mac pro - 24 gb ram vs 48 gb ram - adobe cc indesign, illustrator, photoshop, acrobat

[macspectrum]

hi

bought the 2xmac pro 6 yrs ago

1.  3 x 8gb = 24 gb ram ram - faster config as per apple

1066 mhz ecc ram ddr3

mechanical HD but pretty fast

cpu = 2.8 ghz quad core intel xenon

2..other mac pro is twin except less ram 3 x  4gb recently added 4th stick ram for new total of 16 gb

about to upgrade from macOS 10.9 to 10.10 and adobe cc 2015 to 2017

looking for an cost effective speed bump  -

higher end mac does about 50% photoshop

poorer sister does about 50% in design

would it it make sense to install the 3x8gb ram in the poorer sister and then buy/install 3 x 16 gb ram = 48 gb ram in the richer sister ?

both mac pros get more ram that way - apple had a real hard on to keep 3 sticks of ram in each mac so as to maximize performance

as always your opinions are appreciated

[KanikaS]

moving to Hardware Forum​

[macspectrum]

thx !

[RoninEdits]

adding more ram likely wont give a performance boost, unless the software is using all the available ram and there is very low or no free memory. you could check the memory usage while the programs are being used to see what the software is using for memory and how much is still available/free.

if you have the older macpro's, like the 5,1, the system used memory in groups of 3 sticks, like 3 or 6 sticks of ram. that's probably why apple wanted 3 sticks in each machine, as it would be optimal for memory performance...

[macspectrum]

apple did insist that mac pro  ram performance is best when 3 of 4 ram slots are filled with the same spec ram

apple mail, safari are also open

[macspectrum]

was hoping for more replies or a reply from adobe

called adobe tech support and after lots of wrangling they seemed very weary to offer any opinion

they kept posting over and over their link for ram for adobe cc products which 8 gb - recommended

finally they said no to bother adding more ram even for the mac that does a lot of photoshop work

since both macs have a 2nd HD for clone purpose and the 2nd drives are about 400 gb free each i  asked about creating a 'scratch disk' on the 2nd drive, to increase photoshop performance,  and they reluctantly said 'yes'

i would have thought that going from 24 gb ram to 48 gb ram was a good idea, especially for a mac that did a lot of photoshop work

[Bill_Gehrke]

That Xeon processor is puny.  The most important thing you could do to those old Mac Pro's is upgrade the CPU to a newer one with more cores and speed.

Also for a speed boost I would strongly suggest using some of the newer, faster storage devices like SSD's for all your project files.

[macspectrum]

unfortunately a cpu upgrade for both mac would be expensive

[Bill_Gehrke]

"was hoping for more replies or a reply from adobe"

This is a user to user forum and very rarely a staff member will respond.

Also this is an Adobe Premiere Pro Hardware forum so maybe you would be better off asking your Photoshop question in the Photoshop forum

[macspectrum]

the moderator moved my post here and i am asking if more ram would help speed things for adobe cc = indesign illustrator and photoshop and macOS from 10.9 to 10.11

[RoninEdits]

did you check the memory usage? how much is assigned to photoshop and how much is it using?

[macspectrum]

memory usage not checked - i just thought a ram upgrade would be a cheap way to get more performance especially considering the looming update to adobe cc 2017 and the macOS update from 10.9 to 10.11

looks like i will setup a scrtch dish disk with the other HD

[RoninEdits]

more memory doesn't necessarily make things faster, its not an instant performance boost like a faster cpu might be. think of memory more like hdd space, if there isn't enough space, then add more.

[macspectrum]

good advice

i think setting up a scratch disk on a different hd is where i should start

[Bill_Gehrke]

Going from one hard disk to another hard disk is a loosing performance solution

[macspectrum]

u are saying that setting up a scratch disk on a mac pro that already has 2 drives in it, is not good ?

the 2nd internal hd is there for clone/backup purposes

[RoninEdits]

placing the cache on the second hdd might help some as it wouldn't have to compete with the operating system and programs activity on the first hdd. if you want to get into ssd's, OWC sells a pcie adapter that holds a sata ssd, to allow it to run at full speed.

[macspectrum]

plus that change of scratch disk to the 'clone' drive is free

[Bill_Gehrke]

If you are looking for a "speed bump" you will not see it without a drastic change.  I took a look at Mac Pro 2010 model, apparently you can add more drives if yours only has two.  Unfortunately the ports are SATA II 3Gbits/second and Your PCIe bus is Gen 2 and you only have USB 2 ports.  That really hurts your expansion capabilities

[macspectrum]

from apple; hd = 1TB Serial ATA (3Gb/s); 7200 rpm

=========================================

i added a 2nd hd [serial ATA] for smart auto 'clone' purposes - once per day - takes about 15 min @ 1 pm

i will publish specs later tomorrow

don't u think there's any use telling photoshop that the scratch disk is not on the internal 'boot' drive but instead on the internal 'clone' drive ?

the 'clone' drive is not as fast as the 'boot' drive but i stalled it for 'clone' purposes only - the clone drive is 7200 rpm

thx for your reply

[macspectrum]

just ran blackmagic hard disk test

mac pro 1 w/ 16 gb ram

boot drive

mac pro 1 -

clone drive

============================

mac pro 2 w/ 24 gb ram

boot drive

mac pro 2 -

clone drive

is putting the scratch disk on the 'clone drive' helpful ?

[RoninEdits]

those speeds are pretty low, even for hdd, so its very likely it would help. you can always test it and if its performing any worse just switch it back...

[macspectrum]

more ram would help ?

or

changing the scratch disk to the 'clone' drive ?

[RoninEdits]

this convo is going in circles...