Video Cards for PC

I'm running Adobe CS2 on an ancient (2002) Gateway PC. It's actually not too bad except the video is really slow when I want to view a folder full of thumbnails where the image files are 25MB or 100MB. A folder full of smaller jpegs is no problem, so a workaround is to create a separate folder of jpegs, figure out which image I want to open, then go back to the tiff folder and open the file from a non-thumbnail list.

Anyway, I guess a faster video card is what I really need, but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts about how I can get a snappier response. I can't trust the mfr to sell me the right card; they recently sold me a motherboard that was too big for my box.

Actually a video card will not buy you much in this respect. If the thumbnails are generated on the fly, speed is really a combination of CPU speed, RAM, and drive speed. A faster video card will help with motion video or fast paced games, but not with 2D images.

Guy

Guy is right, but I'll add one other detail.

If your system has an integrated video "card" on the motherboard, then it takes some of your ram to generate video. Adding a seperate video card can free up some system ram from video.

Ultimately, processor speed and RAM size and speed and hard drive speed have more to do with this situation than video card.

Many thanks on saving me the time and expense of getting a video card. I have 1GB of RAM and a 1.8GHz P4 processor (pre-Hyperthreading). Do other folks not have this rendering speed problem? It's weird that I can quickly open a large file and save revisions, etc., but I can go make tea while waiting for those thumbnails to show up.

John, I have the same problem and have 1GB RAM with 2.9GHz P4 processor (1 y.o. Gateway PC) The odd part is that if I open the same thumbs in PSP, they load much faster!

Time to upgrade the RAM?

John and Toni: Are you opening the thumbs in Adobe Bridge? I am running 1GB of RAM and 3.0 Ghz.Hyperthreaded P4 on a Dell with a RAID-0 array. Even with that, Bridge is quite slow. I think it just takes time for the program to generate the thumbs on the fly and load them into the database.

You might try defragging your your harddrive(s). The HD seek/read/write speed is the performance bottleneck on any system, so a defrag will help performance. I plan to add another GB of RAM at some point as has been suggested by Guy and Michael Gordon.

-PB

I open everything from Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, 1GB is all my computer will take, or so I've been told by Gateway. I defrag fairly often but whatever improvement there is, is not really noticeable. I want those thumbnails to jump right in there!

Preston, I open the files in PS7 and clean and defrag my HDs regularly. Once all the files in a folder have been opened, then it's not a problem....only upon opening a brand new folder which hasn't had thumbs generated yet.

I have room (two slots open right now) to add more RAM, which I may yet do before too long.

John, what individual sizes of RAM do you have right now and how many slots?

Big files will take time to be processed and the thumbs generated. More RAM will certainly help. It may also be helpful to increase the size of your Windows Paging File. Information about the paging file can be found here: The Elder Geek-Windows Paging File. This is an excellent site for all things Windows XP.

You might also consider putting .tiff files in subfolders with fewer files per folder. Each subfolder could be named using a keyword, for example "tiff_files_fauna". A folder hieracrhy might look like: C:\...\tiff_files\tff_files_fauna. A smaller number of files in a folder will take less time to process and generate the thumbs.

-PB

Thanks, Preston. I'll look into the paging file. My images are already in numerous sub folders!

I've noticed similarly slow responses from bridge when opening a folder of images for the first time as well as opening a folder that has not been viewed for a while. Thumbs of images in folders that I use regularly or have used recently snap right up. I'm assuming this has something to do with the cache in Bridge. The author of a workflow article I read sometime ago (wish I could remember where and by whom) recommended exporting the cache after the thumbs are generated for the first time. What would this do and would it create a permenent cache so that thumbs pop right up?

I have a very similar system - a Dell Dimension, 1GB RAM and a 1.8GHz P4. There are a few things I can suggest:

1) get a faster hard drive and/or drive controller - if you're using a 5400RPM drive and an older drive controller (slower than ATA/133), you're going to have some slow thumbnail generation. If you've got the expansion space, get a SATA card and a faster RPM drive for your photo work. Generating thumbnails is disk-intensive; if a disk-to-disk folder copy takes a minute, just reading the images takes at least 30 seconds. True hardware RAID arrays also help in the speed department, though you're probably space-limited with the Gateway.

2) get a faster processor, if your computer will take it; e.g. my Dell could take a 2.4GHz processor, which would help...

3) Windows caches thumbnails; if you wait for the entire folder to cache, future displays should be MUCH quicker. If not, something funky might be going on...

4) Spend some cash, get a new Intel Core Duo machine with a SATA drive included along with the newer video card you know you want anyway!