Why is PHotoshop so slow with high resolution files?

Hi, nice to meet you guys.

Why is PHotoshop so slow with high resolution files?

I have 1 GHz 512 MB RAM system, win2k and checked it with PCMark2002 and 3D Mark 2001 and it's running as fast as it should be, but still...I have some images on CD that came with the Photoshop 6 Wow! book and they all use 300 DPI. I just opened one "Yin Yang.PSD"; 4 layers with a few objects that use layer sets, 225 dpi, 890x890 pixels. Hiding/unhiding a layer takes already between 1-2 sec. If I move an object with a layer set it can last maybe 4 sec before the whole screen is redrawn.
If I make my active graphics window larger, it takes even more time.
Everything is ok with 72 DPI web-graphics but things are really getting slow with files with resolutions larger than 200+ dpi.

Is Photoshop really that slow with these resolutions?
Even with a P4 2Ghz I don't expect any wonders.

Is there a way to make it faster?

Thanks

Maybe assigning more memory to Photshop will help.
in EDIT>PREFERENCES>MEMORY & IMAGE CACHE increase the amount of memory Photoshop is allowed to use

No, tried that, changed cache, memory settings, nothing works and I returned to my default values again.
BTW, I used both v6.01 and V7 and they're both slow with 200+ dpi resolution images.
But I've heard of people who design some stuff in lower resolutions and convert to 300 dpi in a later stage, by extensive use of styles and the scaling of styles.
It's especially those LAYER STYLES that slow things down.
If I create a few 200+ dpi objects with a lot of bevels, glow, shadow etc than moving such an object for example is quite slow.

The question still is....is it just Phtoshop that is so slow?

No.

I have a celeron 1GHZ with 1 gig of RAM that runs Photoshop just fine. Even on HUGE files. I also have an old P3 800 that only has 512 RAM that does a great job.

Have you installed the 6.01 patch? there were some specific "fixes" for W2K in it.

Check the adobe site for a patch for 7.0, they may have found something late.

Finally, what about the scratch disk you have selected.... Is it the same drive on which the operating system resides? If so is it an old drive, like an old 5400 RPM?

If so adding another HD of a newer model will increase your speed alot.... a whole lot.

solution 1.) copy the file from CD to your Hard Drive first. CDROM access times are SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Hard Drive access times.

solution 2.) more RAM never hurts (though for files less than 30MB it shouldn't be TOOO obscenely long)

solution 3.) have a different physical drive for your photoshop Scratch Disk (Ctrl/Cmd - K for these prefs...its one of the dropdown options)

Originally posted by tornupinside
No.

I have a celeron 1GHZ with 1 gig of RAM that runs Photoshop just fine. Even on HUGE files. I also have an old P3 800 that only has 512 RAM that does a great job.

Have you installed the 6.01 patch? there were some specific "fixes" for W2K in it.

Check the adobe site for a patch for 7.0, they may have found something late.

Finally, what about the scratch disk you have selected.... Is it the same drive on which the operating system resides? If so is it an old drive, like an old 5400 RPM?

If so adding another HD of a newer model will increase your speed alot.... a whole lot.

My system works fast with Photoshop, no problem. The thing is, that it runs slow if I for example use 5 layers, each with 8 layer effects in a 1000*1000 sized picture. Just try it out. If your system runs fast with huge 100MB files using 5 large canvas filling objects with each having 8 layer effects than you must have a Pentium 10, 900 Ghz :D
Every computer with the kinda same specifactions like mine (I work in the IT), has this problem; extensive use of layer sets makes Photoshop slow.

I have PS7 and there's no fix. Extensive use of layers sets in Adobe 6.01 was also slow; already tested that on another machine.

I have 2 * WD 7200 rpm drives. These were tested on www.storagereview.com as one of the fastest drives. I tested mine after I bought them and the run as fast as they are supposed to be. My scratch disk is my 2nd drive.

Well, thank you anyways

Originally posted by mweier
solution 1.) copy the file from CD to your Hard Drive first. CDROM access times are SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Hard Drive access times.

solution 2.) more RAM never hurts (though for files less than 30MB it shouldn't be TOOO obscenely long)

solution 3.) have a different physical drive for your photoshop Scratch Disk (Ctrl/Cmd - K for these prefs...its one of the dropdown options)

a) The files were already on my drive
Even when I loaded it form CDrom; I don't see what the CDROM has to do with hiding/unhiding or moving objects being slow??

b) This file was 5 megabyte. I don't need more than 512 MB, because I never had the use for it and if I need it one day, I probably pay way less then than people who by 1 GB now and only use half of it 98% of their time.
My effiency reading in Photoshop always reads 100% and my harddrive stays quiet.

c) It's already on a very fast drive. I even once created a scratch disk in a RAM drive (to test with this small 5MB file) and it's still slow.

I think you forget one thing. If I open a 5MB file in Photoshop on a system that has 400 MB left and layer sets are slow, then I don't think we have to look at scratch disks, cdroms or memory.

I more and more come to the conclusion that layer sets are just plain slow when used extensively.

I just hope that someone has the same Photoshop 6 Wow! book so that he can try it out him/herself with a file like: "Yin Yang.psd"

Thank you for your support.

oh - i just thought it was taking a long time to open.

5MB files should open fast & snappy. CDROM access speeds only affect the initial opening of the file.

Only other thing I can think of is if your C: is nearly full (is there approximately 10% of drive free? windows gets bitchy if not). Also, is your scratch disk drive got at least 10% space free? Finally, what are your page file settings for the computer?

Originally posted by mweier
oh - i just thought it was taking a long time to open.

5MB files should open fast & snappy. CDROM access speeds only affect the initial opening of the file.

Only other thing I can think of is if your C: is nearly full (is there approximately 10% of drive free? windows gets bitchy if not). Also, is your scratch disk drive got at least 10% space free? Finally, what are your page file settings for the computer?

C: is NOT nearly full
Scratch disk is 100% ok
Page file setting are VERY large.

Try to use some common sense man! If you read ALL (!) of my posts, you would notice that I'm talking about a 5 MB (!) file and my effiency reading in Photoshop are 100%, my drive is quiet (already mentioned that earlier!), so I really don't get it why people keep talking about cdrom drives, page files, scratch files, memory (even mentioned that I have 512!) . If you don't know the answer, shut up and try for once in your life to READ my posts where I already ruled out a lot of possible problems, but ya'll still come up with solutions for those problems THAT were ruled out. Also don't tell me how to configure a system, because I bloody know how to do that as an IT specialist with yearrrrrs of experience!

I guess nobody knows any answers or at least admits that layer styles are VERY slow in Photoshop. I never came across any machine at work that wasn't slow with layer styles and I mean the EXTENSIVE (!) use of layer styles.

I'm continueing my search somewhere else, because I don't get a lot of help here.

Have a nice day.

What about 3rd party virus software?

I had a friend running "something" (I forget what software) and it was set to system scan "ALL" accessed files. It made his machine run photoshop so slow it seemed like it was locked up at times. Turning the virus software off corrected the problem.

I generally work on a Mac but as I said I've got 2 Windows machines that do a great job.

As far as your attitude, well.... the people here were just throwing out guesses. I'm not sure why that set badly with you but that's something you'll have to deal with yourself. There are some VERY good designers in this community as well as some very smart people. You've made 5 post.... so you don't even to begin to know the quality of people on this board.

You want to go elsewhere, so be it... that kind of attitude toward people that are only trying to help isn't welcome here anyway.