Slow PC issue easily fixed, once you understand the problem

In article , Bill W
wrote:


One other bit of advice, and this has come up before
regarding LR, is to uncheck the "Use GPU" box in preferences. That
cures issues for lots of people, and helped me some.

if you don't mind slowing things down, go for it.

It can slow things in the develop module, and yes, it's the most used
things.

lightroom and gpu can be a mixed bag, but overall, using the gpu is an
improvement.

with photoshop, there is almost no downside.

But... some of us have serious issues with either spot
removal, or working with the brush. There is way too much latency, and
unchecking that box can help. Fortunately, my system is fast enough
that whatever slowing there is in the other adjustments is not
noticeable. I also haven't had any crashes since I unchecked it, but I
need to spend more time with it before I know if that issue is fixed.
I'm going through an older set of photos tonight, so I'll know more.

I also tried to set my BIOS so that 2 GB of ram is dedicated to
graphics, but the highest setting is only 1/4 of that. I realize
that's adjusted dynamically, but I think it slows things in some
cases.

the wonders of pcs.

On 1/10/2016 8:51 PM, Bill W wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 11:58:30 -0500, PeterN
wrote:

I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting slower,
to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not in the mood
for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy. While i have a
reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not that knowledgeable
about hardware. The solution. I got a new graphics card. The first had
to be returned because it requires more power than can be supplied by
the slot, and my machine did not support the additional power. The
second graphics card has 2gig graphics memory and the machine now runs
like a gazelle.
Total cost of the fix:
Memory $79, after rebate.
Graphics card $69.
Time to fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter, removal
of the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes.
Much less time than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot
less expensive.
I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar issue.

One caveat should be added. Some of the cheaper graphics cards are not
much of an improvement over the integrated graphics on some main
boards. This is usually a smart upgrade, and apparently worked very
well for you, but anyone thinking of doing the same should do some
research first. It would be easy to spend $100 on a card, and get no
improvement. One other bit of advice, and this has come up before
regarding LR, is to uncheck the "Use GPU" box in preferences. That
cures issues for lots of people, and helped me some.

I'm bringing this up because I've also started to look into this for
the same problem. I was about to buy a card that was on sale, but I
did some research first, and found that I would have gained nothing at
all. Luckily, mine is only a little slow, and I can easily live with
it. It's a tough decision because I know I'll probably have to spend
close to $200.


Can't say.
The card I go was an NVIDA GEFORCE GT 730. It has 2G onboard memory. Any
higher end board, that was significantly faster, would have required
connection to the power supply. My machine has no provision for such a
connection.

I am glad you posted this. With the dramatic improvement you saw, I'm
more convinced that this might help me out, and be worth the
investment.




--
PeterN

On 1/10/2016 9:16 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , PeterN
wrote:

The old rule of thumb for speeding up a computer was to max out the RAM,
so to avoid the computer accessing the (slower than RAM) hard drive.
In your case, apparently the RAM was needed for graphics processing.

I first upped the ram to 20G. That did nothing.

then the bottlenecks were elsewhere.

Apparently the newer
versions of PS are more graphics intensive.

that makes no sense.

newer versions of photoshop offload to the gpu when needed, if that's
what you mean.

What is strange is that the
processor is an 8 core I7. Apparently PS doesn't do multi threading very
well.

photoshop does multithreading quite well and has done so since the
1990s.

however, not all actions benefit from multithreading.


The important thing is what works, I solved the issue for me, and posted
my result to help others.



--
PeterN

On 1/10/2016 9:56 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:09:58 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Sunday, 10 January 2016 11:58:53 UTC-5, peterN wrote:
I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting slower,
to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not in the mood
for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy. While i have a
reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not that knowledgeable
about hardware. The solution. I got a new graphics card. The first had
to be returned because it requires more power than can be supplied by
the slot, and my machine did not support the additional power. The
second graphics card has 2gig graphics memory and the machine now runs
like a gazelle.
Total cost of the fix:
Memory $79, after rebate.
Graphics card $69.
Time to fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter, removal
of the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes.
Much less time than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot
less expensive.
I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar issue.


