Computer: Speed diff between Dual and Quad core MacPro

[jimgolden]

Hey all - I'm currently on a MacPro Dual core 2.66 (the original mac pro) 8 GB ram, 10k RPM scratch, 10k RPM drives all around. I work mainly in PS w/ large layered files (50-100+ layers) 2GB-3GB working PSDs. My question - does anyone have experience in heavy compositing PS work that has made the jump to the newer 8 Core machines? Is there a huge speed gain? worth spending 5k?

[pixelzombie]

i am on a MP Dual quad core machine, my previous machine was a dual core with 13 gigs of ram..i can't say it's twice as fast but you can definitely see a speed difference when converting to profile on large files...

[jimgolden]

what about, say, an image size on a large file w/ 20 layers? or running a radial blur or lens blur? Is photoshop able to address more RAM than 3 GB (ie 64 bit processing, etc)?

[pixelzombie]

PS is still limited to 3 GB of ram, i can run a speed test if you'd like...

[jimgolden]

hey thanks for your offer and info...i found someone locally with roughly the same setup I'm looking @ who was willing to let me try some stuff on one of my working files - basically a "dream" test scenario...

[Markzebra]

jim - if you are experiencing what you perceive to be speed problems on your machine, its more likely to be something to do with your setup -

• do you have your photoshop memory usage set to 100%? you should have
• do you have enough free space on your hard drive for proper operation?
• do you have an external scratch disk set up? (this also has to be specified correctly in preferences) this is not as essential as it once was, but it can still improve things
• Is your installed 8 Gig of RAM actually working correctly?

The way Photoshop is designed it can make use of multicores to a point - You are not likely to see enough of a speed improvement AT PRESENT to justify the expenditure. Dont be mislead into thinking that its worth it unless you have checked what I mention above.

[jimgolden]

hey mark - thx for input. RAM works fine and allocation is 100%. I have a 250GB 10k RPM scratch that is spec'd correctly in Pshop. free space on HDD that pshop resides on is 37GB, what I would think is adequate. I performed the tests I was looking for on a similar configured 8core machine and was less than impressed...speed gains were noticeable, but weren't that great IMHO. I've been a retoucher for 15 years and have been thru many, many different techniques to improve the speed of Pshop on a mac, but alas I feel we are beholden to adobe and the hardware...I'll update if I find out any tips/info

[pixelzombie]

have you activated the The Bigger Tiles plug-in?

[Markzebra]

"I work mainly in PS w/ large layered files (50-100+ layers) - sometimes thats necessary, but generally it isn't. Its now possible with the Smart Object to have different areas of the file portioned off into sub sections. If its practical this can speed things up hugely, because photoshop holds only active pixels in RAM. There are also the older methods of MERGING ANY STUFF YOU DON"T NEED, and DUMPING THE CRAP of course

[Kraellin]

ok, i'm going to steer you towards something i've been hearing a lot about lately. i have NO personal, first hand experience with this fairly new technology, but i've talked to one dealer, a mac salesman, who was talking about this as the next wave ram/harddrive big thing.

these are not ram. they are ram being used as harddrives. so, they function like a harddrive, but with the speed of ram. it's called a ramdisk. but, it's not the old software type of ramdisk. this is a hardware type.

here's a link to one such piece of hardware: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2180

i make no warranty that this will help you at all. like i said, i've only heard talk about this so far. and the talk i heard from the mac salesman was for a much larger version than what i'm linking to here, but this might get you started looking at other hardware options to speed up your large file workflow.

and as a final note, you're going to be seeing machines with MUCH more ram capability and more use of ramdisks or large sizes and instant on machines, as well, coming in the fairly near future. in fact, i've heard, if you have enough money, you can get some of those items now. so, this is definitely going to be an area of interest to those working with large files. so, start those search engines and please, post whatever you find here on RP.