Photoshop CC Ram Errors

[Appylon]

Hi,

- First the problem(s): Using Photoshop CC has revealed new issues I never had with CS4 with Ram running out preventing any actions. This happens no matter what the image resolution is, small or large, and once it happens I literally cant edit or save the project.

(This is from a google search to show the pop up. I do not have a Mac - but the error is identical)

This error or notice pops up whenever I try to save, use a brush etc. Even if I flatten my document down into one layer and change the image size to something smaller it wont let me save it. It wont even let me take a Print Screen screenshot. My only option is Snipping Tool to save what I have worked on.

- I have gone in and made sure to adjust the amount of available ram that photoshop uses and have played with the values in many ways but it has never had any real affect (Except for bad when I put it too high or low). The ram error eventually pops up after a couple hours of painting.

- These are my current settings. As you can see I only have the one default C drive sitting at around 180 free gigs. I do not know if this is enough but I have heard as long as I have at least 60 gigs available Photoshop should be able to run pretty well.

- Specs:

Other issues that may or may not be related to the problem:

- Photoshop takes about 1-2 minutes to open up after a computer reboot and another couple minutes to open any document of any size.

- OpenGL will randomly shut off after a few hours of painting. The only way to turn it back on is for a full comp restart

- System lags more and more as I Livestream paintings. It starts out OK but it becomes unworkable in under 2 hours - even small resolution sizes get unbearable.

- Color picker starts to lag when I select colors. Eyedropping takes a second or two while pressing default hotkey 'Alt' for it to identify colors.

- Just overall slowdown until it finally says that Ram is depleted.

My solutions:

- Buy a SSD and put photoshop and windows on it. ( I do not know where to even begin looking for good solid state drives)

- Remove my Addons/ Extensions. I use 'PaintersWheel' which isnt optimized for CC yet but seems to work. But when the lag starts to hit the wheel gets much worse and is almost unusuable.

What else is my computer running when the issue occurs?:

- Sometimes nothing but Photoshop CC

- Google Chrome with multiple tabs

- Skype (I hear this can a system hog?)

- When livestreaming, Open Broadcasting Software (32bit) for Twitch.

My computer should be able to handle three things, right?

That's all I have. I do not know how to specifically target the issue anymore. Is there a memory leak? Does my computer have some weird virus or malware? I upgraded from CS4 and had none of these issues a few months ago. Now tha I upgraded to CC these things are taking a toll on my work habits.

I have seen other posts about this same issue and have tried addressing it the ways people suggested but I have had no luck (most deal with allocating more/less space to photoshop). What it seems to come down to is I simply 'have something wrong with my computer.' That isnt a very good answer for someone that isn't that computer literate.

Thanks in advance!

Scott

[JJMack]

Try running the 64Bit version of Photoshop and increase the amount of RAM Photoshop can use to 6GB  you can also increase the amount of RAM your letting Photoshop use in the 32bit version of Photoshop you running to 100% so Photoshop can use 3GB not the 1.7GB you limited it to.

You load time problem is most likely do to what you added to Photoshop third party Plug-ins large textures patterns, bad fonts etc. Photoshop should take less the 30 seconds to load on your machine.

A faster hard disk will help. SDD as your you boot device will help a greatly.

Even though my boot device is a sdd it takes quite a while for my machine to boot because of all the checks the Bios and disk controller do during bootup. Still SDD perdormance shows 7.9 out of 7.9.

[Appylon]

Thanks JJ,

Yeah I definitely have too many fonts, roughly 2,500. While trying to remove them kept saying that they were in use, even though no other programs were open. I don't really know how to fix this issue, research says I should find a font manager. I have now shifted over to trying to use 64Bit instead of 32Bit for PSCC and have adjusted the amount of allocated memory to 6 gigs. I will update if I run into ram problems again.

[JJMack]

There is a Photoshop Font test script that you can run to find out if any of your installed fonts are bad. Start it and take a coffee brake it will take a very loooooong time to run with the many fonts installed.....

Also try renaming your Photoshop Preferences Folder and remove all installed third party Plug-ins. See if Photoshop startup is under 30 seconds. Something is causing a problem on your system.

[Appylon]

Thank you again JJ,

I downloaded NexusFont that let me scroll through the whole font folder and I managed to reduce my total by around 2.1k without turning my computer into a vegetable. Now PSCC opens up much faster and the text tool doesnt take a year to open. As I said I have switched over to 64Bit and changed the RAM to 6 gigs. I will post again if I get that RAM warning after I work it for a few hours. Really appreciate your feedback man!

Scott

[Guest]

If you buy a font manager be aware this may not solve all the problems, check out reviews first.  Suitcase as been known to cause problems just like a bad font.

[Appylon]

Sorry to bug again, I have not had the ram error pop up, but the intense slow down is still occurring after a few hours of painting. I am not painting at super resolution sizes, right now roughly 3k x 2k at 72 dpi (really not that big in terms of paintings.)

I was able to capture the processing memory before on the task manager before I restarted my computer. Hopefully these images are clearer when I post them...

I Kept painting and by the time I decided I should restart it was sitting at 7 million. Even after I closed all of the files and it was simply photoshop running the amoutn of memory it was soaking up seems high.

After restarting I opened it up fresh and loaded in the same image I had been working on and it leveled out at a much lower number. 450k

I dont know why there is such a difference in memory size. It is like it keeps the memory running for every image I had opened up even if I close it. After shutting down photoshop, I noticed that it was still running in the processes in the background for another several minutes. I tried to end the process manually but it rejected it saying that wasn't allowed.

Is this normal photoshop behavior?

[Guest]

Photoshop does hold on to memory up to the allocated limit.  It will release it to other programs if requested and not in use.

THe memory held is the amount PS determins it needs to work on image(s).  That depends on image size, history, layers, etc. 

You can click on Edit/Purge and dump it to see it that helps when you start seeing a slowdown.

You might benefit from reading through this doc on optimizing performance.  http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html

[Appylon]

Thanks Curt! I know other programs have a delete history but I never knew photoshop had one tucked away in Purge. That is very helpful. I will immediatwly and look into the optimization process with the link you sent, thanks bud!

[Dre_Morningstar]

Purge fixed mine! Thank you so much!!! Give this man a gold star.

[JJMack]

Appylon wrote:

Sorry to bug again, I have not had the ram error pop up, but the intense slow down is still occurring after a few hours of painting. I am not painting at super resolution sizes, right now roughly 3k x 2k at 72 dpi (really not that big in terms of paintings.)

You need to describe what you mean by "the intense slow down".   You Also need to understand some process can not use parallel processing for the function required a sequence of steps. When a steps depend of prior step results you can not perform the steps at the same time. Here processor speed is what is important having many cores to support multiple treads is meaningless when a sequential process is required to implement a function. For example when you paint with a wet mixer brush you will notice a time lag between your stroke and the stroke appearing on your display. And you will see this latency increase when you increase the brush tip size. If you make rapit quick brush strokes  with a large tip mixer brush you can allmost see Photoshop picking up and laying down pixels.