# Is my comp fast enough?



## YellowJersey (Nov 19, 2015)

Hi guys, 

So I got the Nik plugins for photoshop (using CS5) and they're super slow... as in unusuably slow. Was wondering if my specs were to blame? Working with 128mb TIFF files. 

I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64bit with Intel i7 2.7 GHz and 16gb of ram. 

Would adding more ram help? Any ideas?


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## Halfrack (Nov 19, 2015)

You didn't mention a SSD, so that is may be the issue. Nothing will improve things as much as a SSD.

You don't mention how Photoshop works if you run with plugins disabled - kind of a troubleshooting method.

Also, check out http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/05/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance.html


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## timmy_650 (Nov 19, 2015)

What you can do is open your task manager (ctrl+alt+delete) while CS5 and see how much of your computer ram and processor.


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## yakman (Nov 19, 2015)

Are you using a laptop or desktop?
Laptop i7 can be a dual core (blame intel marketing for that), which may not be as fast as other quad core i7


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## YellowJersey (Nov 20, 2015)

Using an SSD on a laptop and the process or is a four-core i7-3820QM


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## Pookie (Nov 20, 2015)

YellowJersey said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> So I got the Nik plugins for photoshop (using CS5) and they're super slow... as in unusuably slow. Was wondering if my specs were to blame? Working with 128mb TIFF files.
> 
> ...



I run something similar and never had this issue... also run Topaz and VSCO without slowdowns.


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## siegsAR (Nov 21, 2015)

You should have no problem with your hardware specs. Seems like you have a bloated system, when was the last time it was reformatted? Refer to what timmy said so you'll know whats eating your resources.


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## expatinasia (Nov 21, 2015)

The specs you posted don't mean all that much. What is your SSD - model, how large and how much free space?. Also what graphics card do you have? You say 16GB of RAM but what type of RAM etc.? All this comes into play.


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## YellowJersey (Nov 23, 2015)

expatinasia said:


> The specs you posted don't mean all that much. What is your SSD - model, how large and how much free space?. Also what graphics card do you have? You say 16GB of RAM but what type of RAM etc.? All this comes into play.



SSD: 
Kingston SV300S37A240G ATA 
240gb w/ 50gb free 

Graphics: 
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA NVS 5400M 

RAM: 
http://www.corsair.com/en/vengeance-16gb-high-performance-laptop-memory-upgrade-kit-cmsx16gx3m2a1600c10

I've used this set up for years without trouble. In March, my old SSD fried and I installed the new SSD. I've had this problem ever since then. I've been making sure I've got all the drivers installed and all that. I reinstalled Windows again yesterday hoping it would help, but no dice. Here's a screen cap of the performance monitor. The bits between the red lines are when I click "Colour Efex Pro" and when it finally loads, about 17 seconds. The part it gets stuck on is "Preparing the image."


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## tcmatthews (Nov 24, 2015)

YellowJersey said:


> expatinasia said:
> 
> 
> > The specs you posted don't mean all that much. What is your SSD - model, how large and how much free space?. Also what graphics card do you have? You say 16GB of RAM but what type of RAM etc.? All this comes into play.
> ...



Not all SSDs are created equal. After Kingston produced some bad RAM back in the early 2000's I have avoided them. Look up your drive on Amazon there are a bunch of really angry people complaining about a slow drive. I suggest getting a new SSD from a reputable manufacturer.


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## CropFactor (Nov 24, 2015)

Download and install CrystalDiskMark :
http://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskMarkInstaller-en

In the GUI, select '1' from the test count dropdown list and click "All" in the top left to run the benchmark.

Let us know what the throughput is.

For reference, my Scorpio Black 7200rpm laptop drive gets 104MB/s read and 100MB/s write (seq).
4k though is pathetic on mechanical drives...


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## CropFactor (Nov 24, 2015)

Download Process Explorer as well :
https://download.sysinternals.com/files/ProcessExplorer.zip

Extract the zip file and run procexp.exe as an admin. With the process window open press "Ctrl+I", this will launch the System Information window, minimize this window and then launch CS5 and do what you have to do in the TIFF files.

After you've experienced the delays, open the System Information window you minimized in the task bar and see what part of the system is being murdered. Check the different tabs, cpu/io/memory/gpu. Look for large spikes in the graphs.

Hope this can identify the bottleneck


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## YellowJersey (Nov 26, 2015)

I think I have it sorted out. Turns out there was an updated driver to my NVIDA graphics card required to use the GPU. I had a feeling that there was some kind of driver or update missing that was causing this whole thing, but couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was. The graphics card kept saying that it had the latest driver, but I accidentally clicked "update driver" when I meant to click "properties" and it said an update was available. Now it only takes about 5 seconds instead of 15-20 seconds for the plug in to load once I click on it, which is about the same as it used to be. 

@CropFactor 
I'll give that a shot, too. Maybe I can reduce the load time even further. At least now I've got back to a usable level. 

Thanks everyone for your help.


