to save it. Nuts. I need to be able to toggle between several apps with heavy files to stay productive. I have latest updates on everything.

I assumed I didn't have enough RAM, so I upped it to 2 GIGs with little change. The first GIG of Ram I'd used was Kingston HyperX. I swapped out for 4, 512 sticks of Kingston Value RAM, PC3200.

The Mac system could run PS, Illustrator, Internet and email together seamlessly and without processor delay. Opening files on my backup firewire is tough as well. The Mac opened these heavy files in under 10 seconds - it takes the PC 3 minutes, and it strains to paint the screen.

I KNOW this is a good machine. What am I doing wrong? Do I need yet more RAM?

Prayers for any form of rescue,

Michele

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I recently switched from Mac to PC and I'm hoping this is due to some
inexperience on my part.

Bottom line, I simply cannot get my Dell 8300 3.2 Ghz with 2 GIGs of
RAM (Radeon 9800 Vid Card) to perform as well with graphics as my
Dual 1 Ghz Mac w/ 1.5 GIGs RAM and 64M vid card did. And the
difference is significant.

The processor lags as a general rule. Slow to open folders, windows,
hyperlinks, etc. It's particularly hurting me in professional-level
graphics apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, etc. The
processor cannot keep up with the cursor - there's a 2 or 3 sec lag.
What's really strange is that it can barely even run Photoshop...with
nothing else running. It takes forever to open a file and forever to
save it. Nuts. I need to be able to toggle between several apps with
heavy files to stay productive. I have latest updates on everything.

I assumed I didn't have enough RAM, so I upped it to 2 GIGs with
little change. The first GIG of Ram I'd used was Kingston HyperX. I
swapped out for 4, 512 sticks of Kingston Value RAM, PC3200.

The Mac system could run PS, Illustrator, Internet and email together
seamlessly and without processor delay. Opening files on my backup
firewire is tough as well. The Mac opened these heavy files in under
10 seconds - it takes the PC 3 minutes, and it strains to paint the
screen.

I KNOW this is a good machine. What am I doing wrong? Do I need yet
more RAM?

You were likely beyond your needs for RAM at 1GB.
It sounds like perhaps your drivers are the latest/greatest? Perhaps you
have some things runninng in the background (spyware/adware/malware/Windows
Services) you don't need. Perhaps you need to turn off many of the services
and such you don't use. Maybe there are some other configuration issues..

Although I will admit happily that your Dual processor mac SHOULD be great
at graphics apps and you'll likely lose some keystroke commands you love a
lot in using a PC with Adobe products.. It should not act like you are
describing.

Did you install the OS or was it installed byt the people who sold you the
PC? If the latter, I suggest a clean install without all of their extra
"crud". Also, making sure you have the best drivers for your video card and
motherboard chipset would help. Defragment your hard drive often, if
possible - have two physical hard drives and put your Photoshop swap file on
the second hard drive. Coming from macs, I have to warn you as well about
the importance of AntiVirus software and Sopy/Ad/Malware removal tools.
Also turn on your firewall in XP. You also want to use pages like
blackviper.com to turn off unnecessary services and the likes.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Michele;
RAM is not the problem and probably never was, however for what you
do, it may still be worth it.

See this link as a start:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

Hi guys,

I recently switched from Mac to PC and I'm hoping this is due to some inexperience on my part.

Bottom line, I simply cannot get my Dell 8300 3.2 Ghz with 2 GIGs of

RAM (Radeon 9800 Vid Card) to perform as well with graphics as my Dual
1 Ghz Mac w/ 1.5 GIGs RAM and 64M vid card did. And the difference is
significant.

The processor lags as a general rule. Slow to open folders, windows,

hyperlinks, etc. It's particularly hurting me in professional-level
graphics apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, etc. The processor
cannot keep up with the cursor - there's a 2 or 3 sec lag. What's
really strange is that it can barely even run Photoshop...with nothing
else running. It takes forever to open a file and forever to save it.
Nuts. I need to be able to toggle between several apps with heavy
files to stay productive. I have latest updates on everything.

I assumed I didn't have enough RAM, so I upped it to 2 GIGs with

little change. The first GIG of Ram I'd used was Kingston HyperX. I
swapped out for 4, 512 sticks of Kingston Value RAM, PC3200.

The Mac system could run PS, Illustrator, Internet and email

together seamlessly and without processor delay. Opening files on my
backup firewire is tough as well. The Mac opened these heavy files in
under 10 seconds - it takes the PC 3 minutes, and it strains to paint
the screen.

 

[Guest]

Dear Shenan and Jupiter

I didn't want to bore you guys with a long post, so I didn't tell you I've done/already do, most of those things. I don't have anything running I think, unless XP has something I didn't launch. Doing a reinstall of XP would be my last resort...but resort to it I would
But the Services thing is new, alien and totally confusing. There's much to navigate around on blackviper.com to find facts, and he makes assumptions I have no background for. I'll have to try and figure it out
Shenan, something I didn't quite understand: How do I determine what my motherboard chipset is in order to do a driver check? Dell ain't famous for the ease of obtaining tech specs. Also, what do you mean by "if possible - have two physical hard drives and put your Photoshop swap file on the second hard drive." I do have a firewire backup drive. Is "swap file" the PC version of a Mac Photoshop scratch disk? Ya lost me, but then that's my current state of being
Jupiter, that Pacman Portal looks particularly promising. I'll try that until, hopefully, Shenan kindly clarifies

BTW, a helpful person on this board told me how to remap the keyboard - and what a relief it was. Thank you both for taking the time to respond. I at least now have a starting point.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Dear Shenan and Jupiter,

I didn't want to bore you guys with a long post, so I didn't tell you
I've done/already do, most of those things. I don't have anything
running I think, unless XP has something I didn't launch. Doing a
reinstall of XP would be my last resort...but resort to it I would.
But the Services thing is new, alien and totally confusing. There's
much to navigate around on blackviper.com to find facts, and he makes
assumptions I have no background for. I'll have to try and figure it
out.
Shenan, something I didn't quite understand: How do I determine what
my motherboard chipset is in order to do a driver check? Dell ain't
famous for the ease of obtaining tech specs. Also, what do you mean
by "if possible - have two physical hard drives and put your
Photoshop swap file on the second hard drive." I do have a firewire
backup drive. Is "swap file" the PC version of a Mac Photoshop
scratch disk? Ya lost me, but then that's my current state of being.
Jupiter, that Pacman Portal looks particularly promising. I'll try
that until, hopefully, Shenan kindly clarifies.

BTW, a helpful person on this board told me how to remap the keyboard
- and what a relief it was. Thank you both for taking the time to
respond. I at least now have a starting point.

Actually, Dell is pretty good about the drivers... If you go to the Dell
Website, the Support section, Home or Home office, and enter the service
code from your computer and select the OS (Windows XP) and ALL.. You should
see some chipset drivers.. My bet is that it is an Intel chipset - meaning
you could get the driver from Intel, as well as the Intel Application
Accelerator.

It's actually called "Scratch" on the PC as well, I was just not on my main
PC at the time. =)

As for blackviper.com... Go specifically to:
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Should make things clearer as far as what you can/cannot disable.

If you have Dell's default install, you HAVE excess baggage. At work, a
dell does not come in that I do not redo from scratch. =) If you haven't
been running in Classic Mode and turned off the bells and whistles with
TweakUI, I suggest that highly. The web page winguides.com is also good
(thier reg tweaks section) to speed up some things.