Optimizing Photoshop CC performance

Microsoft's operating system contains small flaws. Some users have experienced that their computer has little virtual memory. What they are notified about by error. Before this, 95% of users are faced with the problem of the computer slowing down or programs not starting. This is the first sign that the machine does not have enough RAM. Problems are solved by performing simple manipulations. Even a beginner can perform the steps. But first, let's determine the cause of the problem.

When a user works with a computer, the latter has to perform a number of operations and respond to requests and commands from the administrator. If the RAM is loaded, then processes are difficult to complete and the computer gradually freezes. Initially, the user sees that the program is not responding, and then the operating system prompts it to terminate the process. This is necessary to prevent data loss. Here it is important to learn to recognize the problem at the first manifestations.

An indicator that the RAM is heavily loaded is a decrease in system performance. In this case, the computer does not yet signal a failure. There are problems opening applications. This can be seen when the user launches a program, but it does not open. If there is no response from the program for a long time, this indicates that the computer’s physical memory is full and will need to be freed

WHAT WINDOWS MEMORY IS IMPLIED?

When the user saw a message about lack of free space, it initially meant RAM and virtual memory. The latter is managed by the paging file. It is used as an addition to the operational one when there is not enough RAM.

Windows message about low RAM memory

Users who have no computer experience or are not technically savvy consider the error as insufficient hard drive space. This gives them justifiable bewilderment, because the hard drive holds a lot of GB, but there is not enough memory in the system. It turns out to be a dead end situation from which they cannot find a way out.

REASONS FOR THE ERROR

Before we begin to fix the problem, we will identify the common causes that could cause it to occur. Provoking factors include:

Opening 3-10 applications or programs at the same time (depending on the resources consumed) will result in the computer not having enough memory to process the command and an error will pop up. This is the most common case, and can be solved by shutting down unused applications;
limited amount of installed space, and it is not necessary that the computer is old, because some programs require 4 or more GB of RAM for correct operation, and the average 2GB is not enough;
the hard drive is overcrowded, respectively, the user does not have enough free storage space for the correct automatic configuration and operation of the paging file, that is, the virtual one does not fit;
changing the size of the paging file, perhaps the user previously played with optimization or used a third-party application for these purposes, that is, the size was forcibly changed to insufficient for correct operation, and the user simply forgot about it;
the action of malicious or potentially dangerous programs, when their algorithm is based on the gradual consumption of free space, a constant leak occurs;
incorrect operation of the program, when launched, a message appears stating that there is not enough RAM.

In principle, these are, if not the only, then the main reasons against which the problem occurs. Now let's start exploring ways to solve the problem.

4 WAYS TO FIX LOW SPACE PROBLEM IN WINDOWS 7, 8 AND 8.1

So, as we decided earlier, if there is not enough RAM on the computer, then we try to fix the problem by opening a small number of applications. This will protect the user from losing personal information and increase the performance of the machine. The user must pay attention and remember those programs that consume a lot of resources. If you don't run them at the same time, the problem will disappear.

It is not always possible to solve a problem this way. After all, people often use heavy programs at the same time for work, that is, the above measure is permissible only at home, it is not implemented in a work environment. Often, users are faced with the fact that the message “There is not enough memory to complete the operation” pops up on the desktop. By following the instructions below, you will learn how to solve the problem in a matter of minutes.

Error message due to insufficient RAM

So, freeing up RAM in Windows 7 and subsequent developments is done in several ways; you may have to combine them, but this is only in the most severe cases.

METHOD #1 – INCREASE THE SIZE OF THE SWAP FILE

If the problem does not appear systematically, then to fix it you need to clear the computer’s virtual memory. This is done through the Task Manager (close unused processes). Otherwise, the user will have to make adjustments to the size of the paging file. Sometimes the operating system itself does this.

Here I will immediately note that if you adjust the size of this file, the problem will disappear, but there is a high probability that the computer will slow down. The system processes information contained in RAM faster. If you increase the size of the swap file, the computer will read information from the hard drive, because that’s where it is located, hence the brakes. To make adjustments to the file size, hold down the keys marked in the picture:

Press the desired key combination

Or open the start menu, then go to the control panel, from there go to the system menu and select additional options:

Go to advanced options

After clicking, a dialog box will open in which we will go to the “Advanced” tab and open the performance parameters:

To adjust performance, click Settings

Here let's go to the additional settings tab, where we have virtual memory, and click on the change button:

At the very top, uncheck the automatic size detection and set the desired number yourself:

Advice! If you have two physical hard drives installed, then move this file to where the system is not installed.

