How much enough ?.

[Hyfly]

Component failure of my 6 year old workhorse finally prompted my decision for a new PC build.
Intel i7 with no overclocking. Samsung 840 SSD X 2 for Linux Mint17/Windows7 OS. Raid 9 to plated harddrives for storage.
MS Windows is a new experince for me as my photography is now inexorably dragging me to PS !.
After a 12 year absence from W$$dows I note nothing seems to have changed ?.
Another change from my usual build practice was to fit an optional CPU cooler.
Nothing to do with extra cooling. It does however come with a much bigger fan, turns
at a much lower RPM and is....so....much quiter. Well worth a little extra cost.

My question for AP'ers: Without any previous experience using PS I have no practical
way to gauge how much RAM I will need ?,



The Beast

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b502/Hyfly2/DSC_1289_zps8b579ca2.jpg (http://s1289.photobucket.com/user/Hyfly2/media/DSC_1289_zps8b579ca2.jpg.html)

[ameerat42]

The minimum amount to run Win7 - what, 4-8 GB? - should suffice. It depends on what else you might be running at the time.
The foregoing presumes you mean Photoshop, and version 6 or the cloud version.

And then you can always add more RAM as the need arises.

[Hyfly]

G'day ameerat42 thanks for your help . Its much appreciated.
In the interum I have 8 gb of 'loaned' Ram .
Now I'm much more reassured.

[J.davis]

Just done a rebuild and went for 16gig because eight did not cut it when PS was stitching panos,
machine is generally much faster and if you buy eight gig you will waste it when you realize you need 16gig. :D

[ameerat42]

Depends, John. I have a Core I7/8GB Zenbook that zaps thru panos up to about, say 5 or 6 15 Mpix files. I use MS ICE on that.
Am.

[Hyfly]

Thanks Jd, I'm sitting on the fence here listening with interest to all.
I've heard mention elsewhere people have used 16GB. ( Just seems a lot from what I know about PC's)
However as mentioned earlier I have no experience with PS so I will defer to greater beings.


Am, your assurance is appreciated.

[ricktas]

Like most software, PS will use what you give it. So it will work with 8gb and with 24gb, happily grabbing all it can. So as the saying goes..more is better... well that is how the saying goes, isn't it? :D

In reality, in the PS settings menu there is an option for how much RAM you want allow PS to use. EDIT > PREFERENCES > PERFORMANCE

111824

[Hyfly]

Thanks ricktas for your suggestion. No doubt 'more the better' approach works well for most aspects of photography.
Dammit !!! that $6k + lens would do me ...so....very nicely!.
Sadly as an amateur I have to at least try (poorly :D ) to cut a mid course value for money boring approach??.
So, Heads/Tails it's gunna be ...8 or 16 GB ?.

[ameerat42]

(John. Shhh!! :shh:Don't tell anyone else this: I use a GRAND TOTAL of 2GB of RAM on my desktop.)

Get what you can afford, more as you find you need it/can afford it.

[Hyfly]

am your powers of persuasion are astonishing !!
If I only have outlay for 2GB can I dare to think N300mm f 2.8 is doable.....yiikes ?.
Perhaps getting excitable and ot here. Must calm down and pour myself another class of red.
Thx again am for your practical insight.

[J.davis]

(John. Shhh!! Don't tell anyone else this: I use a GRAND TOTAL of 2GB of RAM on my desktop.)

I have the same in my android phone, but I wouldn't stitch nef's with it. :lol:

[arthurking83]

.....

I have the same in my android phone, but I wouldn't stitch nef's with it. :lol:

:D

You can't stitch NEFs with any program .. let alone Android! :p

TIFF files are larger .. much much larger and are the worry.

If you have to get 'some' RAM .. get the largest stick(s) you can afford for now(say a single 8 or 16G stick and just go with that.(as long as the mainboard supports such large sized sticks!!)

So, for example, if a single 8G stick cost $100(for a good quality type) and two 4G sticks cost $100 .. go with the single 8G stick for now .. even tho it's more expensive.

Your mainboard will have 4 slots, so the idea is to add more to it over time .. and you don't end up wasting any memory down the track later on.
You then add more of the same sticks(which is always best) later .. and at some point in the future you end up with a good maximum.(eg. 32G instead of only 8 or 16).

I think what's more important is what(maximum speed) type of RAW that the m/board supports, and at what cost to get maximum RAM type.

If you have the money to spare too .. and you lots of stitching stuff.... I recommend that you try PTGui too. It's much faster on a large pano than photoshop is.
ICE does well(for a simple program), but doesn't offer the flexibility of complex stitch ups.

Another tip to try out is to use a software that creates a temporary raw drive.(the more ram you have the better obviously).
What this does, is to steal a small amount of ram(you specify how much) and use it as a virtual HDD. If you think SSD's are fast, wait till you see how much faster a ram drive can be(at least 2x .. and with a good quality ram type and fast m/board ... more).

You load all your images to be stitched onto the ram drive and also specify the cache to be on the ram drive too. Basically everything is done on the ram drive ... for the sake of speed.
PTGui flew compared to Ps on the 1G stitch I played with.

(note if you do try a ram drive .. note that it's only a temporary drive and all work on it much be saved elsewhere too. When you shut down the PC, all data on the ram drive is lost!)

Good luck with it all.

[ameerat42]

John. I have routinely stitched multiple large images with that configuration. It's a bit slow, but if that's not an issue
all you need is a stable enough platform. I'm not advocating that as a course of action, just presenting it as an illustration.
Of course now I use the superfast Zenbook.
Am.