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Unnecessary use of Memory


Erik

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1/ When you move layers around, or when you put images on layers that are bigger that your background (or the size you want your definitive image to be), the unseen information is hidden, but still available. This uses up unnecessary memory. You can delete this info by Ctrl+A (select all) and then Image>Crop.

2/ Sometimes you may need to duplicate a layer with the intent to use the blending modes. This doubles the file size of this layer. You can also make use of an adjustment layer, for example Levels, change none of the settings and blend this with your layer. This can save you megabytes of memory.

If you're not very familiar with adjustment layers, know that they're just like Image>Adjust, but with some extra possibilities.
For example: the changes are not permanent, and can be applied to more than one layer at the time. You find them in the Layers menu, and also in the third icon from the right at the bottom of the layers palette.
 

vogonpoet

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just as a follow up to the exellent tip above.

You can also paint on an adjustment layer, just like a mask, therefore restricting the application of the adjustment to only certain areas :)
 

theKeeper

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Hey nice to see you drop by Vogonpoet... taking a br8k from the FXZone board huh? :perfect:

Thanks for adding to Erik's post too... your added info ties up a loose end there.

In case anyone finds this interesting... the excess image information that gets hidden beyond a canvas's edges -- when an image is larger than the canvas area -- has been nicknamed "Big Data". So if you're out'n'about the boards, you might sometimes hear someone refer to the 1st technique above as "loosing the big data", "cropping the big data", etc etc...

Oh btw Vog... you know me as "theGuest" on your board. [excited]
 

vogonpoet

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yuppers...I know you as theGuest there and also over at phototechniques too! (Sir Mark!! heh) Been skulking around over at Greg's place.

Looking forward to being around here and watching your new board take off!! ;)
 

sfm

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hey thanks Erik and vogonpoet I have been wondering how to get rid of stuff of the "clip board" to speed up the program[excited]

Now that ram has come down again I might grab me some more [shhh] ........ oh and guys........ 17" monitors have come way down over here just over $300 aud or $150 US? - so I can pick me up one - perhaps for my anniversary next week he he he :rofl:
yippppppppeeeeeeeeee
sfm
 

{OZ}

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Great tip Erik... memory is the most important thing when it comes to drawing intensive apps.

if Photoshop seems to slow down after a while, you might want to change the "Physical Memory Usage" found under Edit-->Preferences-->Memory & Image Cache.

I think PS default is 75% but you might want to increase it to %80 or even %85 depending on your installed memory. On the same dialog box, you see the "Photoshop RAM" amount. It's NOT solely the physical memory used. Its both physical memory AND the virtual memory used so don't be alarmed if that number seems too high. If you run out of physical memory, PS will write the additional memory data to the disk.

One thing tho... Photoshop doesn't clean after itself. :( After you close PS, it leaves the temporary memory data on the disk so you might want to clean it manually. The temp file is usually under \%windowsDir%\Temp or \Temp\ folder. I have 512megs of ram and even with that, its not suprizing that I find 300-350 megs of temp file after I close PS

well the moral of the story is to install as much memory as you can afford. Photoshop is a memory hungry app .. greedy indeed... so memory is very important if you want a smooth ride.

OZ
 

kiwi

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Oz are you using 6.0.1?,because I am sure that update was meant to resolve the temp file issue that you just described above,but my memory is pretty bad so I might be wrong on this one :)


Stu.
 

theKeeper

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OZ you should not be having to "clean up" after Photoshop each time you use it. The last time i saw that problem i think was with PS5 or 4... and even then, not very often (for myself anyway). But you should definately not have this problem with PS6 -- if that is indeed the version you have.

And also... be careful about giving PS any more than 70% hard ram/resources. Especially if you have 256 or above. 70% should be more than sufficient for most any document. After that, let PS use the swap file/scratch disk to make get whatever else it needs.
Going above 70% will start to show an effect on your system performance, and could even slow PS down instead of helping it, like you might think it would. They need to be balanced -- PS & your OS.

It would be better to simply allocate PS a larger swap file. Give it a bigger chunk of your hard drive to use for swap. In fact... some guys even get a whole new drive just to let PS use.
Anywho... i thought i should clear that up a little. [:I
 

sfm

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Mark....... "some guys even get a whole new drive just to let PS use."