If you do not know what parameters you need to specify regarding the size of the paging file in order to free up RAM on your computer, then I recommend proceeding from the following proportions: for standard work, set to 1.5 of the total amount of RAM, for games, at least 2.

METHOD No. 2 – INSTALLING AN ADDITIONAL RAM MODULE

The first method is recommended for those users who very rarely encounter a problem; if your RAM is constantly loaded, then it is best to install another stick in the system unit. Look at what is installed now: brand, type, volume and buy an identical one.

If the user does not have the means or there is a problem at the workplace, then you can try to clear the RAM on the computer through the Manager and do not run many programs at the same time. There is no other way.

METHOD No. 3 – CHECKING MEMORY CONSUMPTION BY THE PROGRAM

When an error occurs while running a certain program, you need to check how much resources it is consuming from RAM. If there are too many of them, then a memory leak occurs. The problem can be fixed by a RAM cleaning program or by the user himself. In the second case, we do the following:

We define the consuming application in the task manager: right-click on the bottom panel of the desktop and select the appropriate item;
In the application, go to the processes tab;
For ease of identification, arrange applications by consumption. To do this, click on the word “Memory”.

When you have found the required process, check it for errors; you may have to remove and reinstall the program.

If cleaning ram in this way causes difficulties, then we will resort to the Ccleaner program. If it is not installed, then download it from the offsite, go through a simple installation process and start working. Next, you need to select the “Cleaning” option, select the Windows tab. When the program finds errors or unnecessary files, click on “Clean” and you’re done.

METHOD No. 4 - CHECK THE MEMORY WITH BUILT-IN TOOLS

In rare cases, the system itself determines that the computer's memory is loaded and then the troubleshooting wizard opens. If the user sees such an agreement, then open the application and start troubleshooting

Important! Before you begin, save all your data and close applications.

Click on the first option and wait for the wizard to complete. Everything happens automatically. Upon completion of the application, if it is discovered that the system memory is excessively consumed or incorrectly allocated, you will be prompted to contact the hardware supplier; there may be a technical malfunction of the memory board chip.

Here are the main ways to help fix the problem. Everything is quite simple and even beginners in computer science can cope with them.

Adjust your operating system, hardware, and application settings to ensure that Photoshop runs smoothly and performs optimally on your computer. If Photoshop runs slower than expected on your computer, or if you experience freezes or lags when using Photoshop, try the tips and techniques in this document.

Note.

For Photoshop to work optimally, your computer must meet minimum system requirements. Running Photoshop on low-power or unsupported hardware—for example, a computer with an incompatible graphics processing unit (GPU)—can cause performance issues.

Basic steps to improve productivity

Typically, you need to take a holistic approach to optimizing Photoshop performance. From the suggested methods in this article, select those that are appropriate for your computer configuration, the types of files you use, and your specific workflow. Each configuration is unique and may require a custom combination of techniques to achieve maximum Photoshop performance.

There are 4 main ways to tune Photoshop performance:

The easiest way to improve productivity without spending money is to tweak Photoshop's performance settings and fine-tune features to suit the way you work and the types of files you typically work with.

The most effective way to optimize performance is to invest in faster, more powerful hardware.

Set performance-related settings

Photoshop has a set of settings ( Preferences > Performance), which will help you make optimal use of your computer's resources such as memory, cache, GPU, monitors, etc. Depending on your primary use of Photoshop and the types of documents you primarily work with, different combinations of these options may be appropriate for you. Additional options such as Scratch Disks, available on other tabs in the Preferences dialog box, can also directly affect the speed and stability of your computer.

Performance-Related Photoshop Preferences

Setting the amount of memory allocated to Photoshop

Performance can be improved by increasing the amount of memory/RAM allocated to Photoshop. In chapter Memory usage on the settings screen productivity (Preferences > Performance) indicates how much RAM is available for Photoshop. It also indicates the optimal Photoshop memory allocation range for your system. By default, Photoshop uses 70% of the available RAM.

