Hi,
I have the Page File set at 700mb in C:\.
System has 768mb of RAM - one quick example from Task Manager:
Physical Memory Available: 480mb
PF Usage: 235mb
I open a pretty resource hungry program like Adobe Photoshop CS, resources
are:
Physical Memory Available: 440mb
PF Usage: 323mb
Probably I'm not too informed about the Swap/Page File usage in Windows, but
isn't the page file taken into account, accessed *after* the free RAM is
used? I feel like I've spent money on RAM upgrade for nothing.
John
Ram is never a waste of money.
Photoshop is not the best program to use as an example when talking
about the windows swap file. It is actually a special case because it
does not behave exactly like every other program on your PC.
PS does use ram for running the application, but it allows you to set
what percentage of the *available* ram you want it to use for the
image files you have open (see the Edit>Preferences>Memory & Image
Cache).
Additionally, Photoshop does not use the windows swap file. Instead PS
uses its own swap file which Adobe calls a "scratch disk." AND more
importantly to the issue at hand -- in the Preferences you can set the
scratch disk's location. Most pro PS users set the scratch disk so
that it is on a different drive from the windows system files (this
improves performance.
Related to the amount of available ram you report above, I've seen it
said that if you're just running PS and no other heavy weight (Adobe)
applications, then the rule of thumb is that the file(s) you have open
in PS can be as large as 4 times the amount of available ram you have
on your system without taking much of a performance hit. In your case
if you set PS preferences to use 60% of the available ram (or 60% of
480) that would mean you could safely run with 1.1 gigs worth of open
PS files.
But if you also run InDesign and Illustrator and MSOffice (all with
large open files) while also working in PS on LARGE files, then you
need as much ram as you can afford.
If you're a heavy PS user then you have NOT wasted your money on ram.
I've seen people try to manipulate large files in PS with 512 ram only
to have their system balk. Granted they were trying to do some highly
professional work (i.e., a full size high resolution magazine cover in
CMYK) while they had other apps open.
Further a 8.5 x 11 CMYK photo at 300 pixels per inch is about 35 megs.
But as you add layers the size grows. At the moment I have such a file
open. The flattened file would be 35 megs, the current working file is
75 megs (all the layers and undo states). BUT the PS scratch disk size
is 500 megs.
If you want to get a look at the PS scratch disk size. Open the root
directory of the drive you have the scratch disk assigned to.
