I'm considering upgrading to a 64 bit system for use with CS6. I'd appreciate hearing anyone's views on how much RAM they found necessary or desirable.
I agree with John, Howard. Get as much RAM as the motherboard and chipset will support. I have 16GB on a Win 7-64 bit platform and have no issues with large (1+ GB) PSD files on CS5. My mother board will support 32 GB, so I may upgrade in the future.
RAM is only one piece of the puzzle. Two other items to consider are your hard drives and video.
Since you are looking at a new system, you might seriously consider a solid state drive (SSD) for the OS, your most used programs and working documents. It will make a big difference in performance. You might also consider a smaller SSD for your PS scratch drive, but there is a cost factor involved, here; a fast regular HD will work, if you have a decent amount of RAM.
Also take a look at video. On-board (AGP) graphics are fine, as long as you have the processor power to run it. I suugest, however, that you get a dedicated PCIe video card with a minimum of 512 MB VRAM. A 1 GB card will give better performance, especially with screen redraws of large files.
I'm using 12GB (64 bit OS of course) in a windows machine, i7 1GB video card it's a nice fast machine but I have noticed a slight slow down now with CS6. I can go to 24GB and plan on doing that just been looking and waiting on a good sale from Newegg on 24GB triple channel. So the bottom line is, as has been stated as much as your machine will handle or you can afford.
Preston - Where I work 192 GB isn't that uncommon, and the highest I've seen is a machine with 1 TB (that's right, Terabyte) of RAM. And no, it's not cheap, but it doesn't come out of my pocket!
Posted by Howard Cihak on June 14, 2012 at 8:51 PM
Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and ideas. David's breakdown of the limits of each version of Windows was especially helpful because that means I can avoid the expense of anything more than Home Premium.
Pro leaves you room to grow. The added cost over Premium is not truly significant, considering the fact that you're buying a new rig. If you go with Pro, you can spec a computer with a mother board that will handle a greater amount of RAM; up to 32 GB, or even 64 GB. That way, you'll be able to upgrade your RAM in the future without having to purchase an upgrade of Windows.
Just a thought,
--P
Posted by rob ashcroft on July 10, 2012 at 6:57 AM
I upgraded to CS6 (from CS5) last week. I have a Windows7 64bit desktop. I have noticed an improvement in performance speed of about 20%, and the graphics functions are much smoother. I find 12GB RAM is therefore OK. Another important aspect is your video card. I upgraded mine last year because version 2 of Silver Efex Pro that I loaded started running very slowly compared to version 1. A card (Radeon 5570) with 1GB RAM seems to do the trick (including CS6) but it wasn't cheap at £120.
The problem with all these minimum specs from software producers is they are just that. If you use a minimum spec machine (or even something above it) you may find that new versions of various software run like a drunk in an alley-way! But manufacturers are not going to tell you that, because they want to sell you their software. If you look at the Adobe forum, you will find several issues around CS6 performance, and I would guess that a lot of them are to do with users machines, not the software. Personally, I find CS6 is great. It's a real improvement, especially Bridge, which is now 64bit, and it just flies along. But you need a good machine spec.
That wasn't helpful at all, was it...
My System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/27/2012, 17:44:57
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire M5811
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5570
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68D9)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68D9&SUBSYS_E142174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 2761 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1006 MB
Shared Memory: 1755 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Discussion
9 repliesHere are some tips from Adobe on maximizing performance with CS6.
RAM is only one piece of the puzzle. Two other items to consider are your hard drives and video.
Since you are looking at a new system, you might seriously consider a solid state drive (SSD) for the OS, your most used programs and working documents. It will make a big difference in performance. You might also consider a smaller SSD for your PS scratch drive, but there is a cost factor involved, here; a fast regular HD will work, if you have a decent amount of RAM.
Also take a look at video. On-board (AGP) graphics are fine, as long as you have the processor power to run it. I suugest, however, that you get a dedicated PCIe video card with a minimum of 512 MB VRAM. A 1 GB card will give better performance, especially with screen redraws of large files.
The article John linked to is excellent, btw.
--P
Windows 7 Ultimate 192 GB
Windows 7 Enterprise 192 GB
Windows 7 Professional 192 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 16 GB
Windows 7 Home Basic 8 GB
You can find the limits for all versions of Windows on this page.
--P
I suggest that you go for Win 7 Pro 64-bit. Why?
Pro leaves you room to grow. The added cost over Premium is not truly significant, considering the fact that you're buying a new rig. If you go with Pro, you can spec a computer with a mother board that will handle a greater amount of RAM; up to 32 GB, or even 64 GB. That way, you'll be able to upgrade your RAM in the future without having to purchase an upgrade of Windows.
Just a thought,
--P
The problem with all these minimum specs from software producers is they are just that. If you use a minimum spec machine (or even something above it) you may find that new versions of various software run like a drunk in an alley-way! But manufacturers are not going to tell you that, because they want to sell you their software. If you look at the Adobe forum, you will find several issues around CS6 performance, and I would guess that a lot of them are to do with users machines, not the software. Personally, I find CS6 is great. It's a real improvement, especially Bridge, which is now 64bit, and it just flies along. But you need a good machine spec.
That wasn't helpful at all, was it...
My System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/27/2012, 17:44:57
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire M5811
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5570
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68D9)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68D9&SUBSYS_E142174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 2761 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1006 MB
Shared Memory: 1755 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)