Photoshop light room

[bratkinson]

As well documented in the preceding responses, 4GB is sufficient to run Lightroom.

The issue comes down to 'how fast is fast enough?' Some users are happy to take a break while the computer imports 100 raw images and then come back and for a fair number of changes made to each photo, wait a second or two while the computer processes each change. The problem comes when there's perhaps 10-15 'adjustments' to be made to each photo with a second or two wait for each one to complete, and then repeat that with a 100 photos. Yes, there are a good number of preprogrammed steps that can be downloaded from the web to save much of the repetition, but it still takes time to run.

As well documented by Tim Campbell, when Lightroom or any other program runs out of physical RAM space to store program code and/or data, it must start swapping out 'pages' (aka, 2K and larger chunks) of RAM to the hard drive to be able to put the next 'chunk' of instructions into RAM to execute. Each time a 'swap out' has to be made, Lightroom processing must wait, the computer has to 'find' a spot on the hard drive (via its directory and internal tables), wait while the hard drive moves the access arm to the correct cylinder (with tracks on each side of the platters at that point), wait for the drive to spin to bring the correct spot under the write head, and write the data. Yes, it's only milliseconds these days, but they add up quickly.

So, one of the easiest and most 'painless' way to speed things up is get more RAM. If you do, be sure to get the right type and speed. These days there's PC 1600, PC 1866, PC 2133, etc RAM. It may also be labelled PC3-12800, PC3-14900, etc. If adding RAM, it's essential to get the right speed. Mixing slow RAM in your computer will result in everything running slower because it has to wait longer to store and fetch instructions and/or data from the RAM (yes, it's only milliseconds, but it adds up). As mentioned before, more RAM is a cheap solution. Because I sometimes scan a large number of slides and then have to 'clean them up' with Lightroom, I've opted for 16GB RAM to further reduce the swapping/paging to the hard drive.

Like Tim, I've also put Windows itself and most of my programs and their related swap areas and work areas on SSD. My photos are on SSD while I am processing a full shoot or bunch of slides. That way, all input/output activity goes to the fastest 'drive' on my computer...the one that is simply a giant chunk of RAM that 'imitates' being a hard drive, but considerably faster. I just checked, Amazon has 250GB SSD drives for less than $80. The price keeps getting lower as higher capacity drives become available. $350 will get you a 1TB SSD, but in my opinion, that's wasted money for simple long-term storage needs. I've had the same 128GB SSD for the last 3 years and by simply moving everything I don't need in the next 30 days or so to a large, slow hard drive, I've never used more than about 60% of the space on the SSD except once, while processing a 5 day 'shoot' at church.

Lastly, not mentioned previously is processor speed. In ten words or less, get the fastest processor with the most cores as possible. Lightroom and almost all other software products will use as many processors (cores) as there are on the computer to perform asynchronous thread processing. How the programs keep track of what they're doing is a lengthy discussion best found on various computer forums. 4 cores is good...6 is better...8 is best. Of course the faster the processor and more cores adds to the cost.

Hopefully all this talk hasn't scared you. Start where you can, learn what you have, and upgrade only what and when you have to at a cost you can afford. The same rule applies to your camera gear as well.

 

[Seventen]

It will run fine with 4gig Ram in fact I am running 8 gig ram but my issue is the HDD is slowing down the processing side of things. I am using a gaming spec laptop and am watching the performance of the laptop, Ram rarely uses more than 60% that is with other applications open too, processing power rarely raises over 8% but the HDD hits 100% all the time even though there is nothing else open and is especially a problem when doing the Lightroom Panorama or HDR merge options.

So before upgrading to 8 gig check to see if it is really needed, could be worth while opting for a faster HDD or SSD drive.

 

[OGsPhotography]

Which lens specifically Derrel? Trollolol lol lol la la la la. Sing it.

And I disagree with all the posts here. Check adobe website. You can actually run it for free ( Lr) for a month see if the speed is ok with you. Upgrade if need be.