Do I need more than 2GB of Ram?

[KevinCarter]

I'm on on Mac 10.4.2, with dual 1.8 G5; and 2 GB of Ram, and have scratch disc 300 GB. CS2. I have memory usage max set to 70%

And generally 90% of time everything is cool.

But today, even after a fresh reboot, working on a 16 bit 100MB file and just clicking on layers eyeballs on/off, beachball coming up lot. Real sluggish. And the efficiency said 100%; info palette scratch said only halp of the ram PS uses was being used, so bit confused.

I've been advised that going to max out a 4GB Ram, really wont change performance much. You never really know until you do it.

It's just a drag that the venture would cost at least $500, as have to pull out the 4 512's that are in there.

Don't want to pull out my ram and spend $500 if I'm not 95% is would have helped today's situation. Can I know?

What do you all think? thanks!

[brucefraser]

The beachball indicates that the OS, not Photoshop, is being starved of RAM. You can try reducing the 70% allocated to Photoshop, which will give the OS more RAM, but your efficiency may start to drop below 100%.

I took my dual 2GHz G5 from 2.5 to 4, then 6, then 8GB RAM, and got an improvement from each bump, but the biggest boost was going from 2.5 to 4GB.

[KevinCarter]

Wow, thanks Bruce, like most, I would have thought the opposite, but I'll reduce that to 55%. And then see how it goes, And then ...fork over the cash if need be.