PS CS eventual slow down

SB
Posted By
Steve_Bingham
Feb 3, 2004
Views
597
Replies
12
Status
Closed
I am not alone in this observation. It seems PS CS slows down after awhile, even after purging. It is almost like in the old days when PS used to leak or lose memory over a long period of time. Work around: Close PS every hour or so for max speed. Tried a whole bunch of other solutions. Really weird when you close all files and purge and the slowdown is still there! We are talking from screaming speed to medium speed. Almost like some cache isn’t dumping somewhere. Problem goes away with a PS restart.

I typically open PS in 3 seconds. Open a 72 meg file in 3 seconds. Move around with filters, etc extremely rapidly. Gradually, as I work over a period of hours, things just get a little slower, and slower, and slower. Purge all. New image. Still much slower than very beginning. Of course, as I stated above, the simple work around is to restart PS CS. But why???????

By the way, I have been with PS since day 1 so I ain’t a newbie. But I am not a computer super tech either!

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DM
dave_milbut
Feb 3, 2004
you must realize that even if there were problems no one in their right mind would admit it until there’s a fix… 🙂
SB
Steve_Bingham
Feb 4, 2004
I am running XP (fully updated) on a Dell XPS, CPU 3.2, with a mirrored raid array of a pair of 120 SATA drives, 2 gigs or ram, and formatted as NTFS. As I run nothing but Photoshop and have tons of hard drive space (75% free) I chose not to partition (80 gigs of free space should be enough).

My files are brought in from my Fuji S2 as raw files, converted to 16 bit tiff (Adobe 1998 RGB), tweaked a little, and changed to 8 bit tiff. They are either 35 or 70 meg files. As I do a lot of collage work I can have 4 or 5 images open untill I can drag and drop as layers. Then I close the images that I am not using. After I do this sort of heavyweight stuff for an hour or two Photoshop starts to slow down. So I save, restart PS, and I am back up to speed. Sigh.
P
povimage
Feb 4, 2004
Well, I guess this is to be expected when they keep using their own proprietary memory management architecture instead of recoding Photoshop to use memory as managed by the OS…

Better to add new features and patch that old Diesel engine instead of putting a new engine in. Actually, it’s like someone who keeps adding Garden Gnomes to the front lawn while neglecting to repair the furnace.

Wonder if they’ll obstinately continue wandering with blinders down this silly path when our OS’s go to 64 bits?

Keith
L
LenHewitt
Feb 4, 2004
Keith,

I guess this is to be expected when they keep using their own proprietary
memory management architecture <<

There is EVERY good reason for doing so!

Windows VMM is not designed for program DATA but for program CODE swapping. When used for swapping DATA it becomes VERY inefficient indeed.

Microsoft do not believe that program DATA size can exceed the installed RAM. Microsoft applications have huge amounts of code, make extensive use of ..dll’s and generally very little data usage. In these situations, Windows VMM is relatively efficient.

Do you REALLY believe that the Adobe engineers would put so much work into handling their own VM if they could rely on that provided by the O/S?
SB
Scott_Byer
Feb 4, 2004
What percentage is you Photoshop memory percentage set to? Have you tried watching free RAM using Windows Task Manager or Performance Monitor? Have you tried reducing the memory percentage slider? What filters are you using?

-Scott
C
CSuser
Feb 5, 2004
Try closing the File Browser if it’s in the background. I had my system slowing to a crawl with CS at times, and found the closing the browser helped.
SB
Steve_Bingham
Feb 5, 2004
Yes, I always CLOSE the file browser. Tried memory allocation from 90% to 60% to 40%. If I open PS CS at 8:00 in the morning, open a file, and just let it SIT idle for 6 hours I can watch my memory gradually go down to the point of being unusable. Others on various forums have experienced the identical symptom. Of course if you start working with 200-300 meg files it will grind to a halt after only an hour. Of course all this is without using ANY filters.

However, this last time (just to see) I did decide to use a filter on a 200 meg file after I hour of PS use. Not enough ram says the friendly message. So I purge and close the file and open a small 10 meg file and tried again. Not enough ram says the friendly message. OK. I close PS and reopen it. Open the 200 meg file and apply the filter – zip, done. That fast. This ain’t right. I, and others with the same identical problem, feel PS isn’t clearing some memory and has a ram leak – just like happened many years ago. Chris says PS has never leaked memory in past versions. Uh, I sure disagree. Anyway. Waiting for a computer guru to show up or for Adobe to admit there MIGHT be a problem. I will gladly take either one.
SB
Steve_Bingham
Feb 5, 2004
Another photographer with the same problem – and a solution. I will try it!

"I have been having the same problem with PS CS. Checking task manager after each open/close of an Image, the memory usage kept climbing. CS never released the memory back to the system.

It was recommended to me to try Ram Idle. (link below). I installed and ran Ram Idle and my memory leak is gone. CS is no longer hanging onto the ram used in open/close of Image files."
SB
Steve_Bingham
Feb 5, 2004
Problem solved. PS now screams no matter how many files I open, close, or play with (Ram Idle worked). Just finished throwing around a 735 meg file while three other 70 meg files were open. Closed them and opened three more. No problem.

And yes, there are a bunch of people out there with the same problem. There MIGHT be a problem? OS, motherboard, or whatever.
SJ
sandy_johnson
Feb 5, 2004
You forgot the link Steve. Here’s the download for the LE (free) version. <http://download.com.com/3000-2086-10257789.html>
SB
Scott_Byer
Feb 5, 2004
Yes, there might be a problem, and we’re still trying to collect enough information to reproduce the issue and to figure out exactly what’s going on.

-Scott
ND
Nick_Decker
Feb 5, 2004
Thank you, Scott. Your attitude is refreshing to those of us who are having problems.

Steve, BTW, I downloaded and installed RamIdle. If anything PS CS runs slower for me. Thanks, though.

Nick

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