Allocating Memory | Photoshop CS Savvy

New

Processing graphics files requires large amounts of memory. Photoshop is a memory hog, so the often asked question, How much memory do you need to best operate Photoshop? is easily answered with another question: How much memory can you afford? The minimum hardware and software requirements for running Photoshop are as follows :

Mac OS 10.2.4, 10.2.5, 10.2.6:

PowerPC processor (G3, G4, or G5)
192 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
320 MB of available hard-disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit or greater video card
1024 —768 or greater monitor resolution
CD-ROM drive

Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3, or Windows XP:

Intel Pentium class III or 4 processor
192 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
280 MB of available hard-disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit or greater video card
1024 —768 or greater monitor resolution
CD-ROM drive

Adobe s minimum requirement of 192 MB of RAM is enough to launch and run the program, but its performance will be clunky . Purchase and install as much memory as you can. After you ve installed the memory, be sure to allocate it to Photoshop, using the following procedure.

To allocate memory, follow these steps:

With Photoshop running, in Mac OS X choose Photoshop ’ Preferences ’ Memory & Image Cache (bringing up the dialog box shown in Figure 5.2); in Windows, choose Edit ’ Preferences ’ Memory & Image Cache.

Figure 5.2: The Memory & Image Cache preferences in Mac OS X
In the Maximum Used By Photoshop field, enter the proportion of available memory you want to dedicate to Photoshop. The 50% default setting is a good beginning for operating the software.
During a Photoshop work session, if the Efficiency setting (in the status bar at the bottom of the window) ever drops below 100%, increase the percentage of memory by 10% increments until the efficiency remains at the maximum 100%.
After you reset the memory allocation, you must quit and relaunch the program for the change to take effect.