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Anonymous
December 13, 2017
Answered

RAM HOG

  • December 13, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 753 views

Why is photoshop such a RAM HOG?

I have an new mac with 8Gb RAM, spent two hours creating a graphic and PHOTOSHOP FROZE LIKE A DOG.

No other applications running.

Why is photoshop such a [Profanity removed by moderator]  annoying memory hog?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

    Please moderate your tone.

    Just to make sure: This is a user Forum, so you are not really addressing Adobe here, even though some Adobe employees thankfully have been dropping by.

    As for why Photoshop uses so much RAM: Depending on the images’ dimensions, bit depth etc., the particular editing involved and the settings image editing is not a particularly light-weight task.

    spent two hours creating a graphic

    Should you not have saved the image in that time repeatedly consider this a learning experience.

    And consider, as many of us have had to over the decades, that one is usually much faster with image edits the second time around …

    Also: For several versions now Photoshop has offered the possibility to »Automatically Save Recovery Information Every: …« so on restarting Photoshop did a back-up of the image get opened?

    What have you done for trouble-shooting so far?

    Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html

    Please read about Performance related settings here:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

    3 replies

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 13, 2017

    This has scratch disk written all over it.

    While 8GB isn't a lot, it should normally work - provided allocation isn't cranked all the way up, choking the rest of the system, and there is an efficient scratch disk setup to pick up the load. With an almost full system drive, and no dedicated scratch disk, that will paralyze your whole system.

    mark, you should know that Photoshop moves huge amounts of data around, and very little of it can normally be held in RAM, even if you have a lot of it (which you don't). So Photoshop reserves disk space for temporary working storage. This is the scratch disk.

    Think of RAM as a fast access cache, and the scratch disk as main memory.

      davescm
      Community Expert
      davescmCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 13, 2017

      Depending on the image size, bit depth, content, layers etc - 8GB may be a lot - or may be too little. You can set the memory available to Photoshop in Preferences >Performance but do not set it to 100%, your operating system needs RAM also.Photoshop also uses scratch disk space to swap with RAM, you have not said anything about your scratch disk set up.

      When Photoshop froze did you get a message to say it was out of memory, or have you made that assumption? Is there a crash report ?

      You have given very little info about your system, settings, scratch disk  etc. Please go to Photoshop's  System Info and click copy. Then post the info here.

      Dave

      c.pfaffenbichler
      Community Expert
      c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      December 13, 2017

      Please moderate your tone.

      Just to make sure: This is a user Forum, so you are not really addressing Adobe here, even though some Adobe employees thankfully have been dropping by.

      As for why Photoshop uses so much RAM: Depending on the images’ dimensions, bit depth etc., the particular editing involved and the settings image editing is not a particularly light-weight task.

      spent two hours creating a graphic

      Should you not have saved the image in that time repeatedly consider this a learning experience.

      And consider, as many of us have had to over the decades, that one is usually much faster with image edits the second time around …

      Also: For several versions now Photoshop has offered the possibility to »Automatically Save Recovery Information Every: …« so on restarting Photoshop did a back-up of the image get opened?

      What have you done for trouble-shooting so far?

      Restoring Preferences after making sure all customized presets like Actions, Patterns, Brushes etc. have been saved might be a good starting point:

      https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/basic-trouble-shooting-steps.html

      Please read about Performance related settings here:

      https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

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