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I was working in Photoshop CS4 and Lighroom 2 when I got this lovely notice from my computer:
Windows – Virtual Memory Minimum Too Low: your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file. During this process, memory requests for some applications may be denied.
Hmm, interesting. Well, I did a little digging, and found that Adobe does have something to say about virtual memory issues. Especially if your scratch disc is on the same drive as permanent files.
Virtual memory allows your system to use hard-disk space to store information normally stored in memory (RAM). Because it takes longer to access information on a hard disk than it does to access information in memory, using a portion of the hard disk as virtual memory can decrease performance. In addition, Photoshop cannot use the hard-disk space the system uses for virtual memory for its scratch disk files, which it uses to store image information as you work. If you need more memory to work in Photoshop, Adobe Systems recommends installing more RAM.
Specifying a fixed virtual memory setting helps prevent Photoshop scratch disk files from competing for the same space with virtual memory, especially if you set the virtual memory setting on a different drive than the primary scratch disk. For both kinds of virtual memory, be sure to use a drive with enough free, uncompressed space. RAID 0 partitions provide the best possible performance as Photoshop scratch disks.
If you use a disk or RAID array only for Photoshop scratch disk files, fragmentation is rarely a concern, as they don’t become significantly fragmented. Fragmentation is much more likely to be an issue if you use a single disk for everything or if you have permanent files and the Photoshop scratch disk sharing a volume, especially if there’s not a lot of free space. In this case, defragmenting the disk can make a significant difference.
From Adobe.com – Optimize performance of Photoshop CS4 on Windows XP
This explains how my disc drives get so fragmented. Photoshop is the culprit, apparently. Forewarned is forearmed, right?
Oh, and just in case you’re not… you really should defragment your hard drives on a regular basis. It’s amazing how many temp files can build up… and if you’re using a resource hog like Photoshop… (do I really need to say any more?).
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There is a solution to this; Buy a Mac. I can tell you that on a 2.66 iMac with 4GB ram, I had 32 images open with approximately 68 layers, the entire psd was a little over a gig and I was till flying along with no problems. Granted, it was the only app I had going, but still, I am not aware of a single windows machine that could have handled that workload.
Thankfully, this problem hasn’t reoccurred. When I upgraded from CS1 to CS4, it appears as though my scratch disc was reset to my main C:\ — rather than the secondary drive like I had it set up in CS1. Probably contributed to my virtual memory issue, I would think.
On a given day, I might have my computer running Photoshop, InDesign, my studio management software, Lightroom, Word, and then a few web browsers (have to make use of the dual monitors!). Probably contributes to my machine lagging and having issues, huh?
I haven’t used Macs much… but back in the day of Photoshop 7 — I managed to completely bog down a Mac system. Frozen solid. I only had 2 programs running – Word + Photoshop. I’d hazard a guess that Windows machines do better with multitasking, while Macs are more efficient at running one program.
It appears there is more to this issue than I first expected. I think it has to do with an out of date driver. I’m currently updating my NVIDIA driver from version 84.21 to 182.50. Wow. Hopefully that should solve some of the redraw issues too.
[...] a while back I blogged about a virtual memory error I encountered while working in Photoshop CS4. At the time, I just assumed it was because I had [...]