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ahazel
ahazel
Participant
January 9, 2025
Answered

Not enough Ram when using Pixelate Crystallize filter

  • January 9, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 545 views

Hello,

My system specs, Win 10  Photoshop version 26.2.0,  32 gig ram, Nvidea 1070 GTXti graphics card, i7 9700k CPU 3.6GHZ. 

While I have not used every function known in Photoshop,  In my usage so far, I only get the "Not Enough Ram" Error when using the Pixelate Crystallize filter.   I have tried increasing the ram allocation adding drives to the scratch drive setting.

I'm trying this filter on a jpg I imported that is 4919 x 3519 pixels.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

Correct answer D Fosse

I can't reproduce. I'm not getting any additional memory usage, none at all, when running this filter (on a similar sized file). The memory graph in Task Manager is perfectly flat.

 

Please post the full Help > System Info from Photoshop.

 

Oh, do not increase memory allocation in preferences! That can choke your whole system. Don't go above 70% or so.

2 replies

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
January 9, 2025

I can't reproduce. I'm not getting any additional memory usage, none at all, when running this filter (on a similar sized file). The memory graph in Task Manager is perfectly flat.

 

Please post the full Help > System Info from Photoshop.

 

Oh, do not increase memory allocation in preferences! That can choke your whole system. Don't go above 70% or so.

    ahazel
    ahazelAuthor
    Participant
    January 10, 2025

    When I first looked at memory usage it was at 76% which was what it was set at from the initial install since this is the first time I even opened that menu to look at it.  I had been increasing it because just using google for that error would say to try increasing it.   But I dropped it down to 50% and that fixed it.   Thank you.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 10, 2025

    Other applications and processes need memory too, even some plugins need their own memory outside of Photoshop.

     

    The memory allocation you set in Preferences will very quickly be filled up. In Photoshop, RAM is mainly a cache to the scratch disk's main memory. There is no such thing as "enough RAM". Once that memory is used by Photoshop, it is not released as long as PS remains open, but reused and recycled for the next document.

     

    Low memory is not a problem for Photoshop; it uses the scratch disk anyway. But low memory is a problem for everything else that doesn't have a scratch disk.

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 9, 2025

    Have you checked Resource Monitor to see how much memory is actually being used?

     

    How much of your 32gb is allocated to Photoshop?  I'm guessing that Pixelate uses System memory, so if there really is an issue, you might improve things by reducing the Photoshop alocation.  You might be making things worse by increasing the allocation.

     

    How big are your Photoshop Temp files and how much space does your scratch drive have?  It's worth checking the drive occasionally to see if you have any orphaned temp files. Note: one of mine is week old, and I have restarted in that time, so I know I can delete that file.

     

    I found a similar thread from six years ago.  It looks like the issue in that case was that the image was too large.  The size you mention should easily be managable with 32gb.  We sometimes get posts from people who thought image size was set to pixels, but was actually set to a linear unit, and even at 72dpi their document had swamped their system.  By the time you have checked the temp file size, and memory used via Resource Monitor, you should have a better idea of what's going on.

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/pixelate-crystalize-nightmare/m-p/9613033

     

    Blimey.  Here's another one.  I'm thinking that there might be a problem with the plugin!

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/ps-24-0-1-error-message-could-not-complete-the-crystallize-command-because-there-is-not-enough-ram/td-p/13373855

     

    Try restarting the computer, opening Photoshop, and running the plugin again.  Might as well run Resource Monitor while doing this.  I always say that the numbers don't lie, and it's always nice to have actual data rather than opinions.

     

    Good luck.

     

      Trevor.Dennis
      Community Expert
      Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 10, 2025
      quote

      How much of your 32gb is allocated to Photoshop?  I'm guessing that Pixelate uses System memory, so if there really is an issue, you might improve things by reducing the Photoshop allocation.  You might be making things worse by increasing the allocation.

       

      By @Trevor.Dennis

       

      I did suggest lowering Photoshop memory allocation. 

       

      We first ran into this problem with CS4 and CS5 before the days of Creative Cloud.  Windows was still 32 bit then, which meant it could only use 4Gb, but in reality it would only see about 3.5Gb.  What started happening is that after allocating enoung RAM to Photoshop, you couldn't run third party plugins (which used System memory).  I couldn't even print directly from Photoshop.  My current and previous builds both have/had just 64Gb because I have never seen Photoshop come close to maxing out its allocated memory.

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