virtual memory and cs3

sage95 · Jul 21, 2007

When I try to do a photomerge in cs3 I get a warning that there is not enough virtual memory. I am guessing that this is refering to RAM and I have one gig. This computer used to perform the function but I hadn't tried in a few months. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Digital Matt · Jul 21, 2007

Photoshop is indeed a ram intensive program, but no amount of ram will ever be enough. Photoshop, like your operating system, needs a scratch disk, or a location on the hard disk were it can write temporary files when the ram is full. If you have photoshop installed on your C: drive, and your scratch disk set to your C: drive, along with your Windows (assuming PC here) virtual memory also using this drive, you may quickly run out of space. The best thing you can do is use a second hard drive for your photoshop scratch disk. If this is impossible, always make sure you have several gigs of free space on your C: drive. Filling up your desktop with downloads and such quickly eats up available space so be careful.

Garbz · Jul 22, 2007

Scratch in photoshop may be different than virtual memory. Where did you get the error? In photoshop or in a windows tooltip saying virtual memory too low? The former means your scratchdrive is possibly full, the latter means that your system memory (windows RAM + page file) is too small, and can be fixed by right clicking my computer -> properties, and working through the performance tab to get to virtual memory settings.

sage95 · Jul 22, 2007

Thanks for the tip. I am pretty sure it was a photoshop error. How do I set the scratch disk, and can it be an external hardrive?

glaston · Jul 22, 2007

In the photoshop menu, go>preferences>plugins and scratchdisks

It CAN be an external drive but it's best if it's either a seperate physical disk or partition.
Speed can be a problem at times if the ext. disk isn't fast enough.
If it's a firewire disk that shouldn't be the case, and in many cases it won't be a problem if it's a USB2.0 disk. But it COULD cause a slowdown. Especially if other things are reading or writing to the same HD.