How Much Ram For Lightroom 3 & CS5 etc.?

[tom_thumbnail]

<p>How much Random Access Memory (RAM) is the sweet spot for value and performance to edit photos on a current computer running Lightroom 3.4, Photoshop CS5, and the typical plug-ins or standalone stuff like Photomatix HDR, Topaz Labs Denoise, Nix Silver Effects etc.</p>

<p>The computer will be based around an Intel SandyBridge i5 2500k CPU</p>

<p>I was figuring on putting 8GB in it, but I wonder if I'd benefit much by going to 12 or 16 or more? </p>

<p>The motherboards are supposed to take up to 32GB, but they only have 4 memory slots and the biggest memory sticks I've seen are 4GB each.</p>

[john_wheeler6]

<p>I run LR 3.4 and PS CS5 and not too many plugins. My system has 8GB and I wish I had 16Gb. It really depends on what types of files, layers stacks, and editing that you do.</p>

<p>When PS runs out of its allocated memory (which is set in Preferences and the ideal range it suggests is much smaller than you max memory) then it goes out to scratch disk which is orders of magnitude slower even it you use SSD Mass Storage. What eats up the allocated PS memory has to do with number of PS documents open, their base image size and how many image layers you have in the stack. It also gets eaten up by your Undo buffer, ClipBoard, and especially your History Buffer. If your editing changes lots of pixels each time, the History buffer can get extremely large especially if you used the default number of History states of 20.</p>

<p>An easy way to tell how you are doing is to set the Info panel through Panel Options and click the extra options to display. Pay particular attention to the Scratch Sizes. The first number is how much memory you are presently using by all PS documents, history buffers etc and the second number is how much PS memory has been allocated. Check these numbers out. If you usage approaches how much is allocated, you will end up with big slowdowns.</p>

<p>If you don't want to go to that level of detail, if you can afford it, go for 16G. As a backup to that if you can only afford 8G, make sure they load it up with two 4G cards and not four 2G cards. That way when you upgrade, you only have to by two 4G cards no four. Hope that helps.</p>

[jean_yves_mead]

Which operating system?

 

Given how cheap memory is, it makes little sense not to add as much as the motherboard and OS will handle.

[ellis_vener_photography]

If you will be running PsCS5 and Lr in 64 bit modes more RAM works for you. If 32 bit modes it won't make a

difference.

[marc_bergman1]

<p>What is the old saying, you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much memory.</p>

<p>As long as you have a 64 bit operating system and applications I would go big.</p>

<p>I built my first computer in 1978. It had 256 bytes of memory. I boosted that up to 1K by buying 8 memory chips at $10 each. Since then I have always felt a memory constraint. </p>

<p>For my next build I will go 16GB. I could probably get by with 8GB but I am looking to get at least 5 years usage from this computer. I have always found that memory needs go up past what you would ever expect. Most of my work is photo driven but I do want to get into doing some video. I want enough memory so that I can keep multiple programs with multiple files open at one time.</p>

<p>You can get 16GB, 4 x 4GB modules, for under $200. To me that seems to be a sweet spot in terms of high performance, relatively low cost, and peace of mind.</p>

[angkordave]

<p>I've been running CS5 on a Macbook with i5 procesor and 4GB RAM it worked fine.<br>

RAM is not everything; processor speed and Photoshop cache is a big factor.<br>

I've upgraded my PC to an i7 quad core 64 bit Win7 its been a big improvement. Ive been able to open dozens of files in ACR no probs opening and 100mb + files impressive, less than 1 sec. Its only a few weeks on since upgrade and I have noticed days ago that CS5 and Win7 only sees less than 4Gb out of the 8Gb installed. My PC builder doesn’t know why and is working on it.<br>

I’m impressed with the 4Gb but I do want to get the rest working. Any ideas why I cant get full RAM on 64bit system?<br>

BTW I have been told that Photoshop Cache should be in a separate partition on the same drive as the Programme ; is that correct?</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

Make sure you have enabled Photoshop to run in 64 bit mode.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>One of the advantages of lots of RAM is that it drastically reduces the need for using scratch disks in Photoshop. </p>

[tom_thumbnail]

<p>I didn't know how much Lightroom and PS could use the extra RAM, but it seems from these replies that it can. I'm finally getting around to putting this new computer together, and I'm seeing RAM prices are very reasonable anyway, so there really isn't much reason not to get 16GB now. </p>

<p> </p>