Increase the amount of RAM allocated to Photoshop by changing the value in the field Employed under Photoshop. Alternatively, you can change the position of the Memory Usage slider.
Restart Photoshop for the changes to take effect.

To determine the optimal amount of allocated RAM for your system, change the appropriate amount in 5% increments and monitor performance changes using the performance indicator. Refer to the section.

Note.

If Photoshop is giving you "Insufficient RAM" errors, try increasing the amount of RAM allocated to Photoshop. However, if you set the allocated memory value on Photoshop too high (>85%), it may affect the performance of other running applications and cause system instability.

In this case, the best solution is to increase the amount of RAM in the computer.

Set up caching levels

Cache Basics

Photoshop uses image caching technology to quickly render high-resolution documents while you work on them. You can specify up to eight levels of image data caching and choose from four available cache tile sizes.

Increasing cache levels can improve Photoshop performance, but images may load more slowly. The size of the cache tile determines the amount of data Photoshop processes at a time. Larger tile sizes speed up complex operations such as applying sharpening filters. Small changes, such as brush strokes, are completed faster with smaller tile sizes.

Caching Option Sets

There are three sets of caching options available in the Performance Options panel. Select the one that matches the main use (purpose) of Photoshop:

"Web design / user interface design": Select this option if you primarily use Photoshop for website, app, or GUI design. This option is suitable for documents with a large number of layers with assets consisting of a small to medium number of pixels.
"Default/Photos": Choose this option if you primarily use Photoshop for retouching and editing moderate-sized images. For example, this option is suitable if you usually edit photos from a mobile phone or digital camera in Photoshop.
"Very large pixel size": Choose this option if you work a lot in Photoshop with large documents - for example, panoramas, matte painting, etc.

Cache levels

For more precise control, specify cache levels manually. The default value is 4.

When processing relatively small files—approximately 1 megapixel or 1280 to 1024 pixels and many layers (50 or more)—set cache levels to 1 or 2. Setting cache levels to 1 disables image caching; Only the image that is displayed on the screen is cached.
When processing files with larger pixel sizes—for example, 50 megapixels or larger—set cache levels greater than 4. Higher cache levels result in faster image redrawing speeds.

Note.

You may not be able to achieve impressive results with certain Photoshop features when you set the cache levels to 1.

Limit the number of state history steps

You can free up scratch disk space and improve performance by limiting or reducing the number of state history steps that Photoshop saves in the History panel. The space used for saving varies depending on the number of pixels that are changed as a result of the corresponding operation. For example, state history saved when you stroke a brush or perform a non-destructive operation, such as creating or editing an adjustment layer, requires less free space. Applying a filter to the entire image, on the other hand, takes up a lot more space.

Photoshop can store up to 1000 steps of state history; the default value is 20. To decrease this value, go to the Performance Options dialog box, select "History and cache" > "Steps of State History". In the State History Steps pop-up menu, drag the slider to a lower value if necessary.

Adjust graphics processing unit (GPU) settings

The best way to optimize GPU acceleration, which speeds up image redrawing, is to use the latest version of the video adapter driver. For more information about GPU acceleration and instructions for updating your video drivers, see Photoshop, GPU, and Video Card FAQs.

Enabling OpenCL, a technology that allows applications to harness the processing power of the GPU, will likely improve performance when using the following features in Photoshop:

Video panorama
Blur Gallery (Iris Blur, Field Blur, Tilt-Shift)

To enable OpenCL in the Performance Options panel, click "Extra options" and select "Use OpenCL."

GPU settings

Photoshop provides special GPU settings in the Performance and 3D sections of the Preferences dialog box.

Settings under Preferences > Performance

If your computer has a suitable graphics card installed, it will be listed in the GPU Settings area under Performance.

To enable GPU acceleration, make sure the Enable OpenGL option is selected.
To fine-tune the card's performance, click the Advanced Settings button and select the Basic, Normal, or Advanced option as per your requirements.
- "Basic" - Uses the least amount of video memory to run most OpenGL features when the GPU is shared with other applications or when responsiveness is slow. Select this option if you are running other applications that also use the GPU, or if you notice poor rendering or slow performance when using GPU acceleration.
- "Normal" - This option is the default. It uses a large amount of video memory to support advanced OpenGL features, so it should be chosen if you regularly use the GPU-accelerated features in Photoshop.
- "Advanced" - This mode uses the same amount of memory as Normal mode, but also includes advanced features to improve drawing performance. This option works best in 3D or when working intensively with GPU acceleration features.

