wierd_beard

I just updated to CS 2 from PS7. I am running a 2 Ghz Pentium 4 with 512 MB of Ram. Windows XP.

My problem is that when you start CS 2 it starts to eat away the virtual memory like crazy, eventually causing the system to hang.

My scratch disk is on a separate physical drive from the OS. I also reset the pref file to no avail. Does any one have any suggestions or seen this type of behavior?

Thanks in advance.

Blinky2004

I haven't seen it eating up resources to THAT extent, but i do agree that CS2 is a serious resource hog. 512 of Ram though isn't enough to effeciently run your OS AND PS (or other apps you may also have open). Minimum 1G should be the goal here; more if you can get it, and if your MB supports it.

Anyone else have anything to add?

Welles

Definitely more RAM...(http://www.ramseeker.com/pc/index.php). I did a bit of research on Windows memory/virtual memory/performance issues and came up with this list...

Download the latest drivers for your Video/Graphics card. (Unfortunately many cards are maximized for gaming. Drop the hardware acceleration setting down a notch or two. If it improves performance you have a driver issue.)

Keep the allocated RAM down to the default 55%

Set the Scratch disk to a drive other than the system drive, and preferably a fast one which has loads of free space.

Set Windows Virtual memory to max and min = 4GB

Search for and delete all .TMP files and Defrag all disks (regularly).

Empty the Windows Prefetch folder (regularly).

Keep your fonts list to a minimum and check for any dodgy ones.

Same with the plug-ins.

Set Bridge to "Cache all subfolders" and let it run all night (you only need do this once).

Hope this helps. CS2 is a fantastic program, and well worth the effort of getting it to run properly.

wierd_beard

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have tried most of these. New driver for the video card, scratch disk on a separate physical disk, etc.

The only thing that I haven't done yet is RAM, but I don't think nor should any normal program require more RAM than the OS itself just to start up. Before starting up PS I use about 232MB of RAM that number grows as CS2 is going through the start up process and keeps growing even if the system is idle. Well, I actually never got to the point of opening an image because my computer become uber slow and freezes after about a minute of CS2 running in idle.

Basicly it looks like a memory leak.

Blinky2004

Good stuff Welles.

wb i promise you you'll see a fair bit of speed difference when you have at least 1gig ot Ram. Not just in your apps but the entire system. Windows suggests that XP needs a bare minimum of 128mb to run, but really needs 512mb to be effecient. And that means that any part of that that you give to PS will take away from system performance. No... your system should NOT be grinding to a slow and painful hault... that seems a tad over the top. But the more you have loading into PS and any editing you do WILL depleat system resources.

Try this just to see something...
When you start PS and its open and running... open the functions menu at the bottom left side of the document window. Choose the "efficiency" function. If it's at anything less than 100% then PS is sucking off your HD to create its swap/virtual file. And that... isn't good. Virtual memory is much slower than hard ram.

Also...
Open your libraries (vector shapes and Pattern) and empty them out completely. Just having the Pattern (texture) library load up with a multitude of textures in there can add 2-3 hundred meg to the swap file size. Once these are emptied, PS will always startup with them empty after that, until you load the libraries up again yourself.

And...
Go into your font options and make sure the "font preview" size is set to its lowest amount, or perhaps even turn it off altogether.


Just try doing these and see if it makes any difference at all.

Good luck.