Reduction in available RAM

[jimg3]

I have WIN 10 updated yesterday and PS Desktop v. 23.01 and have the same problem outlined in a previous discussion: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/reduction-in-available-ram/m-p/989134...

My installed RAM is 16327 and PS shows available RAM as 12037 only. Not sure how long it has been like this but have noted some laggyiness in PS for a few weeks now and I used to have my RAM set higher when I could take advantage of the full 16GB

Under the previous discussion this was accepted by Adobe as a bug. My quetion: Has this now been resolved or  is there a workround please?

[Ged_Traynor]

Hi

That thread your referring to was related to a different issue and was addressed in a following update.

Photoshop uses the available RAM, I have 64GB of RAM and 52GB is available to Photoshop, the operating system and other apps use RAM as well.

As you can see from my task manager 52GB of RAM is available which is what Photoshop sees, so what your seeing is correct.

[StefanKlein]

Ged, what you´re seeing in your system is probably coincidence.

On my WIN 10 Pro system with 32GB RAM, PS always shows about 25 GB available RAM, no matter, how many processes and other programs are running. Even it the taskmanager shows only 16GB "available RAM", PS still shows the same 25GB.

Besides that, PS always showed about 28GB instead of 25GB available RAM in older versions. So someone from Adobe has to explain that difference.

[davescm]

I agree - a couple of versions ago Photoshop started reporting less RAM available.

This is my system report from Task manager. It shows 246GB available from the 256GB I have installed :

And Photoshop v 23.0.1 reporting 38GB less.

Nice to see you posting in this forum Stefan 🙂

Dave

[JJMack]

Newer Version of Photoshop reporting less free memory then older version is correct. For newer versions of Photoshop use more RAM starting then older version of Photoshop.  When I start CS6 Photoshop using Windows task manager I see the Photoshop Address Memory space is 713MB  and CS6 temp scratch file is 10.2GB in File Explorer.  When I start Photoshop 2022 windows task manager show Photoshop memory space  is 1.6GB and the its scratch space is 6.6GB.  How mav Plug-in do you load ine versions of photoshop.  I'm suter Some Photoshop Add ons Paye a part ine RAM useage.   So on my machine  Photoshop 2022 uses at least 1GB more RAM then CS6 from the start Sot the is aget least 1GB less RAM the with CS6.

Photoshop system resource management seen to change between releases and how much RAM and Scratch save will be used depends on the processing you do and  the version of  Photoshop you use. 

From monitoring a  large mockup batch job that update Smart Object layers and saves jpeg files.  That I can run two way. One way uses Replace Content  and the other way uses Edit Object to update the smart Object.  I can tell you the Newer Photoshop version will use more resources then older version of Photoshop and process the batch job in less time then older versions of Photoshop.

However, if you use Replace Content  newer Photoshop versions are replace content function is likely to fails at least once during the batch job and mess up some of the saved jpegs for the failure seem to mess Up the opened template document Photoshop is working on.    If I use Edit object and leave the system alone the batch job will run without error.  However, if I play around on my windows system switch between browses, application, click on Photoshop image windows and Photoshop UI.  Photoshop is likely  to mess up in my Edit Object function.  It seem to fails to set my script replacement document variable and Photoshop function then fail for the variable is not a document object.   

My Batch mockup scripts catch these errors and notes them  then continues processing the batch.    Perhaps I will change that to through an error and quit.  As it is now  perhaps 5 jpeg saved  out of 3,444 jpeg will be bad.     

The Run Times and the machine resources used vary greatly between versions of Photoshop versions and between using Replace Content Function and Edit Object Function.  In particular CC2018 Photoshop performances goes to pot in this big batch job.  It like slugs is binding up its crank case.  At the starting gate CC2018 is saving a jpeg every 3 to 4 seconds as  CC2018 approaches the finish line  its taking over 50 seconds to save a jpeg file.    CC2018 is not a good version of Photoshop to use for batch jobs.

[JJMack]

Dave it must be due to your machine Configuration.  256GB of RAM you must use more then Photoshop  or you be  rich.  On My Windows PC Adobe Photoshop alwasy seem to show there mort Free RAM then Windows task manager. Also each version of Photoshop seems to have diffent ideas about Window free RAM Some valuse shown seem to be way off to me.

. 

[davescm]

Hi

@JJMack This is not my machine configuration. on my main PC, I  have 256GB RAM installed for use with 3D applications and in particular physics simulations which run much faster with plenty of RAM space.

So my machine has 256GB RAM of which task manager shows 246GB available. But Photoshop v23.0.1 only shows 208GB available - so is ignoring 38GB of RAM (more than many have installed!).

I only had the last two versions installed on that machine but on my other PC which has 64GB RAM installed I see the following. Windows shows 58.3GB of the 64GB as free.

PS CC2018 (v19.1.9) shows  59.99 GB available

PS CC2019 (v20.0.10) shows  59.99 GB available

PS CC2020 (v21.2.12) shows 59.99 GB available

PS CC2021 (v22.5.3) shows 51.36 GB available

PS CC2022 (v23.0.1) shows 51.36 GB available

So there is a definite change between v 21 and v22 in the reporting of available memory for Photoshop.

