While I had no idea that Photoshop had a 3GB RAM limit, a clever user over at MacOSXHints.com has figured out a hack/solution/workaround using a RAM disk as a virtual scratch disk. Clever.
Seems Photoshop only lets one use 1GB of RAM for the application itself, and another 3GB of RAM for files. But, since Phtoshop also lets one assign scratch disks, you can set up a RAM disk as a Photoshop scratch disk with whatever available RAM you can assign to it.
RAM disks are not faster than actual RAM, but much faster than a physical hard drive according to the author of the tip. He also suggests it’s best suited for someone with 8GB or more RAM installed.
Me, I have yet to hit the ceiling as far as I can tell with the 6GB RAM installed on my MacPro. But I thought I would spread the word for those of you who might benefit from this.
Oh, and while we’re on the subject - more RAM is always better. If you are using the memory chips that shipped with your computer - Mac or PC - get more. At the very least double it. Ideally you should max it out if financially feasible. Check out a site such as DealRam to get good comparison pricing on RAM modules.
by George Coghill -
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Tags: Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, art, Creative Suite, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, Photoshop, productivity
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