5 Replies Latest reply: Dec 10, 2008 1:23 PM by Ramón G Castañeda RSS

    Not enough ram?

    Community Member
    (steve_peters) Dec 9, 2008 4:28 PM
      I am using CS4 on a 8 Core 3ghz Mac Pro with 16gb ram and a scratch disk consisting of 6 x 36gb Cheetah 15k III's striped in a RAID 0. I have my ram set 100%, cache 4 and 40 history states. I have been using CS4 for a couple of weeks and I have been getting this error message " Could not complete your request because there is not enough memory". This happens on files that are only around 60gb with about 5-7 layers. It will happen with the quick mask selection tool or when I try to use content aware scaling or even open up a camera raw smart object. I have tried trashing the preferences but that has not fixed the issue. I don't have this issue with CS3. Anyone else run into this issue with CS4?
      Thanks,
      Steve
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        • 1. Re: Not enough ram?
          Ann Shelbourne Community Member
          Ann Shelbourne Dec 9, 2008 4:45 PM (in response to (steve_peters))
          >This happens on files that are only around 60gb with about 5-7 layers.

          I am guessing that you don't really mean 60 GB ?!

          Have you tried putting your Scratch on a separate partition on a single (non-RAID) internal HD?

          And even though you have 16GB of RAM, you might try turning back the memory allocation in Photoshop to 90%
          • 2. Re: Not enough ram?
            PECourtejoie CommunityMVP
            PECourtejoie Dec 10, 2008 4:37 AM (in response to (steve_peters))
            Try less ram allocation.
            • 3. Re: Not enough ram?
              Ramón G Castañeda Community Member
              Ramón G Castañeda Dec 10, 2008 5:57 AM (in response to (steve_peters))
              Both Ann and Pierre are right. Lower the RAM allowance.

              If you get used to think of it in terms of memory allowance, which it is, rather than RAM allocation, which it is not, it will be easier to remember that it represent the maximum amount of available memory that is left after the OS and other running applications and processes have grabbed whatever memory they need.

              Setting at 90%, you're still allowing Photoshop to access well over 10, 12 or more GB of RAM, more than it can actually use. But you're not "allocating" or "reserving" any amount of RAM, you're only telling Photoshop not to use more than 90% of whatever is available at any given time.

              Surely you agree that's reasonable?
              • 4. Re: Not enough ram?
                Community Member
                (steve_peters) Dec 10, 2008 1:21 PM (in response to (steve_peters))
                Thanks all, lowering the ram allocation has seemed to work so far. Is CS4 using ram differently than CS3? I have seen test's showing that if you have over 4gb of ram you should have it at 100%, and I have had my CS3 set to that since it first came out and I never had this issue even working on files that are over 1gb. Oh ya, Ann is correct, my first post should have said 60mb not gb.
                Thanks,
                Steve
                • 5. Re: Not enough ram?
                  Ramón G Castañeda Community Member
                  Ramón G Castañeda Dec 10, 2008 1:23 PM (in response to (steve_peters))
                  >Is CS4 using ram differently than CS3?

                  No.

                  >I have seen test's showing that if you have over 4gb of ram you should have it at 100%

                  Probably misconstrued them, or they're recommending bull.