Dave

[Ged_Traynor]

@davescm 

That's one hell of a system you have Dave, and an RTX3090 to, I'm so jealous 😁

What CPU do you have?

[davescm]

@Ged_Traynor 

I built the system earlier this year Ged and, as always, built it to last a while.

My previous system, which I built in 2013 is still running but was starting to show its age with some of the 3D work. 

The CPU is Intel's i9-10920X, plugged into an ASUS WS X299 Pro MB.  I have two NVMe m2 drives (1TB and 2TB)  plus three 2TB SSDs,  RAM is 256GB made up of  8x32GB Corsair 3600 Vengeance Pro,  GPU is RTX3090 24GB VRAM. Monitors - two Eizo CS2731s

It runs nice and cool with several case fans and a 360mm triple fan Corsair radiator for the CPU. Power is via a 1000W RM1000X PSU.

Dave

[JJMack]

Dave as each Photoshop version start there is some amount  of free storage. There is not always the same amount of free storage. It depends on what is currently running one the machine.    If in all cases there is nothing else running on the machine when Photoshop is started the amount of Free storage should be the same. However, each  version of Photoshop itself will allocate a different amount of RAM for it use depending on the release and the Photoshop add ons that are initialize during Photoshop initialization.    On my machine the amount of Available storage Photoshop Preferences Performance section shows is always more then what Windows 10 Task Manager shows is currently free.   Is what Photoshop Preference Performance Show Available of some value is it important does it effect  Photoshop or windows performance in any way.  Adobe code is not perfect and Operating System change  things in updates for example if to look at some of the screen captures I have posted in this thread you will see that CS6 system info shows its running of Windows 8.   My PC is running Windows 10 and has never had Windows 8 installed. IMO it make no different what value Adobe display as available.  On my machine when it is idle with nothing running there may be 32GB of free RAM my machine has 40GB of ECC RAM.   Yet some version of Photoshop show 37GB available.   I tend to believe  Windows Task Manager numbers over Adobe Photoshop numbers.

[Ged_Traynor]

@StefanKlein 

OK looks like I was incorrect, just checked again, Photoshop sees the same amount of RAM even though I have more available in the Task Manager

Maybe @J453 can explain the inconsistency

[Earth Oliver]

yeah, we've been bugging this for a year now and still no answer...

[jimg3]

Many thanks to all for their help. The point made in several replies that Adobe has changed their system at some upgrades to reporting lower amounts of RAM has answered my query. I had not been into my preferences for ages and only did so when I noticed to laggy behaviour in PS. I cannot quote any figures but what startled me was the fact that the RAM figures shown when I looked were definitely lower than previously....so I thought something had gone wrong. Obviously not so alls well for me. Thanks again.

[ImZeOne]

Hi folks,

Same problem for me. Brand new computer with 64GB of DDR4 and GeForce GTX 1630 4GB graphic card on Windows 10 for photoshop only (I use UNIX for my job on anothe computer). I cleaned up the whole system from the bunch of useless features and consequently I use the minimal amount of RAM to run the system. 

Photoshop shows only 51GB available of the 64GB and suggests to use a max of 80% of it. Of course I checked the system info and the 64GB are OK and appear in the Photoshop system info.

If read many answers from different threads about this issue and I'm still confused. I can imagine that the way Photoshop gets and shows memory infos has changed, but I can't understand that the memory I bought to boost Photoshop is cut by a third, especially if I consider that I did'nt have this issue with my previous computer (i5-760 with the same photoshop CC and Windows system, but with 16GB RAM for PS and Win10). 

Any progress made to solve this riddle, or at least a convincing explanation ? 

[D Fosse]

Same answer as above. It's the RAM amount available for Photoshop use. Some of it is system reserved.

In any case this is mostly a non-issue. You don't want Photoshop memory usage too high - that will negatively impact your system as a whole and may lead to bigger problems. With 64 GB installed you'll be fine in any situation, no need to worry.

The importance of RAM is overrated. There is no such thing as "enough RAM" anyway - if you're working with big files Photoshop's working memory vastly exceeds any RAM you may have installed, no matter how much you have. This is why Photoshop uses a scratch disk, and RAM is mostly a cache to the scratch disk's main memory.

This was important in the old days with very slow spinning hard drives. but with today's ultra-fast NVMe drives, the scratch disk isn't the bottleneck it once was.

The critical component is the scratch disk. That's where you should focus attention if you're not happy with PS speed of operation.

[ImZeOne]

Hi D. Fosse,

First thank you for your quick answer.

I know how easy a single photograph and some computing can overflow RAM capacity and I'm aware of read/write transfer speed in modern drives, that's not the point. I changed my computer (12 years old, I don't have GAS) because I could'nt extend memory and this was my problem for sure.

I just need to understand how things work, especially when the informations I get from Photoshop are not clear anymore.

I'm a intrigued because the exact same operating system was fully operational with less than 4GB with the exact same version of CC and it seems to need way more room to work now. Maybe the "problem" comes from Windows 10 and not Photoshop or both, but I have troubles with "move along, there is nothing to see here" 😉

Have a nice day.