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## Hector1970 (Nov 26, 2015)

I seem to have a similar set up but it's windows 8.
I have an SSD however which may make a difference.
I'd have thought your laptop is good enough as is.
I am consistently amazed the computer companies don't simplify it all some how.
You have to consider processor, processor speed, ram, ssd / hard disk etc.
The software then has minimum specs which you need to completely exceed for the software to run at a reasonable speed.
They should be like a Playstation 4. Anything you stick into it works.
There should be some sort of ISO standard in terms of capability.
Eg This is a level 4 PC/Laptop - they Adobe could say Photoshop and Lightroom will or will not run at a proper level on the PC/Laptop.
You really need to research it.
My only advice is that if you get an SSD make it bigger than 256GB if possible.
Windows takes up a big chunk of it and Photoshop / Lightroom.
Photoshop and Lightroom make very large scratch files.
Lightroom keeps defaulting to loading the photos to the C: Drive which is the SSD.
(I'm sure there is a setting I'm missing).
It then stops uploading when I run out of memory (with a 5DSR you can have a pretty big memory card full quite easily).
So if you can afford a big SSD (and it can fit in to your laptop) I'd go for that.
Startup times are great with the SSD (but this another thing thats on the SSD - can't remember what it's called but its like an image of your system - another very large file)


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## Ladislav (Nov 26, 2015)

SSD should not matter too much for processing when you have 16GB RAM. Even with common drive you should not describe difference as super slow. 

My experience is that every time when things get terrible slower it is issue with AMD Radeon drivers. Some operations in graphic editors can use GPU acceleration and when the drivers and Adobe products don't like each other it is when 30s operation become 10min operation.


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## expatinasia (Nov 28, 2015)

YellowJersey said:


> I think I have it sorted out. Turns out there was an updated driver to my NVIDA graphics card required to use the GPU.



Glad you got it sorted out. I use NVidia Quadro GPU in my laptop and they are constantly updating the drivers. You can set it up so they email you when a new one is once (around once a month for me). Always worth getting the latest.


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## YellowJersey (Dec 2, 2015)

expatinasia said:


> YellowJersey said:
> 
> 
> > I think I have it sorted out. Turns out there was an updated driver to my NVIDA graphics card required to use the GPU.
> ...



I've got a fairly low-hour laptop, despite having got it in 2012. I'm curious to know if getting a more powerful GPU would make sense. Going to pop into Canada Computers tomorrow and ask. I expect it will be too expensive to make any sense, but worth asking. 

Got this one a few months after I got my 5D mkIII since my faithful old 2009 laptop just couldn't handle my workflow (which is probably a bit more resource intensive than it needs to be, but I get the results I want). I still use the old one for facebook and youtube; trying to wring as many hours of it. I figure every hour of the 2009 machine is another hour I get out of the 2012 machine. The 2009 machine is still hanging on, but by a thread. It's always freezing and crashing.


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## bjd (Dec 7, 2015)

Also make sure the new SSD is running in AHCI mode and not IDE mode, that makes a huge diference.

AS SSD Benchmark gives a good idea of how well it performs. Worth checking anyway.

Also a >256GB SSD may well be a lot faster than a <256GB SSD of the same series due to the 
internal design and how the Memory is accessed internally in the SSD.

Cheers Brian


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## leGreve (Dec 7, 2015)

Halfrack said:


> You didn't mention a SSD, so that is may be the issue. Nothing will improve things as much as a SSD.
> 
> You don't mention how Photoshop works if you run with plugins disabled - kind of a troubleshooting method.
> 
> Also, check out http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/05/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance.html



Half truths.... It's always a combination of things, and the choice of harddrive is not the most important factor.
SSD drives will improve on read write speeds, but only as much as the cpu allows in terms of acutal computation of what it is you want it to do.

So, it's CPU > Ram > harddrive.

I can't really say why the OPs comp is slow with that plugin, we don't even know what the OP meassures as slow... I mean, compared to what? Heck I think my 6-core i7 (overclocked) 4.5ghz with 32gb ram is slow at rendering a 1080p scene in 3D.

OP, you write that you installed the SSD. So it didn't came with it to begin with. Are you sure that the sata port is even fast enough to utilize the speed of an SSD?


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## bjd (Dec 7, 2015)

leGreve said:


> Halfrack said:
> 
> 
> > You didn't mention a SSD, so that is may be the issue. Nothing will improve things as much as a SSD.
> ...


So true........

A fast SSD or Disk will speed up reading and saving files to disk, and should you be paging (i.e. dont have enough RAM) then it may speed up normal work too.

But general work in Memory will be affected by amount of RAM, maybe by the RAM settings, and CPU speed.
An SSD will not speed that up at all.

Carefull benchmarking, and comparison to other systems will tell you if there is a general problem.
My SSD was giving about 20-50MB read/write speed in IDE mode, but gives around >400MB in AHCI 
mode, so despite good components, it was not performing as it could.
BIOS settings may need to be checked for optimal settings, and I dont mean overclocking.

Cheers Brian


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## RGF (Dec 30, 2015)

YellowJersey said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> So I got the Nik plugins for photoshop (using CS5) and they're super slow... as in unusuably slow. Was wondering if my specs were to blame? Working with 128mb TIFF files.
> 
> ...



More RAM always help, especially with large files. So does killing off other tasks.


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