Will 32GB RAM have noticeable benefit compared to 16GB?

[JRP_Photo]

Will 32GB RAM have noticeable benefit compared to 16GB?  Reason I'm asking is that I've just built a new PC: 3770K, 32GB RAM, SSD for OS and programs, SSD for scratch, Caviar Black for storage, etc but unfortunately Windows 7 Home Premium only allows 16GB RAM!  I have Windows 8 Pro which I could install giving me access to full 32GB but only really want to do this if 32GB will offer tangible benefit to Photoshop. 

Would love to hear from those that actually have upgraded from 16GB to 32GB.  Thx!

[Guest]

For a meaningful answer you probably need to give more details of what type of high demand PS jobs you will be doing.  For run of the mill operations it will probably make no difference.

[JRP_Photo]

In response to Curt: Large multi-layer TIFFs.  Several images open at one time.  Several iterations of filters which take several seconds to run each.  60 history states saved.  1 hour editing per image.  Hopefully that gives you some idea.

[Guest]

You could also upgrade to Win 7 Professional if you want to say away from Win 8's new look.  Win 7 Professional will accept up to 192 gigs.

[JRP_Photo]

Just expanding this a little then...

I've been using Windows 8 on my laptop for several months and whilst I prefer Windows 7 interface (no question), Windows 8 has been fine as far as performance is concerned. Whilst not ideal I could probably handle it on my desktop!

Anyone out there installed Windows 8 and had any issues with CS6, LR or associated plugins?  Everything else I use my desktop for should be fine, with the possible exception of my printer (which actually does have W8 drivers out so fingers crossed). 

[Guest]

The major problem with Win 8 is GPU drivers for older cards. 

[Noel Carboni]

I would say so.  My last workstation, up through September, had 16 GB RAM.  My replacement has 48 GB.

With an SSD on the job for scratch disk usage, you won't feel it "go virtual" nearly as much (I have an SSD array), but having gobs of spare RAM means you can do reeeeally big stuff and the system just takes it in stride.

I don't know whether you can use it, but if you have a choice I recommend ECC RAM, as it will correct errors or at least let you know (through the BIOS) if there's an uncorrectable one.  I would never have another system without ECC myself.  EDIT:  I see you already have the RAM.  Never mind. 

-Noel

P.S., I keep 100 History states.

[JRP_Photo]

Thanks Noel.  I'm not a big fan of Windows 8, but I might have to give it a go to unleash that extra 16GB!  (I already have a W8 licence I can use so don't really want to purchase W7 Pro).

[Noel Carboni]

I fully understand not wanting to spend more money, but Windows 8 is really that bad that you might want to consider it.

I'm a career software engineer and an incurable technophile, and as such I've always been an early adopter.

I have been running every preview version of Windows 8 in virtual machines, and I presently have the Windows 8 Enterprise release running that way, but I refuse to upgrade my host workstation from Windows 7 Ultimate simply because Windows 8 represents a tangible reduction in usability.  And you should know I've written the book on this (literally ).

EVEN IF it were perfect, which it is not (there are many driver problems still), I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 8.  That Microsoft chose to degrade the desktop user experience is the prime reason.   Is it something you could get used to?  Possibly.  Are there compelling reasons to do so?  Not that I can see.

In your case, the additional memory access may well be that compelling reason.  If you do choose to upgrade, have a look at my book.  Lots of helpful info on making it lean and stable in there, as well as making the desktop a more productive environment by restoring some of the things Microsoft degraded.

-Noel

[Noel Carboni]

By the way, Windows 8 isn't mature yet, so you might take on new problems by upgrading.

Can you upgrade your Windows 7 still via Windows Anytime Upgrade.  I would recommend that rather than moving to Windows 8, to be honest.

-Noel

[bekiil]

From what i have read in reviews and on various forums, sell the windows 8 license and get windows 7 pro!.

[JRP_Photo]

Bekiil: The W8 Pro licence was only $40 - To buy W7 Pro upgrade it is ~$140, so prefer not to spend even more money!

Anyway, I decided to bite the bullet and install Window 8.  After doing a clean install it booted up fine.  I installed drivers for my graphics card and printer.  Manually installing the printer drivers was the most challenging part, but once I'd worked out where the relevent dialogue boxes were hidded on W8, it actually worked without a hitch.  Configured the W8 appearence so the new Start/Metro page looks more integrated with the desktop and then installed Design/Web Premium CS6 and MS Office.  So far everything is fine - very snappy/responsive (although I didn't play with it much). 

I'll install Lightroom, plug-ings, etc tonight and test things out.  But so far so good.  I think the UI will grow on me a little and there are some aspects which are better than W7, so we'll see.

[JRP_Photo]

Just thought I'd report back with my experience in case anyone is thinking of using Widows 8.

I was very against W8 based on my experience on a laptop (where I've been using it for 4 months).  However, I've had it installed on my destop now for a week and I think it is excellent.  I thought originally it was very biased to tablets, but  I have a dual 30" monitor set up and it works a dream.  Only issue I have is that one of my Nik filters (Dfine 2.0) casues PShop to crash when I use it, but other than that it is a very pleasent, if somewhat unexpected, user experience.

BTW - not sure about others experience with Nik, but they have been very unhelpful in resolving this issue, despite me owning all their filters.  Hoping this isn't indicitive of Google winding it down...

[Noel Carboni]

Thanks for your follow-up, JRP.  It's always good to hear when people have good experiences with something that's getting bad press.

Out of curiosity, do you tend to use one app at a time (e.g., Photoshop) or do you do a lot of multitasking where you plaster multiple windows all over those big beautiful screens?  My observation is that people who tend to concentrate on one task at a time tend to like Windows 8 better than those who do more multi-window operations.

One of my big complaints with Windows 8 is the loss of the Aero Glass effects (including drop shadows) that help differentiate windows from one another.

I'm guessing you have a nVidia graphics card.  ATI has not yet resolved some of the big problems with their drivers in Windows 8.

I'll bet you're really enjoying that system.  The i7-3770K is a great performer.

-Noel

[JRP_Photo]

Hi Noel,

I usually have quite a few windows open.  At the moment (which is probably fairly typical) I have Lightroom, Photoshop, 10 tabs in Firefox, Outlook and Mediamonkey (mp3 player).  One of the little things I like about Windows 8 in a dual monitor setup is that the task bar on both monitors display open apps and those pinned there.  With Windows 7 only the main monitor got them.  Also the new start window (which started life as 'metro') only displays on one monitor so the other monitor still shows apps/desktop. 

Overall, I would say it is a better user experience, performance seems very good and start up time is improved.  Just another example of the difference betweem W7 and W8: I have a Logitec surround system that used to be a real pain everytime I did a fresh install of W7.  I'd have to install drivers manually and then mess around with settings for quitte a while before it would work.  It was a common complaint on the Logitech user forums.  When I installed W8, the system worked flawlessly - I installed no drivers or did anything.  I was amazed!

And yes, I have a GeForce (570) so can't comment on other CARDs.  When I first installed W7 with the card I had to manually install the right graphics driver.  With W8 it seemed to find them automaticaly and it booted straight up without a problem.  I did however then proceed to get the latest drivers from Nvidea and do a manual driver install just in case.

And unless there is some technical reason preventing it, I bet Aero will return to W8 in an update - many people have commented on that. 

[Noel Carboni]

I've done a fair bit of controlled testing...  Windows 8 is some 30% faster to boot up, because it runs less stuff out of the chute, but for for all other things it's about the same as doing a fresh install of Windows 7.  There aren't big differences in performance - for some things it's a little faster and others it's actually a little slower.

-Noel