MP 6,1 128GB ram in a trashcan, worth it?

[pierre1610]

I currently have 64gb ram in a 6,1 6xcore mac pro, i have several large .PSB files, around 8gb in size. The machine is relly struggling though, 3-5 second delay in brush strokes, selecting layers seems to get stuck and holds them meaning when i move the cursor it then reorders the selected layer as if i'm click dragging, i get a similar thing with layer visibility, clicking on visiblity gets stuck, again like im click dragging and it turns off all layer visibility when im not.
I'm using a wacom in case anyone else has noticed a difference, on high sierra.

Will 128GB ram help?

 

[Nugget]

It's a 7 year old computer built from 8 year old parts. There's only so much you can expect from it these days.

That said, the only way to really know is to fire up Activity Monitor and let it run while you perform your tasks and see what the memory pressure and memory usage graph looks like. That should tell you if you're just suffering from an old machine or if you're running out of physical memory.

 

[th0masp]

You could also test your files in Affinity (trial) to see if Adobe (Photoshop, I assume) is the bottleneck here.

 

[daveedjackson]

I saw nominal improvements, because whilst you're increasing the overall, your clock speed is really low.

 

[doobydoooby]

I feel your pain thats kinda impossible to work with. I had the same experience with my even older mac pro where brush strokes would shadow acfross the screen and click in a couple of seconds later, it was impossible to work with. Honestly I doubt the incremental gain from 64 to 128gb of ram would impact it much, especially if you are experiencing this with no other apps open. I cant help but wonder though, if you are still running high sierra maybe theres a bottleneck between the older os and the modern photoshop software?

 

[pierre1610]

I bit the bulet and ordered the kit, hopefully it solves the problem.
My only other option would be a 2019 Mac Pro, i've read many people getting next to no performance increase with this machine and Photoshop though.

 

[spideyrsf]

I currently have 64gb ram in a 6,1 6xcore mac pro, i have several large .PSB files, around 8gb in size. The machine is relly struggling though, 3-5 second delay in brush strokes, selecting layers seems to get stuck and holds them meaning when i move the cursor it then reorders the selected layer as if i'm click dragging, i get a similar thing with layer visibility, clicking on visiblity gets stuck, again like im click dragging and it turns off all layer visibility when im not.
I'm using a wacom in case anyone else has noticed a difference, on high sierra.

Will 128GB ram help?

did you try if it's just a settings problem? https://design.tutsplus.com/article...ces > Performance,allow changes to be applied.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Did OP even check activity monitor?

 

[macsound1]

I can attest, it isn't the computer, it's photoshop. I work for a design company that uses all brand new iMacs that have the same issue.
On the top of the line 2019 iMac upgraded to an SSD and 64GB of ram has issues with files over 8GB. What we've ended up doing is working on smaller PSD files and then importing the layers into the PSB once we're done cleaning.
The only thing I can think that would help is disabling filevault if you have it on. The work iMacs have filevault on and experience relatively worse performance than my 2013 rMBP.

 

[pierre1610]

thats for the tips people, activity monitor said PS was taking 56GB of system ram, in PS settings i allowed 80 or 85%, i don't remember which, i figured for £400 its worth a punt to see if things improve.

I didn't change the settings in PS as some people suggest because it itsn't just brush stroke, layer visiblity and sticky clicks are an issue too.

I've not seen anyone test a 2019 Mac Pro with huge PS files other than digiloyd, they seem more like benchmarks than actual day to day working. I'd be interested to hear if anyone solved similar problems by upgrading....

 

[sam80]

I currently have 64gb ram in a 6,1 6xcore mac pro, i have several large .PSB files, around 8gb in size. The machine is relly struggling though, 3-5 second delay in brush strokes, selecting layers seems to get stuck and holds them meaning when i move the cursor it then reorders the selected layer as if i'm click dragging, i get a similar thing with layer visibility, clicking on visiblity gets stuck, again like im click dragging and it turns off all layer visibility when im not.
I'm using a wacom in case anyone else has noticed a difference, on high sierra.

I had the same system and was able to go up to about 20GB before it became unmanageable (saved with disable compression).

The slowdowns could be due to several things in my opinion:
- Full or slow scratch drive. At these file sizes / ram utilisation the scratch drive is accessed often. In this case 128GB RAM will help, as will cleaning up the scratch drive.
- Sticky selecting layers - this may sound weird but try replacing the nib of the Wacom pen. A worn out nib can cause it.
- Slow brush - I use it at 0% smoothing for speed. The smoothing slows it down.
- Busy layer structure. The layers need to be as few as possible, it's possible to overload the computer with too many layers, no matter how fast. I'd save a new version and delete any unnecessary layers. If it's not possible, editing the layer in a separate document / smart object will help .

 

[pierre1610]

I took the plunge and went 128GB ram, so far so good, although i don't want to be too possitive incase i jynx it.

 

[complaxneoda]

I took the plunge and went 128GB ram, so far so good, although i don't want to be too possitive incase i jynx it.

May I ask which brand do you use?

 

[Selsk]

in the advanced performance prefs make sure you are using Normal Drawing mode. Turn off Open CL if you have it on. And then turn on Legacy Compositing.

If you feel like getting the most out of your trashcan, you can buy Xeon 1660 V2 server pull processors on ebay for like $200 or less. It has the highest clock speed out of the xeons that will work in the 6,1. It will help in photoshop. What video cards do you have?