I think I saw something about 17.1.1 being better at managing layer count, and especially Smart objects in the Info Panel, but I can't find that reference now. The Info Panel Options has a check box for Smart Objects, but they don't appear to be listed in the Info panel.
I came to this after reading the How to Manage Large Composites thread, and remembering the new Info panel capability opened a large project that has half a dozen SOs to see if I was now getting a more accurate layer count. It didn't look like it. So I tested with a new document with five assorted layers, and grouped three of them as an SO and the layer count reduced to three. Having a better idea of layer count — including nested SOs — is something that would be useful; to me, so I'd be interested if anyone has got a handle on this.
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Thanks guys. JJ, yes I'd used the layer panel filters which work fine, but I was hoping that the 'improved' handling of Smart Objects in the info panel would give me a true layer count. Dave, the large project I tested this with did indeed have an unlinked SO, but I could still see nothing in the Info panel.
For a while now I have suspected that my system boggs down when I use a lot of SOs. Especially if they are nested. I was going to build a new system back in January, but had to postpone because of family problems in the UK. That situation is resolved now, so I have started researching a new build all over again. Looking at my current system that has a 3930K that still scores OK on PassMark, I was thinking where the bottleneck might be, and got quite a shock when looking at the RAM on CPU-Z. The MB is a Gigabyte X79-UD5, and while its DIM slots are slow by today's standards it should still run memory up to 2400Mhz:
I am not flash at this stuff, so I don't know whether to take that 666.5Mhz at face value, or if the four channel architecture doubles that to a still miserable 1300Mhz
So my thoughts are that slow memory is slowing my system down because of the way SOs are stored and handled. This is pure supposition mind you, although Chris Cox did tell us, some years ago, that memory speed was the biggest bottleneck at that time. This lag with SOs is more apparent with illustrations than with purely raster photographic projects I'm thinking. You might remember I asked for help when that watch project caused so much lag I had to give up on it!
So time to put that to rights with a new build. I'd like to stretch to a 6900K, but that is NZ$1500 all by itself, but it has a 50% score advantage over my 3930K on PassMark, so I might bite the bullet and get out my credit card.
Hi Trevor
Yes you double the frequency shown (DDR - Double Data Rate).
It sounds like we have very similar systems at present. 3930K on an ASUS p9X79Pro with 64GB RAM (1800Mhz)
On the nested Smart objects causing big delays, I wonder if you could do something similar to the action we can take in 3D programs i.e. bake certain elements of the render so that the whole thing is not being recalculated live. I suppose the equivalent may be merge to a new layer then turn off the SOs temporarily? Just a thought .
Dave
RAM can play a part it if but I do not think smart Object layers would add that more overhead then a normal pixel layer unless you have a lot of smart filters on the Smart object layers. Each filter causes the layer to be process an additional time. My Processors are slow 2GHZ so my 1600 ECC RAM 40GB runs I believe at 1333 I also think their may be different number of memory buses depending on the number of RAM slots used I have 4 8GB and 2 2GB. The Number of Processors may also help with some filters. I have 2 2GHZ Xeon Processors with six cores so up to 24 threads can be running. I do not consider my machine to be slow however, I do not use many smart filters and it very rare for me to have more that 50 layers. 10 layers more my speed. My cameras 1D MK2 8MP 1D MK4 16MP 16bit mode. I consider myself to be slower and slower.
My RAM is quite like yours but a little slower
I went for slower cheaper Dual Xeons back when now PassMark show i7-6900k 3.2GHZ mark 18,028 @ $995USD slower Dual Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHZ mark 18,305 @ $360USD little more than a third of the cost of the I7-6900K the mother would more expressive and require more power I would think myself I buy refurbished Dell workstation the come in working order with three ear service OS installed.
| Intel Core i7-6900K @ 3.20GHz | 18,028 | $994.99 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 @ 2.70GHz | 18,346 | $480.00 |
| [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2670 @ 2.60GHz | 18,305 | $360.00 |
Hi Trevor - I built this system in 2013. The 3930K is mildly overclocked to 3.8GHz and the memory running at 1800MHz.
It still proves capable. The operating system and applications are on an SSD everything else is spread across spinning drives (3 x 2TB).
For Photoshop I wonder if the biggest block is the video card and VRAM. At the time I went for an AMD HD7970 DC2T 3GD5 which has 3GB of VRAM. To be honest I chose it for its capability to run multiple monitors (I have three installed but it will run 6). If was building now ( or upgrading) I would probably look at an NVidia Quadro - according to internet lore 
many of the 3D progams seem to want to NVidia.
Dave
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