Clear RAM/temp files on system SSD disk

Consider one of the helpful writers and series, Missing Manual Series.

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920022718.do

http://macperformanceguide.com/search-ajax.html?q=photoshop+scratch+cache

Depends on amount of memory which is why 24GB or more helps, whether using 64-bit kernel mode, and it does seem to still use scratch, which is why people are using a pair of SSDs and a PCIe with RAID ability to handle two.

http://macperformanceguide.com/PhotoshopCS5-performance-memory.html

Adobe: Optimizing PS performance

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html

Google is my friend:

Hi I am editing some large PSB's in CS6 but even though my scratch disks are assigned to seperate drives photoshop still seems to be using my startup disk and filling it up very quickly. It is fine in CS5 which is leading me to think that maybe the autosave is saving to my startup disk. Is there anyway to change the location of the autosave? I did a quick search and couldn't find any info on the location of autosaves on Mac os x 10.7.

The OS swapfile is usually on the startup disk, and the more RAM you use, the larger the OS swapfile gets.

Also, some plugins use the startup disk as a scratch disk.

And yes, the autosave goes in one of the OS temporary file locations, which is usually on the startup disk.

It may not be scratch usage, but the OS or a plugin using space on the startup disk.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/999242

PS: I always give "maybe" or "sometimes" or anything but black and white, because it is in the details and nothing ever is, always shades of gray.

Use a larger SSD. Use a pair. If you mac supports booting from a PCIe SSD like Sonnet Tempo Pro, use that.

And look in Activity Monitor for memory usage and pageouts.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

Got pageouts? Add more RAM.

Mac Pro 8GB Kit

Komputerbay 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR2 667MHz ECC FB-DIMM 240 PIN

http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-PC2-5300F-Buffered-FB-DIMM-Heatspreaders/dp/B0 05HIWD5U/

eBay (Europe)

http://viewitem.eim.ebay.dk/KOMPUTERBAY-8GB-2X4GB-MEMORY-for-APPLE-MAC-PRO-EARLY -2008-31-DDR2-800MHz/140962093586/item?transId=808969265004

You really are thankless for hour of work trying to explain why. He just gave the simplified English. I spent days with Studio. As for confusing... when my first post said where is your primary scratch location you blew it off.

Lobsterass,

If you are able to locate and remove the 'scratch' things from your SSD, it might be a good thing to then apply TRIM. This will help ensure that those things deleted from your SSD are truly understood by the SSD to be gone. Otherwise, the SSd might still act like all that stuff is still on your disk and be slow.

Apple SSD's have TRIM function enabled automatically. If you install your own, non-Apple SSD, there is no TRIM. So you can turn TRIM on by using an app called "Chameleon SSD Optimizer". It is free and it works well. Google the name and you will find it.

Try to keep at least half of your SSD empty of data. I've read that they slow down when filled up.

The Hatter suggested TRIM enabling earlier. Don't be too hard on him. He has so much information to offer, that it is overwhelming sometimes.

I don't know so much, so I can only tell you a little bit.

On Adobe forum, the part in quote italics, some things will always go to the system boot drive even after changing preferences to try to use another disk drive volume.

And none of the existing drives are good candidates for Adobe's cache and scratch.

Scratch: A volume that is only for temporary cached files and which is erased between projects. A separate dedicated partition or disk drive.

So having both a 240GB boot drive, and one or two more SSDs for cache / scratch that I have been trying to "sell the idea" is still something needed to add to resolve this.

The ideal is to use PCIe Sonnet card and a couple of SSDs. 500GB for $299 is a fantastically good price and performance for such purpose. Coupled with the $150 (non RAID, and RAID might be a new "topic" of what why and how) or the better higher performance Pro card for $300. Difference of 500MB/sec vs 900MB/sec.

The SSD RAID makes the system and Adobe run smoother, no delays, and makes up for having less than 24-32GB RAM.

The amount of cache and scratch used is proportional to just how large and number of layers and the type of image files being manipulated.

Which is why the who topic of optimizing performance is detailed. Of course throwing as much RAM at the task and other things helps. So some people use a pair (2) Sonnet Tempo Pro cards and 4 x 500GB SSDs. That plus an Nvidia GTX 570 with 2.5GB video memory or more helps as well and uses CUDA.

