The Vulcan Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 I'm using a 24" Imac 3.06Ghz, 4mb RAM. 500mb H/D and 2 x 1Tb back ups. In normal use the unit is superb and very responsive HOWEVER, as a photographer I shoot a large amount of images with file sizes at 13mb each in RAW format. i.e. I've just returned from a shoot with nigh on 13 Gigabytes of images. Each of these files, when opened at 16bit 300 dpi, create a 101 mb file. I allocate 80% of the RAM to CS3. This is the MINIMUM file size for my work. I notice when processing these files (in photoshop CS3) that after a short while (c. 1 hour) my machine really slows down (almost unusable). A re-boot usually corrects this and I'm back to normal (for 1 hour). I'm curious to know what causes this slow down (not really a computer techie) and if there is a method to overcome it without buying a new machine. Also, is this "weight" I'm applying to the machine likely to eventually cause a total breakdown. Thanks for any input.
ThaiLife Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 Hi , I had a similar problem with my iMac 2.8 , with all the application becoming slow and un responsive, so I tried using Disk Utility and did a Disk repair while booting up from the install disk , and this seems to have done the trick . I was told my problem could have been due to having some directory corruption Here's a link ... http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 hope this may help TL
niller74 Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 I can think of two things on top of my head. Try the following. 1. Open a terminal and check if any processes are taking up a lot of resources with the command 'top' 2. Check if if the system is using all the memory and swap with the command 'free' I don't know much about the actual operating system, so there might be graphical equivellents to the above.
The Vulcan Posted September 16, 2009 Author Posted September 16, 2009 I can think of two things on top of my head.Try the following. 1. Open a terminal and check if any processes are taking up a lot of resources with the command 'top' 2. Check if if the system is using all the memory and swap with the command 'free' I don't know much about the actual operating system, so there might be graphical equivellents to the above. Thanks for that (both of you) Looking at the above I had a driver not responding on a graphics tablet I've since aborted. Disabling this seems to have resolved my issues. Much appreciate your help
nikster Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 I can think of two things on top of my head.Try the following. 1. Open a terminal and check if any processes are taking up a lot of resources with the command 'top' 2. Check if if the system is using all the memory and swap with the command 'free' I don't know much about the actual operating system, so there might be graphical equivellents to the above. Yep - use Activity monitor. Much more civilized. You can check three things (in order): - Sort processes by CPU and see if there's a stray process using 99% CPU. If so, shut it down. That's almost always a bug, unless you are running some resource intensive process on purpose, like transcoding a DVD - Sort processes by memory and see if anything got "out of hand". Ignore the virtual size - only physical size counts. Mail.app used to be a frequent offender, as was Safari. Much better in Snow Leopard though. - Check if you are generally running low on memory, causing the system to swap.. I know the OP has resolved his issues, just wanted to mention. I am running iPulse constantly on my system - whenever something slows down, I can see at a glance if there's a problem - the iPulse graphical display might seem mysterious (yet cool) in the beginning, but after a while you kind of learn to read it and start to appreciate that it displays the entire system status in a little icon in the dock. I can for example see if there's swapping because swapping causes a bright blue arc on the top - instantly recognizable. I can see if there's too much CPU being used, that the center circle (too big == too much CPU usage). Another arc shows whether I am close to using all my physical memory. And a popup shows which process is causing the issue. It's quite brilliant - I looked long and hard for something like this on Windows, but never found anything.
KevinBloodyWilson Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 OSX is Unix. Buy a big external drive and mount your swap file on that. You could also check for memory leaks in the application software. HTH
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now