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Author Topic: workstation for photoshop with ramdisk  (Read 15046 times)

johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« on: May 31, 2008, 04:10:46 pm »

I'm working on files of 1G or larger......... either digital panorama or 4x5 film scanned. I find my recent computer power not sufficient enough to handle or manipulate those huge files fast enough.

Mine is a winxp x64 w/ Intel Q6600 and 8gig ram. I assign 4 gig of ram (ramdisk) as the photoshop 1st scratch disk and then a raid 0 by a pair of WD raptor 32G (adaptec SATA raid 1430 card) as the second scratch disk.  With files such as those single file from a Canon 5D, that if the image size (because of photoshop layers ) don't exceed the limit of the ramdisk, operation is almost realtime.

Just wonder if I invest in some workstation w/ 32 gig ram or greater ( then using extra ram as the ramdisk) will make things faster and smoother.

John.Murray

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2008, 07:41:52 pm »

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johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2008, 04:03:06 pm »

Thanks for the link.

As i benefit a lot from the use of ramdisk as scratch disk, I would llike to know if anybody handling huge file using a workstation with lots of ram.

My observation is : the bottleneck of photoshop is the scratch disk and the use ram instead of physical drive can make it fly.

BernardLanguillier

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2008, 06:44:46 pm »

Quote
Thanks for the link.

As i benefit a lot from the use of ramdisk as scratch disk, I would llike to know if anybody handling huge file using a workstation with lots of ram.

My observation is : the bottleneck of photoshop is the scratch disk and the use ram instead of physical drive can make it fly.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=199407\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have been using an 8 core Mac Pro with 16GB of RAM for about one year now. I also handle many images in the 1 to 4 GB range.

PS on OSX does automatically use available RAM as RAM disk in a dynamic and flexible way. It is overall real fast (I have 3 Raptor set as 2 independant scratch disks - one for PS, 2 for stitching application in Raid 0 soft).

A few months ago I would have advised a switch to the Mac platform, but:

1. I am still not convinced by the performance/stability of Leopard at this point of time (I have kept my workstation above on Tiger but use Leopard on a familly iMac),

2. Adobe has announced that PS CS4 for Mac will not be a 64 bits application, which is a total bummer and real shocking news.

All in all, you best bet is to wait for the release of PS CS4 for Win 64 and to get a lot of RAM indeed. I would personnally not want to spent too much time with Vista (I have it installed on a VM Ware virtual machine on the Mac), but your mileage may differ.

Overall though, I have found that the 2 factors that allowed me to save the largest amount of time recently were:

1. Using a very fast SCSI320 Raid 5 6TB external mass live storage solution,
2. Upgrading to PTgui 8.0 beta3.

Cheers,
Bernard

Marlyn

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2008, 08:23:52 pm »

Ram disks are ok, if your PC has more memory than the OS will address (such as 8gb on XP) and you use that for the Ramdisk.  Otherwise, Photoshop itself does a better job of managing the memory and scratch space.  
I'd definatly recomend reading the Adobe forums and tech notes regarding performance.

I currently run Vista 64, with 8gb Ram, CS3 and Lightroom 2 (64 bit).  My scratch disk is a pair of 36gb western digital raptors in a stripe 0, with data files on a 1.5TB Raid 5.

I find this setup works very, very well, especially lightroom, and am looking forward to more 64 bit Apps.

Edit: I should also add I am opening 500mb to 1gb  scans (tiff), and 3-4gb PSB files.  Its still slow at times, but it works just fine.

Regards

Mark.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2008, 08:25:15 pm by Marlyn »
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johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2008, 12:42:21 pm »

Quote
Ram disks are ok, if your PC has more memory than the OS will address (such as 8gb on XP) and you use that for the Ramdisk.  Otherwise, Photoshop itself does a better job of managing the memory and scratch space. 
I'd definatly recomend reading the Adobe forums and tech notes regarding performance.


[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

My experience or observation is that PS with a ramdisk is faster than PS managing the memory alone. Just don't know if this is the case for windows or just XP alone.

I use the ramdisk from [a href=\"http://users.compaqnet.be/cn021945/RAMDisk/ramdriv.htm]http://users.compaqnet.be/cn021945/RAMDisk/ramdriv.htm[/url] and I set it to 4G of my 8G ram. And in PS performance setting, I set it to 55% ( around 1800Mb) of the memory usage. Again, thing works fine if don't exceed the limit of the ramdisk. The raid 0 raptors are slow compared to the ramdisk and I guess even a SSD won't help either.

The ramdisk in my case is just so reliable and fast.

Since I'm a guy accustomed to window and not familiar w/ mac, and having seen something like http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=942 just make me itch

Huib

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2008, 03:00:51 am »

Is a separate scratch disk the same as a Ram disk?
Next week I am getting a new workstation Vista64, 8Gb RAM. The OS and programs on Raid 0 and the scratch disk in Raid 0. Can I make from the scratch disk a RAM disk?
« Last Edit: June 06, 2008, 03:01:32 am by Huib »
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johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2008, 03:57:52 am »

Quote
Is a separate scratch disk the same as a Ram disk?
Next week I am getting a new workstation Vista64, 8Gb RAM. The OS and programs on Raid 0 and the scratch disk in Raid 0. Can I make from the scratch disk a RAM disk?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=200035\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

PS Scratch disk is best to be on a separate disk.

I have 3 different HDs for windows pagefile, windows temporay folder and PS scratch disk respectively.

The reason I use a separate disk for windows temp is that I found PS access the windows temp when it is performing the merge to HDR action...........the first part of it use the PS scratch disk and the final part by the windows temp.

You can make a ramdisk as scratch disk.Once you install the ramdisk, it will have a drive letter assigned like what hardisks are.

Mine is in B:. And I set the first scratch disk in the PS settings to B: then the 2nd scratch to J: which is a raid 0 of 2 raptors.

Huib

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2008, 08:21:57 am »

Do you use a special softwareprogram for this? Like RAMDISK 9
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johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2008, 11:16:41 am »

Quote
Do you use a special softwareprogram for this? Like RAMDISK 9
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=200053\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I didn't try the superspeed ramdisk because of its price and yes this is software you need  for ramdisk.

Mine is the Qsoft ramdisk which only cost me USD 15.  However, I find my provided link of Qsoft dead ( it was existed at the day I post ). Link from Google searching for Qsoft is the same too.

johnchoy

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workstation for photoshop with ramdisk
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2008, 06:02:05 am »

The correct link for the qsoft ramdisk is http://www.ramdisk.tk/
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