Is GeForce 9400M with VRAM of 256 adequate for PhotoshopCS4?

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Is GeForce 9400M with VRAM of 256 adequate for PhotoshopCS4?

My MacBook pro (August 2009) has crashed multiple times, especially in the last few weeks as I was experimenting with study material for Photoshop CS4. The initial files are often 20+ MB. During processing they can become as large as 240 MB. When I completed a file of such size, during the save as process, the system saved but also crashed. Could some of the problem be the relatively small VRAM. My ancient Dell Inspiron 9300 was configured with 1GB of ram, and that was seven years ago. But I'm thinking there's been a lot of tech advancement in that many years. However, multiple crashes are annoying. My file sizes will not get smaller, at least not initially before specific merging and downsizing. In the future, I hope to get a Mac Pro desktop. It is has four graphic cards, each with an indicated Memory of 512. Does that mean approximately 2GB of VRAM? Has new technology really made a smaller VRAM indication that much better than four 1GB configuration?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6), GeForce 9400 VRAM 256MB 32 Bit pixel depth; Photoshop CS4 extended for Mac; ancient Wacom Ruby

Posted on Oct 27, 2009 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

F Shippey

Level 7

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Oct 27, 2009 2:09 PM in response to LMGFlorida

You problem may be more system RAM than graphics processor; made worse by the fact that the 9400M graphics memory usage is shared with main memory.

How much system RAM do you have?

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Answer 2

LMGFlorida Author

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Oct 27, 2009 2:58 PM in response to LMGFlorida

This MacBook Pro has 4GB of Memory Ram. I had considered upgrading to 8GB but the cost is almost as much as a new computer. I'd rather eventually get a desk unit to be able to configure graphic card and memory presence to preferred and affordable levels. When I am in PhotoshopCS4, the image data indicates 100% efficiency. This is supposed to mean that the Mac system and PsCS4 are sharing well. I have set PhotoshopCS4 to use about 2GB of memory. The utility for the Mac's operations had not indicated a problem, that is Ram use was fine. However, I will run the utility when I am trying the PsCS4 process of converting a photo into a painting (where the large file was created). At the same time I'll try to notice if the efficiency under the same circumstance is reading less than 100%. Just the same, why wouldn't the level of the graphic card VRAM make a difference? There's a lot of visual action going on (but not animation, video, 3D as yet). My ancient Dell Inspiron 9300 still has great screen appearance. Even if the MacPro laptop not connected to an external monitor or TV (although that is a wish) the existing graphics card has to handle a lot of information, doesn't it?

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Answer 3

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Oct 27, 2009 3:07 PM in response to LMGFlorida

why wouldn't the level of the graphic card VRAM make a difference?

It probably might. However, as I understand it, there is no dedicated video RAM with the 9400M - just shared System RAM.

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Answer 4

LMGFlorida Author

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Oct 27, 2009 4:39 PM in response to LMGFlorida

For my own information, I stepped through the operation to convert a photo into a painting. The efficiency remained at 100% within PhotoshopCS4. The free ram began at 2.93GB, and gradually became: 2.77, 2.76, 2.73, 2.68, 2.69 (up?), 2.71 (up?), 2.65, 2.65, 2.64, 2.69 (up?), and finally ended at 2.67. So, as is, the system and PsCS4 are apparently working OK, without compromising system RAM.

The GPU ram is indicated to have 256 MB. I don't know if that amount is subtracted from the 4GB, or is in addition to. The "About Mac" information lists them separately. My history is with PCs where the RAM configuration is separate from the GPU, especially since a PC card is a separate unit. However, I understand that the MacBook Pro GPU "card" is not a card but is built-into the Mac framework (shades of uni-body PCs). If what you report is the working situation with the MacBook, darn!

As an additional step, I had disconnected a bothersome Western Digital external drive that created a persistent "open pool" error every ten seconds. That would have been a system disfunction, not a GPU issue, but it did seem to mess up and slow down everything.

Based on your input and general attributes of my MacBook Pro, my use of PsCS4 is probably as good as I am going to get for a while. I cannot change the GPU VRAM. The discussions regarding Mac Pro reference only Video output benefits of a GPU and that there are very few options for different cards (and that's in the face of Nvidia's super fast and very large VRAM GPU cards!!).

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Answer 5

LMGFlorida Author

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Oct 27, 2009 4:47 PM in response to LMGFlorida

GPU configuration is not changeable. A work through with a former PhotoshopCS4 troublesome file indicated no efficiency (RAM usage) or system deficiency (adequate RAM available to support PSC4 steps). Minor changes to MacBook Pro set-up relieved other errors. GPU seems adequate, if not an ultimate. Best bet, if affordable, would be to increase RAM. This might aid working conditions for PsCS4, the GPU, and MacBook Pro.

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Answer 6

l008com

Level 1

101 points

Nov 7, 2009 2:41 PM in response to LMGFlorida

VRAM has little if anything to do with it. Photoshop only uses your GPU for a few select tasks. 4 GB should be PLENTY for photoshop use. Even heavy use. And thats another thing, 20 - 200 MB files are nothing for photoshop. So it sounds to me like there might be a problem with your photoshop install. You've got TONS of power and should easily be able to work on 1GB files or larger (files that big will be slow-goings though). I wouldn't worry about going to 8 GB at all for now.

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