Note. Mode changes only take effect after you restart Photoshop.

Settings under Settings > 3D

The 3D section of the Performance dialog box contains a video memory slider that works similar to the memory slider in the Performance section. This slider is used to set the upper limit of video memory available to the Photoshop 3D modeler. The resulting value is equal to the percentage of all available video memory. If you select 100%, there is still backup video memory for the operating system. Selecting high values improves overall 3D performance, but may interfere with other applications that use the GPU.

3D: memory usage

Manage scratch disks efficiently

Scratch disk is any external or internal disk or disk partition with free space. By default, Photoshop uses the hard drive on which the operating system is installed as its primary scratch disk. You can set scratch disk parameters in the section Preferences > Scratch Disks.

Select Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks(Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Scratch Disks(Mac OS).
To connect or disconnect a scratch disk, select or clear the check box in the Active column. To change the order of scratch disks, click the arrow buttons.
Click OK.
To apply the changes, restart Photoshop.

For best performance, connect scratch disks to a compatible port with the highest bandwidth limit of all available ports. The following bandwidth limits apply to various ports:
Thunderbolt = 10 GB/s
eSATA = 600 MB/s
PCIe = 500 MB/s
USB3 = 400 MB/s
USB2 = 35 MB/s
To improve performance, set the scratch disk to a defragmented hard drive that has plenty of unused space and fast read/write speeds. If you have multiple hard drives, you can specify additional scratch drives. Photoshop supports up to 64 exabytes of scratch disks across 4 volumes. (One exabyte is equal to 1 billion gigabytes.)
If you're using a hard drive as your boot drive rather than a solid-state drive (SSD), try using a different hard drive as your main scratch drive. An SSD drive, on the other hand, works well as both a primary boot drive and a scratch drive. In fact, using an SSD as your main work drive is preferable to using a separate hard drive.
The scratch disks must be located on a different disk from the one on which large editable files are located.
Scratch disks must be on a different disk than the operating system uses for virtual memory.
Disk arrays (RAID) are quite suitable as working disks for the application.
Defragment your scratch disks regularly.

Note.

If Photoshop won't launch because your scratch disk is full, hold down Cmd+Opt (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt (Windows) at startup to set a new scratch disk.

Background recovery and save options

Parameter Preferences > File Handling > Automatically save recovery data every n min may also affect performance. The "Save in background" option is enabled by default. When enabled, Photoshop will continue to run while you run Save and Save As commands, so you don't have to wait for the current task to complete. The "Automatically save recovery information" option is only available when the "Save in background" option is enabled. When enabled, recovery data is saved for each open file at a specified time interval. (The recovery information is saved as a backup; the original file is not modified.)

Typically, background save operations have little impact on the performance and responsiveness of normal Photoshop operations. However, if you are editing a file that is significantly larger than the available RAM, saving the file may affect the performance and responsiveness of other operations until it is completed.

If you feel like Photoshop is intermittently slow, you can check to see if saving in the background is affecting the app's performance. Select "Save progress" in the state drop-down menu at the bottom of the window in which the image is displayed.

If you notice a decrease in performance while moving the Saving Progress indicator, go to the "Settings" > "File Processing" and reduce the parameter frequency value "Automatically saving information for recovery". You can also disable this feature.

Setting the recovery information retention interval to a lower value provides greater protection against application failures. In most cases, saving recovery information does not affect the performance or responsiveness of Photoshop. However, if you modify files that are larger than the available RAM, application performance may be affected.

The recovery information is saved in the same location where your Photoshop work files are stored. If you regularly open a large number of large files for later processing, the space required to save recovery information can be significant. If the application gives errors about the lack of free disk space when running other commands (except the Save command), you need to increase the amount of free space on the working disk. You can also turn off the Automatically save recovery information feature.

Keep an eye on the performance indicator to monitor your performance as you work in Photoshop. Click the pop-up menu at the bottom of the window where the image is displayed and select "Efficiency" in the pop-up menu.

If the indicator is below 100%, it means that Photoshop is using all available RAM and is using additional disk space, causing poor performance. If efficiency is below 90%, you need to allocate more RAM to Photoshop in Performance Options. You can also add additional RAM to your system.

