new computer or new video card or?

I want to emphasize that everything works, but it is slow and I am constantly waiting for large files to open and to adjust to changes. I find the transition from Capture NX to opening the tiff in CS3 to be extremely slow.

On Sun, 13 May 2007 20:54:22 -0400, louise
scribbled:

I want to emphasize that everything works, but it is slow and I am constantly waiting for large files to open and to adjust to changes. I find the transition from Capture NX to opening the tiff in CS3 to be extremely slow.

You’re working from the camera to Pshop? Best to transfer the pics to the hard drive 1st. Your bottleneck, from your description, appears to be the connection between the camera and the PC, a new video card won’t help.

I’ve just purchased my first DSLR (Nikon D40X) and I’m shooting in RAW. I am using Capture NX to do intial adjustments to the raw image and then saving it as a tiff. I then open the tiff in CS3 and continue editing.
So, Capture NX, CS3, Outlook and Firefox are usually open. And my computer is moving between Capture NX and CS3 very very slowly, pictures are being drawn slowly and changes are previewed….slowly. It is only slightly better if I close Outlook and Firefox – it is still slow enough to be frustrating for any quantity of work.

I want to emphasize that everything works, but it is slow and I am constantly waiting for large files to open and to adjust to changes. I find the transition from Capture NX to opening the tiff in CS3 to be extremely slow.

I don’t know whether I really need a new computer, or whether it is simply that my graphics card isn’t up to the tasks I am now presenting to it. Here are the specs:

P4, 3.2 with 2 gig of ram and an Asus Motherboard. Large seagate hard drive with plenty of space.

The video card is a Saphire Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantic with 128 meg of memory in the AGP 8x slot of an Asus P4C800E Deluxe motherboard.
Do I need a new computer with a much faster processor, or is the the video card the main bottleneck? If the video card is the bottleneck, do I get another AGP 8X with 256 meg of ram or do I get a regular PCI card and not use the AGP slot at all? I do have an open PCI slot. What specs should I look for in a card?

I am hoping that a new video card will take care of the slowness for another year when I will feel more ready to buy a new computer. But if not….then it will have to be sooner.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc., all very welcome.
TIA

Louise

louise wrote:

I’ve just purchased my first DSLR (Nikon D40X) and I’m shooting in RAW. I am using Capture NX to do intial adjustments to the raw image and then saving it as a tiff. I then open the tiff in CS3 and continue editing.

So, Capture NX, CS3, Outlook and Firefox are usually open. And my computer is moving between Capture NX and CS3 very very slowly, pictures are being drawn slowly and changes are previewed….slowly. It is only slightly better if I close Outlook and Firefox – it is still slow enough to be frustrating for any quantity of work.
I want to emphasize that everything works, but it is slow and I am constantly waiting for large files to open and to adjust to changes. I find the transition from Capture NX to opening the tiff in CS3 to be extremely slow.

I don’t know whether I really need a new computer, or whether it is simply that my graphics card isn’t up to the tasks I am now presenting to it. Here are the specs:

P4, 3.2 with 2 gig of ram and an Asus Motherboard. Large seagate hard drive with plenty of space.

The video card is a Saphire Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantic with 128 meg of memory in the AGP 8x slot of an Asus P4C800E Deluxe motherboard.
Do I need a new computer with a much faster processor, or is the the video card the main bottleneck? If the video card is the bottleneck, do I get another AGP 8X with 256 meg of ram or do I get a regular PCI card and not use the AGP slot at all? I do have an open PCI slot. What specs should I look for in a card?

I am hoping that a new video card will take care of the slowness for another year when I will feel more ready to buy a new computer. But if not….then it will have to be sooner.

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc., all very welcome.
TIA

Louise

A 3.2 and 2G ram should be adequate also the 128 card.

Use bridge to open the images in ACR raw, adjust, then open in CS3. my system certainly has been quicker using CS3 like this, than in CS2.
I would assume you have allocated the ram in preferences.
HDD scratch disk size seems OK

What about something running in the background like a virus checker / spyware software?? Image tracking software doing updates?
You will see if the video card needs replacement with a slow refresh rate – screen hanging.

Thats my ideas!

Rob wrote:

louise wrote:

What about something running in the background like a virus checker / spyware software?? Image tracking software doing updates?
You will see if the video card needs replacement with a slow refresh rate – screen hanging.

Thats my ideas!

When you speak of the screen hanging, are you describing a situation where something is partially drawn and then you sit and wait until the rest gets drawn in? I find this frequently when trasfering a file from Capture to CS3.

Louise