--
PeterN

I thought higher-end graphics cards included their own power input?

Most graphics cards get their power from the PCI bus. It is quite
usual when upgrading graphics cards to have to also upgrade the
computer's power supply.

See my response. The higher end require a connection to the power
supply. A lot of power supply units do not have such a provision.



The reason your computer seems to have been getting slower is that LR
(in particular) tries to make use of the graphics processors on the
graphics card to get increased processing capability. If the graphics
card is not up to the demands they are bypassed with much of the
processing left to the CPU.

These sites may help you

Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Lightroom
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/sy...uirements.html

Premier Pro (Video)
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Adobe Tests and compatability: Important
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...-card-faq.html



Thanks. the problem has been solved. If it has not been I would have
gotten a new machine.

--
PeterN

In article , PeterN wrote:

I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting
slower, to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not
in the mood for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy.
While i have a reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not
that knowledgeable about hardware. The solution. I got a new
graphics card. The first had to be returned because it requires
more power than can be supplied by the slot, and my machine did not
support the additional power. The second graphics card has 2gig
graphics memory and the machine now runs like a gazelle. Total cost
of the fix: Memory $79, after rebate. Graphics card $69. Time to
fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter, removal of
the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes. Much less time
than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot less
expensive. I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar
issue.

You are proposing one should look into upgrading their current PC instead of
buying a new PC if your PC is slow, that I agree with fully.

That said, there are some oddities:

1. Your description of the problem seems odd. You say that after installing
Photoshop CC 2015, the PC became slower and slower, suggesting it was related
to the installation of the program. Now, it's odd that a computer should become
slower overall after installing an application, so I'm assuming you mean that
using *Photoshop* became slower and slower, but it's still a bit odd that it
would become progressively slower, not just "slower" and that's it. Your
description seems to suggest a period of time during which it became more and
more sluggish, which is odd.

2. Upgrading your graphics card is a good idea if Photoshop is running slow
since it is offloading lots more to the GPU. But I suspect that it was your PSU
that was unable to provide the power load of the first new graphics card as
opposed to the slot, but I could be wrong.

3. I realize that you said that you're not that knowledgable about hardware,
but changing GPU is very very easy, as is RAM. There are tons of videos on
youtube and such that give detailed instructions. Might be worth a try to save
you the trips to someone to do it for you.

4. Installing drivers should not take 45 minutes, why did it take so long? It
should take a couple of minutes to download, install and reboot. Sounds very
odd.

--
Sandman

On 1/11/2016 9:11 AM, PeterN wrote:
On 1/10/2016 9:56 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:09:58 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Sunday, 10 January 2016 11:58:53 UTC-5, peterN wrote:
I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting slower,
to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not in the mood
for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy. While i have a
reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not that
knowledgeable
about hardware. The solution. I got a new graphics card. The first had
to be returned because it requires more power than can be supplied by
the slot, and my machine did not support the additional power. The
second graphics card has 2gig graphics memory and the machine now runs
like a gazelle.
Total cost of the fix:
Memory $79, after rebate.
Graphics card $69.
Time to fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter,
removal
of the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes.
Much less time than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot
less expensive.
I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar issue.


--
PeterN

I thought higher-end graphics cards included their own power input?

Most graphics cards get their power from the PCI bus. It is quite
usual when upgrading graphics cards to have to also upgrade the
computer's power supply.

See my response. The higher end require a connection to the power
supply. A lot of power supply units do not have such a provision.



The reason your computer seems to have been getting slower is that LR
(in particular) tries to make use of the graphics processors on the
graphics card to get increased processing capability. If the graphics
card is not up to the demands they are bypassed with much of the
processing left to the CPU.