Tweak Photoshop settings to improve performance

Handle files with limited size

Very large file sizes can often cause poor application performance. Photoshop supports a maximum size of 300,000 x 300,000 pixels, except for PDF files, which have a maximum size of 30,000 x 30,000 pixels and 200 x 200 inches.

File size limits in Photoshop:

PSD files: 2 GB
TIFF files: 4 GB
PSB files: 4 exabytes (4096 petabytes or 4 million terabytes)
PDF files: 10 GB (maximum page size 200 x 200 inches)

Close unnecessary windows with open images

If Photoshop gives you an "Insufficient RAM" error or is running slowly, it may be because you have too many images open. If you have multiple image windows open, try closing some of them.

Reduce the number of styles and brushes in sets

To reduce the amount of space Photoshop uses on your scratch disk, you need to reduce the number of styles and brushes loaded. Save the sets you don't need right now to a file. In case they were loaded from the corresponding file, simply delete them.

Reduce or disable the thumbnail preview pane

Every time you change your document, Photoshop updates all the thumbnails that appear in the Layers and Channels panels. This update process can affect responsiveness when quickly drawing, moving, or distorting layers. The more thumbnails are displayed, the more significant this effect is.

To reduce or disable thumbnail previews, click on the corresponding panel menu and select "Panel Options". Select a smaller thumbnail size or option "No", and then click the button "OK".

Change file compatibility settings

If you don't need to work with PSD and PSB files in older versions of Photoshop or in applications that don't support layers, you can turn off this file compatibility feature to speed up document saving:

Process 8-bit images

Photoshop can perform many common operations on 16-bit and 32-bit images. However, these images require more memory, more disk space, and more time to process compared to 8-bit images.

To convert the image to 8-bit format, select "Image" > "Mode"> "8 bits/channel" . For more information, see the Color Depth topic in Photoshop Help.

Note.

Converting to 8 bits per channel removes some data from the image. Save a copy of the original image in 16-bit or 32-bit format before converting to 8-bit per channel.

Disable font previews in WYSIWYG

To speed up font processing in Photoshop, turn off the WYSIWYG font list preview by selecting "Type" > "Viewing Font Size" > "No".

The higher the resolution of an image, the more memory and free disk space Photoshop requires to display, process, and print the image. Depending on your final output device, a higher resolution may not necessarily result in higher image quality, but it may also reduce performance, require additional disk space, and slow down print speeds. The optimal image resolution depends on how the images will be displayed and printed.

For images displayed on the screen, the full size in pixels should be used. For example, many web images are no larger than 725 pixels wide. To reduce the image size, select "Image" > "Image Size". In the Image Size dialog box, make sure that the option "Resampling". Enter a new value for width or height (when you enter a value for one parameter, the second parameter also changes).

Increasing the resolution of printed images beyond 360 dots per inch (DPI) provides little or no benefit in most cases. If you print images frequently, use some experience to determine the resolution that produces acceptable results. To reduce image resolutions, select "Image" > "Image Size". In the Image Size dialog box, select "Resampling". Change the width and height values so that the image dimensions match the physical dimensions of the printed document. After that, reduce the value of the “Resolution” parameter and click the button "OK".

If you plan to increase rather than reduce the resolution of the image for printing, this should be done as a final step just before printing. This way you don't have to process all this extra information up front.

Clear memory

You can improve system performance by clearing unused memory and free space on scratch disks in Photoshop so that other programs can access it. To do this, select one of the following options:

Edit > Clear > All
Edit > Clear > Undo
Option-click (Mac OS) or Alt-click (Windows) and select About Photoshop CC

If other programs are actively trying to allocate or use memory, clearing up unused memory in Photoshop will improve system performance. It will be useful to clean up the working disk space if there is no free space left in the disk directory. After clearing a significant amount of memory and disk space, Photoshop will open large files more slowly the next time as Photoshop redistributes the freed up space.

If you want Photoshop to always use less memory, choose Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (Mac OS) and move the Memory Usage slider to the left. See section.

Note.

Activity monitors, task managers, and disk-using programs may take a few seconds to register the change. In fact, some utilities require you to manually request to update the settings.

Clear clipboard

The clipboard often contains a large amount of information when you copy and paste data while processing large files. In addition, this amount of information is practically not used after the insertion is completed. To free the clipboard, select the menu item "Editing" > "Delete from memory" > "Clipboard".

