CS4 64 bit memory usage and performance

[johnchoy]

I 'm now havinga 16 Gb memory computer and I assigned 9 Gb of it as a ramdisk. I found a ramdisk of more memory as PS scratch has better performance than just allocating more memory to PS alone.

CS4 utilization of GPU really made things faster., but I don't see any advantage over its memory usage option compare to earlier version.

[button]

I 'm now havinga 16 Gb memory computer and I assigned 9 Gb of it as a ramdisk. I found a ramdisk of more memory as PS scratch has better performance than just allocating more memory to PS alone.

CS4 utilization of GPU really made things faster., but I don't see any advantage over its memory usage option compare to earlier version.

Thanks for that tip.  May I ask what your computer setup is (component list)?

John

[johnchoy]

Asus p5Q motherboard,
ati 4670 512mb display card
Gskill 16 Gb ddr2 800 memory.
Promise TX 2300 raid card (PCI version)
2 WD raptor 36Gb 10Krpm for raid 0 setup (for PS scratch only )
a single 80Gb sata Hd for OS and programs.
another single 80Gb sata Hd for pagefile and temp files.
several other external HDs for files running thru esata

[Huib]

What is your OS?

[johnchoy]

XP X64

[pindman]

While we're talking about 64 bit memory, I'm in the same situation with XP64.  I have the Vista 64 bit disks, but would only "upgrade" to Vista if there is a significant improvement in performance over XP64.  Does Vista handle CS4 better than XP64?
Thanks.

[button]

Asus p5Q motherboard,
ati 4670 512mb display card
Gskill 16 Gb ddr2 800 memory.
Promise TX 2300 raid card (PCI version)
2 WD raptor 36Gb 10Krpm for raid 0 setup (for PS scratch only )
a single 80Gb sata Hd for OS and programs.
another single 80Gb sata Hd for pagefile and temp files.
several other external HDs for files running thru esata

Thanks.  I'll bet you paid a pretty penny for that RAM!  It's about $450 at newegg.com.

Also, I wonder if this same strategy works for Vista 64 (perhaps it handles memory better than xp 64?).  Could someone who has Vista 64 and CS4 try different configurations of RAM/ramdisk allocation?  I'll do it myself once I get Vista 64 installed and working.

John

[Farmer]

What RAM Disk setup are you using?

I'm using Vista 64 SP1 with CS4 and the performance is excellent, but I haven't tried using a RAM disk, so I'd be interested to give this a go.  In the new year I'm looking at an i7 based system and 12GB RAM to start and then expand to 24GB, so things like the RAM disk will be potentially very useful and interesting.

If for no other reason, then Vista 64 is worth considering because it's the only officially supported 64bit OS for PS CS4 64.  I've had zero problems and once I had Vista configured as I wanted, I haven't gone back to XP (even though it's still on a hard drive that could be plugged in and run instantly).

[John.Murray]

I'm also curious what ram disk software you are implementing.  A ram disk implies paging data from working memory into a "disk drive" with its built overhead including maintaining a filesystem.  I fail to see how this could possibly be more efficient or faster than direct memory access itself.  

Possibly PS itself hard coded to paging undo info out to disk?  . . .

[johnchoy]

Sorry guys, I was wrong.

Just did a test with and without the ramdisk. My first test was using the retouch artist action and file. The second test was performing the hazecutter creative sharpener brush of PK sharpener on a 1.13Gb single layer files.
with 9 Gb ramdisk and PS use4.5Gb ram, the operating time for first and second test are 27.69 sec and 3 min30sec respectively.
without ramdisk and let PS use 14Gb ram, the time are 26.26 and 58 sec respectively. yes,  the difference is so obvious that I have to admit I'm wrong.

Thanks. I'll bet you paid a pretty penny for that RAM! It's about $450 at newegg.com.

newegg doesn't have stock on it and I'm wondering if DDR2 4Gb module will continue to be manufactured. It is a very hard to find item now. and finally,  I bought it from ebay and it cost me $500.

What RAM Disk setup are you using?

