Photoshop 2020 - Efficiency

[Kerc]

Hi,

I need some help with a lack of efficiency / memory with my system / PS settings.

I'll try to be as clear and informative as possible:

The Problem: I open a file of moderate size, e.g. 20MB, and always get Efficiency below 90%, often only 65%, but different every time, sometimes also 100% ... same file. ... no other apps running!

- system and PS are always latest update

- please see attached system list: lots of RAM, Nvidia 1070, Samsung 960 EVO 250

- SSD (C) is reserved only for system and has lots of space, therefor I have no pagefile drive

  assigned in Preferences. 

- tried different performance settings in preferences: 70% - 85% .. no difference

- Graphics Processor / Use Open CL / Anti Alias Guides ... all checked .... Drawing Mode: Advanced

- Machine and PS are as clean as a whistle - no junk files, temp files, cache files, sfc /scannow good

what could it be? ... please let me know if other info is required

Thanks for your time in advance

[D Fosse]

Efficiency is one of those readouts I have never bothered with. It just means the working data exceed available RAM - but that always happens, no matter how much RAM you have. It's nothing to be concerned about. That's why Photoshop always needs a scratch disk.

If you experience lagging, it's for other reasons. Prime suspect is the video driver, next any third-part plugins or extensions, tablet driver, any app or utility that might interfere.

[Kerc]

Thanks for your reply, D_Fosse.

yes - I don't really notice lag - except with large files and a few major tasks. 

So you are saying that even with 16 GB RAM it will show below 90% efficiency?

I read other posts saying that everything under 95% indicates insuficient memory...?

And I never used to see that on other machines / earlier versions / in the past in general.

That's why I wondered if soemthing is set wrong wth this one.

BTW - Scratch Disk in Prefrences is set to C - same as Operating System and installed PS...??

(since it is an SSD shouldn't it be all on C, rather on HDD storage drive... same as I have page file set to)

Please let me know about further thoughts

Thanks

[canon reed]

i use an external hd for a scratch disk and the (mines imac) internal hd for a backup to that scratch disc. Do you maybe have a lot of  asl files, tpl, abr or patterns?  if that is your case then id back them up to an external memory and then put them in your adobe library - maybe pause sync during workflow - and take them out of the running program. 

[D Fosse]

16 GB RAM will work fine. It's not enough, but 32 or 64 isn't enough either.

Everything Photoshop does, is written to the scratch disk. Think of RAM as a fast access cache to the scrach disk's main memory.

It's much more important that the scratch disk is fast and has lots of free space. With a system SSD (especially NVMe), that's the best place to put the scratch disk. But watch free space! Make sure it has a few 100GB free at all times.

If your system drive fills up over time, as it will, do a systematic search-and-destroy in your user account. That's where all the junk accumulates. Few people are aware of this, but you can often free up 50-100GB here, dead meat that you will never miss. The user account is hidden by default, so you have to unhide it in the OS settings.

[Kerc]

Thanks both for your replies.

D_Fosse, 

Yes, scratch disk is on C (SSD).

I have app. 180 GB free on the SSD, especially after getting rid of hibernation. So, it's only Win10 ... no personal files & folders - all moved to D. C is regularly cleaned of all temp and update backups etc.

The last paragraph of your reply is interesting. Could you please discribe in more detail how to access possible junk in the user account. Are you talking about my user account on this machine? or the Adobe account?

How to get there and clean it out?

Thanks

[D Fosse]

It's these three folders:

This is where all your applications store everything user-specific like all settings, caches and previews.

The way to go about this is to use a utility like the free WinDirStat. It shows you exactly what is there and how much of it. This is the C drive on this machine. The big blue blob is the Bridge preview cache. This is something you could move to another disk if you're low on space.

[Kerc]

Hello D_Fosse,

I checked - there are no significant large files in AppData>Adobe

I clear all cache regularly anyways.

So-sorry, but that seems to be not the solution.

Again: opening the same file several times I get different efficiency ... anywhere between 65%

and 100%, randomly.

I realize that it  has not really an impact / slowing me down ... just bugs me ...

shouldn't be like that ... didn't used to be like that...??!!??

So, if you say "forget about it" ... ??

Thanks