Note.

The Delete from Memory command cannot be undone.

Use the Filter Gallery

Drag and drop images between files instead of copying and pasting them

Drag and drop layers or files is a more efficient method compared to copy and paste. Drag and drop bypasses the clipboard and moves data directly to the endpoint. Copying and pasting can significantly increase the amount of data transferred and is much less efficient.

Think ahead about your use of layers

Layers are the core principle of Photoshop, but at the same time they increase file size and redraw time. Photoshop redraws each layer after every change to the image. Once you've finished modifying the layers, flatten (merge) them into one layer to reduce the size of the processed file. Select a layer in the Layers panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and choose Merge Layers. To flatten all layers in a file, choose Layer > Flatten. You also need to remove all empty layers from the file.

Note.

Photoshop does not allow you to separate layers after mixing. You can choose Edit > Undo or use the History panel to revert to a previous state.

If you rarely change some of your existing layers, converting layers or layer sets to smart objects can free up disk space and improve performance. Select a layer or set of layers in the Layers panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) and choose Convert to Smart Object. Refer to the Working with Smart Objects section

Save TIFF files without layers

Photoshop can save layers as TIFF files. However, multilayer TIFF files are larger and require more resources to process and print. If you are working with a layered TIFF file, save the original layered file in Adobe Photoshop (.psd) format. Then, whenever you want to save the file as a TIFF, choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, choose Format > TIFF, choose Save As Copy, uncheck Layers, and click Save.

To improve the speed of exporting TIFF files, do not use ZIP compression. (However, ZIP compression produces the smallest TIFF file sizes.)

Don't export the clipboard

The Export Clipboard option in Photoshop allows other applications to use the contents of the clipboard. If you copy a lot of data into Photoshop but don't use it in other applications, disable this option to improve performance:

Choose Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (Mac OS) or Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows).

Uncheck the "Export Clipboard" option.

Click OK.

Disable the Libraries panel

Disable preview on device

Disable generator

Select Edit > Preferences > Plug-ins.

Uncheck Enable Generator.

Click OK.

Disable rulers

To turn off rulers, in the “View” menu, uncheck the “Rulers”.

Launch the Creative Cloud desktop app

Optimize your hardware settings for working in Photoshop

If you are interested in changing your hardware configuration (or are planning to purchase a new system), use the following information to optimize it for use in Photoshop.

Use a fast processor

The speed of your computer's central processing unit (CPU) limits how quickly Photoshop can process images. Photoshop requires a multi-core Intel processor (Mac OS) or a 2 GHz or faster processor (Windows) to run effectively.

Photoshop tends to run faster with multiple processor cores, although some features benefit more from having more cores than others. However, the amount of performance improvement decreases as the number of additional processor cores increases: the more cores you use, the less benefit you get from each additional core. Therefore, Photoshop will not run four times faster on a computer equipped with a 16-core processor compared to a computer equipped with a 4-core processor. For most users, the performance gains provided by more than 6 cores do not justify the significant increase in the cost of such a computer.

Note.

If you are working with Photoshop in a virtual environment, Photoshop's GPU usage may cause performance degradation. Virtual machines cannot access the GPU.

Increase your RAM

Photoshop uses random access memory (RAM) to process images. If Photoshop runs out of memory, it uses space on your hard drive, also called the scratch disk, to process the data. Accessing information in memory is faster than accessing information on the hard drive. Therefore, Photoshop will only run fastest if it can process all (or most of) the image data in RAM.

At least 8 GB of RAM is recommended to run the latest version of Photoshop.

Use a fast hard drive with plenty of free space

If your system does not have enough RAM to process all the image data, Photoshop reads and writes the image data to the hard drive. will help you determine whether using a faster hard drive or solid state drive will improve your productivity. If the efficiency indicator usually shows a value above 95%, then spending money on a faster scratch disk doesn't make much sense.

To improve Photoshop performance, use a hard drive with high data transfer speeds. For example, use an internal hard drive or an external hard drive connected via a high-speed interface such as Thunderbolt, FireWire 800, eSATA, or USB3. Network servers (which access hard drives over the Internet) have slower data transfer rates.

