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Operating system software
By customizing your operating system so it runs efficiently, you
not only increase the amount of system resources available to
applications, but also ensure that your applications run
efficiently. Optimizing your hard drive and virtual memory,
organizing or removing temporary files, and disabling unnecessary
applications running in the background improves performance.
Note: Photoshop CS3 for Windows can
only operate on computers running Windows Vista or Windows XP.
Allocating more memory to Photoshop with 32-bit
operating systems and computers
Photoshop uses random-access memory (RAM) to process image
information. The more RAM available to Photoshop, the faster
Photoshop can process image information. Other open applications
and startup programs decrease the amount of memory potentially
available to Photoshop. Quitting applications or startup items you
are not using makes more memory available to Photoshop.
To allocate more memory to Photoshop:
- Choose Edit > Preferences >Performance.
- In the Memory Usage section, increase the Let Photoshop Use
percentage, and click OK.
- Restart Photoshop.
Allocating memory above 2 GB with 64-bit
processors
Photoshop CS3 is a 32-bit application. When it runs on a 32-bit
operating system, such as Windows XP Professional and some versions
of Windows Vista, it can access the first 2 GB of RAM on the
computer.The operating system uses some of this RAM, so the
Photoshop Memory Usage preference displays only a maximum of 1.6 or
1.7 GB of total available RAM. If you are running Windows XP
Professional with Service Pack 2, you can set the 3 GB switch in
the boot.ini file, which allows Photoshop to use up to 3 GB of
RAM.
Important: The 3 GB switch is a
Microsoft switch and may not work with all computers. Contact
Microsoft for instructions before you set the 3 GB switch, and for
troubleshooting the switch. You can search on the Microsoft support
page for 3gb for information on this switch.
When you run Photoshop CS3 on a computer with a 64-bit processor
(such as a, Intel Xeon processor with EM64T, AMD Athlon 64, or
Opteron processor) running a 64-bit version of the operating system
(Windows XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows Vista 64-bit) and
with 4 GB or more of RAM, Photoshop will use 3 GB for it's image
data. You can see the actual amount of RAM Photoshop can use in the
Let Photoshop Use number when you set the Let Photoshop Use slider
in the Performance preference to 100%. The RAM above the 100% used
by Photoshop, which is from approximately 3 GB to 3.7 GB, can be
used directly by Photoshop plug-ins (some plug-ins need large
chunks of contiguous RAM), filters, or actions. If you have more
than 4 GB (to 6 GB), then the RAM above 4 GB is used by the
operating system as a cache for the Photoshop scratch disk data.
Data that previously was written directly to the hard disk by
Photoshop is now cached in this high RAM before being written to
the hard disk by the operating system. If you are working with
files large enough to take advantage of these extra 2 GB of RAM,
the RAM cache can speed performance of Photoshop. Additionally, in
Windows Vista 64-bit, processing very large images is much faster
if your computer has large amounts of RAM (6-8 GB).
The default RAM allocation setting is 55%. This setting should
be optimal for most users. To get the ideal RAM allocation setting
for your system, change the RAM allocation in 5% increments and
watch the performance of Photoshop in the Performance Monitor. You
must quit and restart Photoshop after each change to see the change
take effect.
The available RAM shown in the Performance preference
automatically deducts an amount that is reserved for the operating
system from the total RAM in your computer. You shouldn't set the
percentage of RAM to be used by Photoshop to 100% because other
applications which run at the same time as Photoshop (for example,
Adobe Bridge) need a share of the available RAM. Some applications
use more RAM than you might expect. For example, web browsers can
use 20-30 MB of RAM, and music players can use 20-50 MB RAM. Watch
the Performance Monitor to view the RAM allocations on your
computer.
Watch your efficiency indicator while you work in Photoshop to
determine the amount of RAM you'll need to keep your images in RAM.
The efficiency indicator is available from the pop-up menu (choose
Show > Efficiency) on the status bar of your image and from the
Palette Options on the Info Palette pop-up menu. When the
efficiency indicator goes below 95-100%, you are using the scratch
disk. If the efficiency is around 60%, you'll see a large
performance increase by changing your RAM allocation or adding
RAM.
Check your system for damaged fonts
If there is a damaged font on your system and you have WYSIWYG
font preview turned on, your computer can slow significantly. If
you turn off font preview and your computer performance improves
significantly, test for a damaged font. See the Additional
information section below for more information on how to
troubleshoot fonts.
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Tutorials 
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