XP Ram Limit..

  • Thread starter Thread starter JD
  • Start date Start date
Unless you get a 64-bit version it's true. 32-bit Windows can only address
4 GB of memory. Your hardware needs some memory so that will come out of
the 4 GB. You're usually left wit fomenting
Click to expand...


Oh, those spell checkers. ;-)
 
JD said:
I have a second XP install disk so I'll be staying with the 32 bit version
of XP.

I'm looking to install a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 6000+ and
use two hard drives so I can put the photoshop scratch disk on the second
hard drive. I planned to use two Kingston 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory
(2 x 1024MB).

Two questions for you since you mentioned photoshop.

With the above processor, is PS CS3 going to work well with only 2 GB of
ram? The motherboard I'm looking at uses dual layer ram but it has to be
installed in pairs.

And do I really need a GB of ram on the video card? I'm not a gamer just
an PS amateur that doesn't like to wait for images to process as I
manipulate them .

I currently have 2GB of 400Mhz PC3200 DDR ram and a AMD Sempron 2600+ 333
FSB processor. And a 128MB DDR memory AGP ATI video card.
Click to expand...
This computer has 1 GB of RAM, and it runs PS quite well. In my case, very
few images need more than 32MB. If yours are bigger, you may need more
memory.
You do not need a high end video card with lots of memory. These cards are
intended for 3D games. One seldom displays PS images as fast as possible.
Jim
 
I think you are correct. I'll read the .pdf you pointed to and then
decide if I can go with as little as 256MB on the video card?
 
I'm not a PhotoShop expert, but I would think it should be fine.





I doubt if you'd see any difference between 1GB and 512MB or even 256
MB.
Click to expand...


That's what I'm thinking now. CS3 needs more system RAM and less video
card RAM. Thanks!
 
philo said:
Well I built a machine using an X2-3800 a while back
for my GF who now uses CS-2

the machine has 2 gigs of RAM and works great.

The machine is setup to dual boot XP 32 bit and XP 64 bit and since
Photoshop runs a little better
on the 64 bit side, she never bother with XP 32 bit any more.


Since the CPU you plan to get is so much faster than the 3800 here...
I think you will be pleased with the results.
I am sure 2 gigs of RAM will be fine and you may not notice that much differ
ence if you add more.

One the brief tests I ran, the fast , dual core CPU seemed to be more
important than the RAM.

When she was using a single core CPU some of the large images would take at
least a full minute to save.

When the dual core cpu was employed, the time was cut down to about 7
seconds.

Well worth it!
Click to expand...
With RAM so cheap, I thought I'd go with 4GB? Seems as though I may not
need the 1GB of video card RAM? How much video RAM on the machine your
built for your friend?
 
Another thing that may help speed things up (I use the less expensive Adobe
Photo Shop Elements) is to have a second hard drive and set (a least in
Elements) the application's own swap file to the second drive.

JS
 
That's the plan. Two hard drives, one for the CS3 swap file and data and
photo storage and another hard drive for the OS and programs. I
currently have it set for a different partition on my hard drive but I
don't think that's the same thing.
 
I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the lengthy discussion regarding
XP and RAM. It was very helpful.

I plan to purchase a video card with 256MB of memory and install 2GB of
system ram. I can always add more RAM later after I see how the new
system runs.
 
You're welcome.

JS

JD said:
I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the lengthy discussion regarding XP
and RAM. It was very helpful.

I plan to purchase a video card with 256MB of memory and install 2GB of
system ram. I can always add more RAM later after I see how the new system
runs.
Click to expand...
 
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