The latest version of Photoshop requires at least 2.5 GB (Windows) or 3.2 GB (Mac OS) of free disk space. The installation process requires additional space, so Adobe recommends that you allocate more space on your hard drive for virtual memory and scratch disk.

When working in Photoshop, a sign appears: “Boot disk is full..” or “Not enough memory...”
What to do?

I received this question from a member of our community.
I didn’t have such a problem, but I decided to look into it. What could be the reason for this and how to get rid of it?
I’m describing it as I understand it, but I may end up not being entirely right in some ways.

Allocating RAM for Photoshop

RAM - RAM STORAGE DEVICE. Simply put, the random access memory of a computer or other device (RAM). Serves to enter data into temporary memory. When you restart the computer, the contents of the RAM are not saved.

Photoshop displays volume available RAM And ideal memory range required for its operation (share of total available memory as a percentage).
The value "Occupied by Photoshop" is the default, but if desired, you can change it to about 75%
You can see this: Editing-Settings-Performance for Cs5

Edit-Settings-Memory and cache memory for CS2

Purpose of scratch disks

If the system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation, Photoshop uses its own technology virtual memory, also called working disks. A scratch disk is any disk or disk partition with free space. By default, Photoshop uses the hard drive on which the operating system is installed, usually Drive C, as its primary working drive.

Photoshop detects and displays all available internal drives in the Settings panel. Using the Preferences panel, you can enable other scratch disks that will be used after the main disk is full.

For CS2 this can be done: Edit-Settings-External modules and scratch disks

For CS5 this can be done: Editing-Settings-Performance

Main working disk must have the fastest hard drive; make sure there is plenty of free defragmented space on it.
To turn on Virtual memory(swap file), check the box next to the drive that has free space.
Click "OK".
Restart Photoshop for the changes to take effect.

PS: Virtual memory will be used only when there is not enough memory on the Main working disk for further work in Photoshop, when you exit Photoshop it will finish its work, i.e. You can safely use the Paging file; no saving will be made on disk.

Free memory

Team " Delete from memory" allows you to free up memory used by: the Undo command, the History panel, and the clipboard.

Select the Edit menu - Delete from memory and select the element type or buffer you want to clear. If the element type or buffer has already been cleared, it will be dimmed.

Note: Team " Delete from memory" permanently deletes from memory operations stored using commands or automatically in a buffer. Delete from memory impossible to cancel.
For example, choosing Edit-Delete History will delete all archived states from the History panel. Use the Delete from Memory command when the amount of information in memory is so large that it is noticeable affects performance Photoshop.
I think this will be useful for everyone to know

When working in Photoshop on weak computers, you can see a scary dialog box about the lack of RAM. This can happen when saving large documents, applying heavy filters, and other operations.

This problem is due to the fact that almost all Adobe software products try to make maximum use of system resources in their work. It’s always “not enough” for them.

Physical memory

In this case, our computer may not have enough physical memory to run the program. These are strips installed in the corresponding connectors of the motherboard.

Its volume can be found by clicking RMB by icon "Computer" on the desktop and selecting "Properties".

The system properties window displays various information, including the amount of RAM.

It is this parameter that should be taken into account before installing the program. Carefully read the system requirements of the version you plan to work with. For example, for Photoshop CS6 1 GB will be enough, but the CC 2014 version will already require 2 GB.

If there is not enough memory, then installing additional memory sticks will help.

Virtual memory

Computer virtual memory is a special system file in which information that “does not fit” in the RAM (RAM) is recorded. This occurs due to insufficient physical memory, which, if necessary, offloads “extra” information to the hard drive.

Since Photoshop very actively uses all system resources, the size of the paging file directly affects its performance.

In some cases, increasing the virtual memory may solve the problem with the dialog box appearing.

Choose a disk for the paging file with sufficient free space, since, configured in this way, it will immediately be of the specified size (9000 MB, in our case).

You should not increase the size of the swap file indefinitely, as this does not make sense. 6000 MB would be enough (with a physical memory size of 3 GB).

Performance settings and Photoshop scratch disks

These settings are located at “Editing – Settings – Performance”.

In the settings window we see the size of the allocated memory and the disks that Photoshop uses in its work.

In the allocated memory block, you can increase its size using the provided slider. It is advisable not to increase the size above 90% , since problems may arise with applications that will be running (possibly in the background) while Photoshop is running.