These sites may help you

Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Lightroom
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/sy...uirements.html

Premier Pro (Video)
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Adobe Tests and compatability: Important
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...-card-faq.html



Thanks. the problem has been solved. If it has not been I would have
gotten a new machine.

Weren't you looking for a new PC not too long ago?

On 1/11/2016 12:19 PM, Sandman wrote:
In article , PeterN wrote:

I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting
slower, to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not
in the mood for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy.
While i have a reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not
that knowledgeable about hardware. The solution. I got a new
graphics card. The first had to be returned because it requires
more power than can be supplied by the slot, and my machine did not
support the additional power. The second graphics card has 2gig
graphics memory and the machine now runs like a gazelle. Total cost
of the fix: Memory $79, after rebate. Graphics card $69. Time to
fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter, removal of
the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes. Much less time
than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot less
expensive. I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar
issue.

You are proposing one should look into upgrading their current PC instead of
buying a new PC if your PC is slow, that I agree with fully.

That said, there are some oddities:

1. Your description of the problem seems odd. You say that after installing
Photoshop CC 2015, the PC became slower and slower, suggesting it was related
to the installation of the program. Now, it's odd that a computer should become
slower overall after installing an application, so I'm assuming you mean that
using *Photoshop* became slower and slower, but it's still a bit odd that it
would become progressively slower, not just "slower" and that's it. Your
description seems to suggest a period of time during which it became more and
more sluggish, which is odd.

I know. I would have expected just a slow down in PS. I did virus and
registry scans, and the machine did go a tad faster. The only thing I
can think of was that something was preventing the programs from closing
properly. (When I did ctrl|alt|del, I could see the processes were not
shutting down properly.)




2. Upgrading your graphics card is a good idea if Photoshop is running slow
since it is offloading lots more to the GPU. But I suspect that it was your PSU
that was unable to provide the power load of the first new graphics card as
opposed to the slot, but I could be wrong.

Correct. Most high end graphics cards require a connection to the PSU,
which is not available on my machine.


3. I realize that you said that you're not that knowledgable about hardware,
but changing GPU is very very easy, as is RAM. There are tons of videos on
youtube and such that give detailed instructions. Might be worth a try to save
you the trips to someone to do it for you.


I had no problems changing the GPU. I had a problem with the memory
because of my fat fingers.

4. Installing drivers should not take 45 minutes, why did it take so long? It
should take a couple of minutes to download, install and reboot. Sounds very
odd.


That's what it took. But the machine works fine now.
--
PeterN

On 1/11/2016 2:29 PM, PAS wrote:
On 1/11/2016 9:11 AM, PeterN wrote:
On 1/10/2016 9:56 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:09:58 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Sunday, 10 January 2016 11:58:53 UTC-5, peterN wrote:
I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting slower,
to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not in the mood
for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy. While i have a
reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not that
knowledgeable
about hardware. The solution. I got a new graphics card. The first had
to be returned because it requires more power than can be supplied by
the slot, and my machine did not support the additional power. The
second graphics card has 2gig graphics memory and the machine now runs
like a gazelle.
Total cost of the fix:
Memory $79, after rebate.
Graphics card $69.
Time to fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter,
removal
of the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes.
Much less time than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot
less expensive.
I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar issue.


--
PeterN

I thought higher-end graphics cards included their own power input?

Most graphics cards get their power from the PCI bus. It is quite
usual when upgrading graphics cards to have to also upgrade the
computer's power supply.

See my response. The higher end require a connection to the power
supply. A lot of power supply units do not have such a provision.



The reason your computer seems to have been getting slower is that LR
(in particular) tries to make use of the graphics processors on the
graphics card to get increased processing capability. If the graphics
card is not up to the demands they are bypassed with much of the
processing left to the CPU.

These sites may help you

Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Lightroom
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/sy...uirements.html

Premier Pro (Video)
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Adobe Tests and compatability: Important
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...-card-faq.html



Thanks. the problem has been solved. If it has not been I would have
gotten a new machine.