Graphic cards have a lot of computing power and when programs are written to take advantage of them, as parts of CS6 is.

Of course some are shooting weddings or professionally and time is money and they want the best quality and don't want to be held back by their computer struggling to do what they ask of it. Some are hobbyists and can afford to wait and put up with some delay.

CS6 can be slow to write to disk. That is another place where putting your projects on a RAID helps. Moving your project to an SSD array, the same as your scratch array, is the fastest location and then you need to SAVE while you work to another location.

Having the system on 120GB SSD made things faster and smoother. The changes that could be made would take the problems and bottlenecks out.

An SSD doing all that IO, all those writes of IO, is a concern. TRIM and keep a couple good current backups. Find and create a 150GB partition to clone the system to. Then boot from the clone with TRIM Enabler and use Disk Utility to REPAIR and invoke TRIM on the SSD.

That also insures that your clone of your system works, is bootable, as intended, and you can rely on CCC for backup of the system.

250GB Samsung 840 $170

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-120GB-internal-MZ-7TD120BW/dp/B009NHAF06/

Sonnet Tempo (non-Pro) $118 for a single SSD or two in non-RAID

http://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Technologies-Tempo-Drives-TSATA6-SSD-E2/dp/B0096P62 G6/

Those pair of products for the array would help. Two SSDs making 500GB scratch and I would even replace the 120GB being used now for the system and keep it as a spare system backup or to save money use it for scratch and use a new 240GB for system until you can buy another 250GB SSD. But $300 to get started with and have a disk location to be used for cache and Adobe scratch.

I feel compelled to defend my colleague The hatter. He has never show mean-ness and has never posted in a way intended to put anyone down.

He responds with the strength of deep knowledge on many issues. He chooses to share this by hitting the high points, mentioning the topics he feels are relevant, and leaves it to the Reader do more research and/or respond with a deeper query on a narrower part of the issues at hand. His replies contain a huge amount of concentrated information. Some Readers have found his replies extremely terse, sometimes inaccessible, but I have never found them to be mean.

If he responded to every query covering all pertinent issues with complete paragraphs following topic sentence organization, he would write a small book in response to every query.

There are other Readers who are better at explaining the details and step-by-step procedures for doing things. The beauty of the Discussions format is that many different Readers can use their own strengths to provide more information from different points of view.

Did you even read his responses?

Yes, I did. I have read many hundreds of his responses. That is why I felt compelled to speak up and say you may be mis-reading his tone.

This written medium is not very good at conveying intent or emotion, and mis-readings of those issues are common, especially among people with completely different backgrounds. Terse-ness should not be mistaken for mean-ness.

Especially in his latest response to you, he went to great lengths to explain some of the more complex issues in remarkably accessible language.

Thanks, I appreciate your words and stepping in. I would guess with most anyone, and more so with so many terms and ideas that are new, that a week's time to sift read and absorb the topic of photoshop performance. And dedication plus $$.

PS scratch though is not new idea, has been around for decades. You get more for your money today with less equipment. Gone ate the days of 8 x 15K SCSI and all that entailed.

There are people who wrote and developed a guide and refined it for optimizing PS that is or was on www.MacGurus.com and a lot of testing and discudsion both in the forum and behind thr scenes. But is probably outdated anf behind the times.

quick cures? Unlikely. Black & white? I had a father who would point to and buy a set of the Encyclopefia Britanica and a dictionary.

Some people print out, save, re-read, get headaches trying to fit the ideas and wrap their head around some topics we went into in depth. And some scoff. I wish I could diagram or photos of products and a virtual mockup of how parts get installed. The utility to benchmark PS performance and how changes sabe time at each step do exist.

And I tried writing a How To or Why I felt TRIM and how to understand SSD TRIM is important to their use and keep SSD working properly after much research, though maybe SSD's are changing more than any new storage device medium ever has and the rules to best use.

I don't think I confuse, other than to rearrange ideas and rearrange the furniture. And that does give people and would me, a headache! Like all of a sudden having to learn 3-D chess after living on a mobius strip.