I'm using Vista 64 SP1 with CS4 and the performance is excellent, but I haven't tried using a RAM disk, so I'd be interested to give this a go. In the new year I'm looking at an i7 based system and 12GB RAM to start and then expand to 24GB, so things like the RAM disk will be potentially very useful and interesting.

If for no other reason, then Vista 64 is worth considering because it's the only officially supported 64bit OS for PS CS4 64. I've had zero problems and once I had Vista configured as I wanted, I haven't gone back to XP (even though it's still on a hard drive that could be plugged in and run instantly).

I'm using the Qsoft ramdisk.
I see on Asus website that the i7 based motherboard only support maximum 12 Gb ram. Am I wrong with that?
Surely will  try vista later on, and see if it can solve the softproofing problem that I encountered (I post it on another topic).

Lastly, still hasn't decided whether to remove the ramdisk or not. It is because it is so essential to ptgui, which is another program that I use so heavily. I use it for large files (3 x 1.3 Gb) HDR purpose ( both enfuse and tonemapping ). CS4 is still not up to this task ( slow to stop responding )even when I assign 14Gb ram to it.

[Farmer]

I see on Asus website that the i7 based motherboard only support maximum 12 Gb ram. Am I wrong with that?
Surely will  try vista later on, and see if it can solve the softproofing problem that I encountered (I post it on another topic).

Gigabyte has a board to support 24GB depending on bus speed (if you want maximum bus speed, it won't support 24 but only 12, but depending on your usage it will be more useful to have 24GB than 12GB that's faster.

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/Products/Mother...GA-EX58-EXTREME

But you will need to find suitable 4GB DDR3 modules, but I think they will become more available next year anyway.

Regarding your softproofing issue, you have to remember that XP64 isn't supported (even though you can get a work around to make it work) and the OpenGL implementation on XP is not very good.

[jerryrock]

A MacPro running Vista 64 natively can utilize 32 gigs of RAM.

Although the 64-bit version of Photoshop will speed up some operations, it won't speed all of them, nor will it speed the operation equally. Generally, operations will run approximately 8-12% faster. Overall, processor speed is not the main advantage of using the 64-bit version.

The primary advantage of using the 64-bit version is to access amounts of RAM beyond what Photoshop can access when the 32-bit version is run. You can take advantage of more than 4 GB of RAM only when you are on 64-bit Windows, using 64-bit Photoshop. If you use files large enough to need more than 4 GB of RAM, and you have enough RAM, all the processing you perform on your large images can be done in RAM, instead of swapping out to the hard disk.

http://www.adobe.com/go/kb404439

Jerry

[button]

Sorry guys, I was wrong.

Just did a test with and without the ramdisk. My first test was using the retouch artist action and file. The second test was performing the hazecutter creative sharpener brush of PK sharpener on a 1.13Gb single layer files.
with 9 Gb ramdisk and PS use4.5Gb ram, the operating time for first and second test are 27.69 sec and 3 min30sec respectively.
without ramdisk and let PS use 14Gb ram, the time are 26.26 and 58 sec respectively. yes,  the difference is so obvious that I have to admit I'm wrong.

No problem, thanks for the update.  As an aside, I wonder if a 1 gig video card would help more than a 512 meg card (seems like it would, although I don't know how much video RAM CS4 can utilize).  Some of the 1 gig cards are no more expensive than the 512 cards.

John

[Farmer]

No problem, thanks for the update.  As an aside, I wonder if a 1 gig video card would help more than a 512 meg card (seems like it would, although I don't know how much video RAM CS4 can utilize).  Some of the 1 gig cards are no more expensive than the 512 cards.

In short, more RAM on the GPU is better but 512MB will be just fine currently.

Also, there are PC mainboards that will support 32GB of RAM, but they're more expensive - the MacPro supports 8 slots (in two riser boards) but at the moment we don't know Apple's plans regarding the i7 processor.  I'd also suggest not buying RAM from Apple unless you have shares in the company and want to help the share price :-)  Good quality RAM from any of the major manufacturers will do just fine and generally at a good saving (no different to not buying RAM from Dell, for example).