Weren't you looking for a new PC not too long ago?


Yep! I decided to see if an upgrade would work. A reinstall of my
software was something I was not looking forward to, and the machine I
wanted would have cost a lot more. Now I have a few bucks in a slush
fund that can be put towards other toys.


--
PeterN

In article , PeterN wrote:

Sandman:
1. Your description of the problem seems odd. You say that after
installing Photoshop CC 2015, the PC became slower and slower,
suggesting it was related to the installation of the program. Now,
it's odd that a computer should become slower overall after
installing an application, so I'm assuming you mean that using
*Photoshop* became slower and slower, but it's still a bit odd
that it would become progressively slower, not just "slower" and
that's it. Your description seems to suggest a period of time
during which it became more and more sluggish, which is odd.

I know. I would have expected just a slow down in PS. I did virus
and registry scans, and the machine did go a tad faster. The only
thing I can think of was that something was preventing the programs
from closing properly. (When I did ctrl|alt|del, I could see the
processes were not shutting down properly.)

That suggest that there were other problems with your computer that were
unrelated to Photoshop, and it seems odd that merely charing graphics card
would alleviate them.

Sandman:
2. Upgrading your graphics card is a good idea if Photoshop is
running slow since it is offloading lots more to the GPU. But I
suspect that it was your PSU that was unable to provide the power
load of the first new graphics card as opposed to the slot, but I
could be wrong.

Correct. Most high end graphics cards require a connection to the
PSU, which is not available on my machine.

What PSU do you have?

Sandman:
3. I realize that you said that you're not that knowledgable about
hardware, but changing GPU is very very easy, as is RAM. There are
tons of videos on youtube and such that give detailed
instructions. Might be worth a try to save you the trips to
someone to do it for you.

I had no problems changing the GPU. I had a problem with the memory
because of my fat fingers.

Hehe

Sandman:
4. Installing drivers should not take 45 minutes, why did it take
so long? It should take a couple of minutes to download, install
and reboot. Sounds very odd.

That's what it took. But the machine works fine now.

Weird.

--
Sandman

On Mon, 11 Jan 2016 09:11:27 -0500, PeterN
wrote:

On 1/10/2016 9:56 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:09:58 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Sunday, 10 January 2016 11:58:53 UTC-5, peterN wrote:
I have an HP PC. After PS CC2015 came out, it has been getting slower,
to the point where it was becoming unusable. I just am not in the mood
for a new machine. I tried added 16G memory, no joy. While i have a
reasonable working knowledge of software, I have not that knowledgeable
about hardware. The solution. I got a new graphics card. The first had
to be returned because it requires more power than can be supplied by
the slot, and my machine did not support the additional power. The
second graphics card has 2gig graphics memory and the machine now runs
like a gazelle.
Total cost of the fix:
Memory $79, after rebate.
Graphics card $69.
Time to fix, under one hour, including two trips to Microcenter, removal
of the side panel, and sticking in the new hardware. The driver
installation time took and additional 45 minutes.
Much less time than reinstalling software on a new machine and a lot
less expensive.
I am posting this to help anyone who may have a similar issue.


--
PeterN

I thought higher-end graphics cards included their own power input?

Most graphics cards get their power from the PCI bus. It is quite
usual when upgrading graphics cards to have to also upgrade the
computer's power supply.

See my response. The higher end require a connection to the power
supply. A lot of power supply units do not have such a provision.



The reason your computer seems to have been getting slower is that LR
(in particular) tries to make use of the graphics processors on the
graphics card to get increased processing capability. If the graphics
card is not up to the demands they are bypassed with much of the
processing left to the CPU.

These sites may help you

Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Lightroom
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/sy...uirements.html

Premier Pro (Video)
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro...uirements.html

Adobe Tests and compatability: Important
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...-card-faq.html



Thanks. the problem has been solved. If it has not been I would have
gotten a new machine.

I thought you had a new one lined up.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens