# Photoshop 4.0 memory HELP! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869 "2007-08-16T23:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/21 "2007-08-17T02:18:14Z")
[QUOTE=NoCoolUserName] Where do I check the size of the XP cache? [/QUOTE] Right click on “My Computer” and choose “Properties.” Go to the “Advanced” tab and look at the section marked “Performance” and choose “Settings.” Go to _that_ “Advanced” tab and look at the section marked “Virtual memory.” If you think you need to change it, click “Change.” Wondering about why it suddenly won’t work with even more memory is part of why I was originally thinking some sort of driver corruption, actually. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/22 "2007-08-17T02:20:20Z")
[QUOTE=NoCoolUserName] PSD file. PSD! Sheesh, one typo and they’re all over ya. Error: Can’t convert PSD mode to to GIMP base imagetype [/QUOTE] Ick. I got nothin’ for that, dude. Sorry. > [@kushiel](#): > > It isn’t _that_ bad. I run CS2 on XP with 512MB of RAM. I, uh, can’t really do much else with it open, but if it is the only thing I keep focus on the program itself runs speedy nice. I didn’t mean to cast aspersions. XP and Photoshop are just both notorious memory oinks. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/23 "2007-08-17T03:23:54Z")
Well, to make things even more fun, I increased the cache/virtual memory to 2,000 minimum. Still no joy. That was because when I tried to re-install, I got Director Player 5.0 pop-up: > [@](#): > > This program requires at least 3MB of free virtual memory to run. Yup, I rebooted after changing the VM setting. Stupid. Now we’re going to have to buy an expensive upgrade of a program that gets used twice a year to create art show invitations. Crud. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/24 "2007-08-17T03:28:31Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Worst case scenario, would **VeryCoolSpouse** consider switching to [The Gimp](http://www.gimp.org/) (which, IIRC, has much gentler minimum requirements) until you can get Photoshop back up and running? [/QUOTE] 1. Photoshop 4 ran on my 64MB Windows 98 machine, I doubt it’s the _minimum requirements_ that are the problem. Most likely it’s just choking on such a large number somehow. Try setting a smaller amount of virtual memory and taking out the extra GB. If it works, then you have to find what is the maximum it can take before it craps out. 2. Until GIMP fixes the horrid non-compliant semi-MDI monstrosity of an interface it has it’s going to be absolutely useless to the majority of people. You seriously cannot use this program if you have anything else running because it fails to create a container window and acts as if every little part of it is a separate application. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/25 "2007-08-17T03:43:28Z")
Photoshop 4 doesn’t even show up on the downloads page any longer, so if there was a patch you haven’t installed you’re out of luck. Look at what I stuck on this thread from the Adobe Photoshop site. Adobe Site excerpt. Camera Raw, as well as other plug-ins and filters in Photoshop, use large contiguous chunks of RAM, sometimes up to 100 MB per image. You may see out of memory errors when these plug-ins cannot access enough contiguous RAM because you don’t have enough RAM or the RAM is too fragmented. If you occasionally get out of memory errors, restart Photoshop to defragment your RAM. If these errors occur frequently, decrease the memory slider in Photoshop in 5% increments to see if giving less memory to Photoshop allows Camera Raw and other filters and plug-ins the amount of contiguous RAM that they need. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/26 "2007-08-17T04:02:49Z")
Stopping AVG (anti-virus) got it to work for a second, then I closed it to put VM back to a reasonable number and now it won’t start again. That’s it, I’m going to bed. We’re not trying to open huge files here. The postcard blank is 1/2 G, the painting pic is 2.5 G. Since we brought the baby home, I haven’t slept more than 4 hrs. a night. I’m pooped. G’nite. Thanks for all the attempted help. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/27 "2007-08-17T04:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=NoCoolUserName] We’re not trying to open huge files here. The postcard blank is 1/2 G, the painting pic is 2.5 G. [/QUOTE] :eek: 0.5G for a postcard blank? Is it ten uncompressed layers at 1000DPI? What the hell? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/28 "2007-08-17T11:48:10Z")
Sorry not to have been more useful, **NoCoolUserName**. Here’s hoping the new day brings new solutions and fewer challenges. > [@groman](#): > > 1. Photoshop 4 ran on my 64MB Windows 98 machine, I doubt it’s the minimum requirements that are the problem. Yeah, that was before I understood that we weren’t talking about something contemporary with Photoshop Elements 4. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/29 "2007-08-17T14:06:23Z")
2.5G is large for a photo so I hope that was a mistake. .5G for the postcard blank is large too. Try opening the photo with a different graphics program and shrink it too a reasonable sized photo. Something that leaves a file under 1M in size, will be good for a photo postcard. Drop some resolution to do this. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869/30 "2007-08-17T15:18:40Z")
Waitaminnit! 500 megabytes for one image and 2.5 gigabytes for the other? That is really large. I believe that Photoshop ideally needs enough memory for two copies of whatever image it has open, so if you’re opening a 500-megabyte image, Photoshop would ideally use 1 gigabyte of RAM for the image, plus what it needs for itself. Everything else on the computer will also need RAM. Now, I believe that Photoshop can load large images in a ‘tiled’ fashion, where it only has the part you’re working on in memory, and swaps the rest out to its ‘scratch disk’, but I’m not cetain of the limitations of that–whether it only applies to its native PSD format, for example. Here’s [Adobe’s description of how Photoshop 11 (CS) uses memory](http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=322829&sliceId=2): > [@](#): > > If you experience slow performance, reduce the amount of RAM assigned to Photoshop to 50% or 60%. I’m not sure how similar that is to Photoshop 4. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photoshop-4-0-memory-help/415869.md?page=1)