With scratch disks, everything is much simpler: choose the one with more free space. It is advisable that this is not the system drive. Be sure to check this parameter, as the program may act up if there is not enough work space on the allocated disk.

Registry key

If no standard means help get rid of the error, then you can simply trick Photoshop by telling it that we have a lot of RAM. This is done using a special key in the system registry. This technique will also help resolve the warning message that appears when you try to configure performance settings. The reason for these errors is the same - problems or insufficient memory.

Launch the registry editor with the appropriate command in the menu "Run" (Windows+R).
Let's go to the branch
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\

Open the directory "Photoshop", in which there will be another folder with numbers in the name, for example, "80.0" or "120.0", depending on the program version. We click on it.

If there is no such folder in this branch, then all actions can be performed along this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe\

Right-click in the right block with the keys and select "New - DWORD Value (32 bits)".
We give the key the following name:
OverridePhysicalMemoryMB
Right-click on the created key and select "Change".
Switch to decimal notation and assign a value from «0» before "24000", you can choose the largest one. Click OK.
To be sure, you can reboot the machine.
Now, having opened the performance settings in the program, we will see the following picture:

If the errors were caused by glitches or other software factors, then after these steps they should disappear.

At this point, the options for solving the problem with insufficient RAM have been exhausted. The optimal solution would be to increase physical memory. If this is not possible, then try other methods, or change the version of the program.

No matter how sophisticated your computer is, Photoshop is such a monster that will gobble up all its resources. And sooner or later everyone will have to face this.

Recently I also encountered such a problem as lack of memory when saving an animated postcard for WEB in Photoshop.
For this reason, the collage had to be redone three times.
I don’t know what the reason is, but I had to work hard on one collage...
The search for reasons brought me to the Internet.
The first reason, as it turns out, lies in the TEMP folder itself.

this folder is located in the system and needs to be cleared of recorded operations in Photoshop

(you can delete from it everything that is deleted- by the way, the computer’s RAM is also cleared).

Remember:
The more and more globally you perform manipulations with one picture (photo), the more memory is needed to store all these operations.

Remember:
RAM swap file Photoshop takes resources from hard logical drives.

Remember:

Reasons for "glitches":

1.Photoiop is buggy if Adobe Photoshop CS is broken.
2.To work with Adobe Photoshop CS you need at least 1 GB. RAM (ideally 2 GB.)
3. In order for Photoshop not to glitch, you need to close all unnecessary programs.
4.Look at the task manager and disable unnecessary ones.
5.Check the properties of Photoshop and look at the system requirements of your computer.

Photoshop can be made easier by removing a bunch of unnecessary and hardly used sets:
textures, brushes, color swatches, actions, styles, gradients, etc.
To do this, it is desirable, of course, to be able to create a set of brushes, gradients or actions, for example, that you need for a specific case.

In the Info palette, enable advanced panel display settings

and analyze your work.

Open Photoshop, open the Information window in Photoshop.

It will be something like this:

information about your photoshop:

Helpful Hint:Disk Selection:

To work with graphics, allocate a separate empty 20 gig disk for a temporary Photoshop file

and set the Photo-Graph settings as indicated:
The disk must be ABSOLUTELY empty.

Edit-Delete from memory and select the type of element or buffer that we need to clear.

If an element type or buffer is cleared, it will be dimmed.
"Delete from memory" command permanently deletes operations from memory and you will not be able to undo effects already made on the layer. Deleting from memory cannot be undone.
Use the "Delete from memory" command when the amount of information in memory is large

or you are sure that you will not cancel old commands and also when this significantly affects the performance of Photoshop.

If your Photoshop is slow, and you not enough RAM to solve your problems,

This advice will also help you. Let's go to Photoshop and open it.

Here you need to set the following parameters:

Memory Usage .
History & Cache .
Scratch Disks .
GPU Settings .

In the first column, you can set the total available RAM that the program will reference, either in numerical format or as a percentage of the entire memory.

Here you need to enter the level of history steps (their number), cache level and its size.

Working disks can be either system or auxiliary.

And finally, you can check the box next to GPU Settings .

This way we will enable hardware acceleration of our GPU.

If your Adobe Photoshop program still does not work as you expected,

That You can try to clear the RAM of unnecessary components.
To do this you need to go to the menu