To Increase Ram Or Not To Increase Ram....

[smoke665]

That is the question???? Current laptop is an Intel I5 processor at 1.6 ghz, with 8 gb of ram. It will handle up to 16 gb which is what I'm considering. My son the resident family IT expert, seems to think I won't see any significant improvement in speed of LR or PS, and I should just put the money toward a new laptop which is also a possibility, but the ram upgrade is pretty cheap compared to a new unit (and I could put the money on more photography gear). So what say others?

 

[JonA_CT]

Not an IT guy , but my brother is, and he said the same thing when I was discussing building an editing desktop. He suggested that a solid state drive, good graphics card, and processor speed would be the place to invest the most money.

 

[Overread]

If you check the performance whilst running the software then unless your RAM is fully in use you might not see a huge performance increase.

Otherwise as said above you want a better processor and graphics card - a solid state drive helps too with loading times (you'd install the software on the SSD drive but have the photos in a regular drive)

 

[dxqcanada]

What specific model is your laptop ?

 

[smoke665]

Dell Inspirion

 

[dxqcanada]

model number should be printed somewhere on the bottom ...

 

[smoke665]

model number should be printed somewhere on the bottom ...

Sorry, it's an Inspirion 5558

 

[dxqcanada]

Processor
Intel Core i5-5200U
Graphics adapter
NVIDIA GeForce 920M - 4096 MB, Core: 954 MHz, Memory: 900 MHz, DDR3, ForceWare 353.30 (10.18.13.5330), Optimus
Memory
8192 MB, DDR3-1600, dual-channel, two memory banks (filled)
Display
15.6 inch 16:9, 1920x1080 pixel, LG Philips 156WF6, IPS, glossy: no
Mainboard
Intel Broadwell-U PCH-LP (Premium)
Storage
Toshiba MQ01ABD100, 1000 GB , 5400 rpm

 

[smoke665]

@dxqcanada okay I know all that already??? Your point is?

 

[dxqcanada]

Sorry, I didn't get time to write anything ... and I thought others should know what you got in it before commenting

Optimize performance Photoshop CC
PS by default will use up to 70% of RAM ... so if your laptop is always showing max usage, then a memory upgrade would help.
I don't think your graphics card is upgradable ... which is typical for a laptop.
A solid state drive typically will add performance to most systems.

 

[smoke665]

I don't think your graphics card is upgradable ... which is typical for a laptop.
A solid state drive typically will add performance to most systems.

In this model the graphics card is an Intel HD 6000, which supposedly is compatible with LR and PS but for some reason LR will kick out the "use graphics processor" on boot up, but I can go in preferences and check it, everything works fine. PS uses it with no problem. Went back to the log, it's failing on something (can't remember now, and haven't had time to sort it out)

 

[dxqcanada]

It should have two graphics cards ... the integrated Intel and a discrete Nvidia
Hmm, maybe check to see if there is an updated Nvidia driver for the graphics card ... also check the Nvidia control panel to see if it has a setting to enable it for usage for LR and PS (I think).

 

[dxqcanada]

Hmm, I think the Nvidia control panel option is for 3D ... so my suggestion there would not apply.

 

[snowbear]

I thought this thread was going to be about expanding a sheep farm.

RAM may not speed things up, but it would help running additional apps at the same time. For example, my cheap@$$-no-memory laptop will run Chrome and (Lightroom or Photoshop) but has a problem with all three at the same time. My last panorama had to be assembled in stages because it will only process a few of these larger D750 images at a time.

 

[Fstop-]

You should be able to buy another 8G of RAM for $50. or under, it should speed it up a little.

I just put 8G of RAM on top of 8G of existing RAM in two lenovos it helped quite a bit. cost about $40. each took. 10 mins to install.