I can see it now ................. honey thanks for the new monitor but could I have a 40 gb hard drive, my PS needs it............

do you think it will work? :rofl: :rofl:

I reset my ram in PS I had given it more thinking that it would help and my PS didn't seem any faster with the new ram allocation and my OS was suffering like you wouldn't believe but after you told me Mark a couple of months back I changed it again and now all is well again :D
sfm
 

Erik

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It is the ideal situation for Photoshop to have plenty of RAM as Mark says, and to have unused areas on other partitions of the HDD's. Best is indeed to have the first two spaces on partitions another HDD than the one you installed PS on.
The reason is that Windows also messes with your HDD space and PS needs a non cut up and totally free space to put its data on.
Installing a second HDD is really easy, and you can often buy the "older" ones second hand. A HDD of 1GB is good enough.
If ever someone needs info on hows and whats of installing things on PC's, or a special way to install Win98 at the side of Win2K, feel free to ask. It can be tackled in the technical department.
Might look up my older posts...
 

{OZ}

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My PS is set to use 80% RAM and I really have a performance increase. I set it to 50% and it swaps to disk like crazy.

hmm... so I am thinking it has got to do a lot with the OS you are using..

so here is my configuration

I run Windows XP pro, 512 ram and have 6 gigs free space on my drive and I only run PS when I'm working with it. nothing else. I open other programs like internet explorer rarely but i close the progs when I dont need them and the operating system doesn't seem to suffer a bit...

well, we have different situations here..

OZ
 

lindaw

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Memory issues here with PS6

I am running W2K, Pent III 500mghz, 785 ram, and I have major swapping issues. PS is installed on D, scratch disks on E and F, memory for PS is set at 60%. If I am working on anything that has several layers in PS my entire system slows way down[doh] I can't seem to find that "happy medium" so PS and Windows will play nice together.:D
 

Erik

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Linda,
I run Win2000Pro on a PIII 800, 512 Apacer Ram and my scratch files approximately like you. (I also have a GeforceII MX32MBVideo card).
This 5OOMhz/800MHz won't make the difference.

So there must be something else.

Please try this: On the bottom of your document you will see some numbers. At the right of these you have a popup. Choose Document sizes.

If you don't scale or crop the image, the left number shouldn't change a lot because it gives you the size of your image when it would be flattened.
The number on the right tells you how much ram is being used by the image, all layers included. So keep an eye on this one and see what amount of memory each layer uses.

It may also depend on how many apps you have running in the background (virus scanner, firewall, ...and the whole bunch of Microsoft leeches)
 

lindaw

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Thanks!

Yeah it is set on document size and the numbers on the bottom left are 66.67% and 1.38m/7.33m. I do have McAfee's running and usuall my email open. When I am trying to work a tut I could have as many as 6 browser windows open[confused]
 

vogonpoet

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Lindaw: Just a quickie but I noticed you mentioned that your view was at 66.7%

Often this can cause untrue displays (distortions) when working so it is better to view at 50% or 100%. Can help in the long run especially when you go to print and things don't look the same as the original!

You should always give your graphic a once over at 100% even if you have to scroll around if you have a large resolution document.

Hope that helps:)
 

lindaw

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[oops] Doh!!!! Now that makes a difference. Geeze....:perfect: Do have patience with the newbie....:D
 

Erik

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In Win2K you can get an idea of what is happening with your system's memory when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del and choose task management. The three windows there tell you what's active, what processes use and have used how much of the processor's calculating power and how your processor
 

Erik

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In Win2K you can get an idea of what is happening with your system's memory when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del and choose task management. The three windows there tell you what's active, what processes use and have used how much of the processor's calculating power and how your processor and Ram are doing.

unfortunately, my version of Win is in my native language, Flemish, and it is difficult to find the exact names and expressions of each and every setting and window.

But if you're only using 7MB of Ram with all your layers included, I'd try to limit PS's share of memory to say 100MB instead of the 450MB you give it now. Don't forget that no one problem writes in lines like we do, but scatters its data around on the available ram, and that it takes longer to search on 450- than on 100 MB.

We will find it!
 

sfm

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glad you could join us Derf and look forward to seeing some of your creations
sfm
 

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