2g to 4g

Petzl · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:25

I have been advised not to buy another 2gig of ram for my box as it can be detrimental running 4g with my setup (check my sig)

Vista runs just fine but i regularly work with graphics in PS CS2 that can be a few hundred meg in size (building dropside graphics) the sort you see on the side of buildings when you are driving on a motorway.

It seems my current 2g struggles in vista so i am or was prepared to buy 2g more as my mobo allows, I dont expect more bang in general i just want the ram to handle these huge graphics.

What do you lot think

Cheers

Cob · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:42

I don't see why more RAM would cause problems.

Are you running 32 or 64bit Vista?

You'll only get to use about 3.25gb if you're using 32bit.

Slogan · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:43

Do it. Go mental.

What version of Vista do you have? You'll need the 64bit to get all out of it.

smsmasters · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:44

Yes do it! You only live once.

Petzl · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:45

im running 32bit due to the fact that i also use on a daily basis Cadlink Signlab and 64bit just aint hapnin and i have to use this software, however just to run signlab i would be prepared to use another ccomputer

Cob · 17 Mar 2007 at 20:47

I would get another 2gb. It'll certainly help with your job.

Willbo · 18 Mar 2007 at 15:59

What are the main advantages of moving to 4Gb of memory? Is it really worth the expense?

Participant · 18 Mar 2007 at 16:23

Hey dude if you do this stuff professionally there is no question. 4Gb in Vista 64 will sort you out good.

cavemanoc · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:31

Robbie G said:
Hey dude if you do this stuff professionally there is no question. 4Gb in Vista 64 will sort you out good.

...

m running 32bit due to the fact that i also use on a daily basis Cadlink Signlab and 64bit just aint hapnin and i have to use this software, however just to run signlab i would be prepared to use another ccomputer

Are you allowed to dual boot 32/64 bit on that license - could make it more worth while (even if Cadlink won't play - is that a no-no even in compatibility mode?)

Petzl · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:31

spent all day loading vista ultimate 64bit and all my apps. gonna just go for it and order the extra 2g 2morow.

Petzl · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:35

cavemanoc said:
...

Are you allowed to dual boot 32/64 bit on that license - could make it more worth while (even if Cadlink won't play - is that a no-no even in compatibility mode?)

Good idea, certainly worth considering.

cavemanoc · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:41

Sweet - can you do us a favour and test the load times of you favourite apps before and after the 4Gig upgrade - should see a dramatic speed up after a couple of runs - be interested to see if the pre-fetching is all that or just hype!

Petzl · 18 Mar 2007 at 20:06

cavemanoc said:
Sweet - can you do us a favour and test the load times of you favourite apps before and after the 4Gig upgrade - should see a dramatic speed up after a couple of runs - be interested to see if the pre-fetching is all that or just hype!

Of course, no worries

Willbo · 26 Mar 2007 at 01:43

How'd you get on with adding an extra 2GB of memory? Was there any noticeable difference?

WJA96 · 26 Mar 2007 at 07:39

@The OP - if you're not overclocked then you may notice a small improvement. If you are overclocked then there is a strong possibility you may experience instability with 4Gb over 2Gb. The problem isn't so much the 4Gb vs. 2Gb as the 4 sticks vs. 2 sticks of RAM.

Only a very few programs can use the extra RAM and while the operating system can address that much RAM, it doesn't actually mean it will necessarily be used.

In theory PS CS2 should benefit from extra RAM, but you still need to optimise PS CS2 to use it. You may find that changhing the number of available cache levels, changing the snapshot settings, reducing the thumbnail pallette size or even cutting the number of history states could yield better performance without having to spend extra on RAM.

I built some machines for guys using PS CS2 and I talked them into using only 16Mb cache Raptors for local disks (they wouldn't spring for SCSI) and I also managed to get them to install Gigabyte iRAM drives for their page-file disks and those made massive differences becasue instead of RAM paging out to disk, RAM was paging out to RAM with incredible improvements in screen redraws and you hardly ever saw the beachball. Putting 4Gb in one of those would be overkill, but even 1Gb would give you a big improvement for roughly the same cost. And it will speed up EVERYTHING, not just PS.

I'm also a bit surprised at your choice of graphics card as more RAM would also help there too.