Optimal Hardware 1

[ralph59]

I am running PhotoShop Elements 4 under Windows XP Pro. My PC has an Intel D865 motherboard with integrated graphics ("Extreme Graphics 2"), an Intel P4 2.08C processor and 1 GB DDR400 ram. I have one 7200 rpm hard drive.
This PC was preveously used exclusively for general office work and web browsing. For these purposes it was plently fast.

However, PhotoShop Elements runs a bit slower than I would like (particularly when redrawing an image. Would any of the following produce a significan improvement?
1: Additional ram.
2: A video board. If so, can you make specific recomendations? Of note: I am not a gamer and do not do video editing.
3: Any other suggestions?
thanks....ralph

 

[fizzak]

Its your video card

First you may be able to have the integrated video allocate more ram from your system ram. Go into your bios and look for a setting like "Video Ram Allocation". They are usually set to 8mb. Max it out but consider how much ram you have left for the system. If you have only 256 I would go no more than 32mb.

A gaming card with at least 128mb of video ram will help you tremendously. If you are not a gamer, Just find a cheap one on ebay. You will need to know if there is an AGP, PCIe, or just a PCI slot in the machine for the card. If this is a name brand lower end machine odds are it does not have an AGP slot. If its a 2004 or newer machine it might have a PCIe slot. If it does you are golden.

 

[fizzak]

Ahh I read the details. Looks like you have an AGP slot on there.

 

[ralph59]

fizzak:
Thanks for your help.
I have 2 BIOS settings that may be useful: AGP aperature size and Frame Buffer Size.
What is the difference between these 2 parameters and which one should I increase?
thanks......ralph

 

[fizzak]

Ahh sorry for the late response. AGP aperature setting may goof up your PCI bus and will not increase performance. The usual setting I have used is 128mb but this is on non-integrated gaming cards. I do not know what the Frame buffer does. If there is not video ram setting I would just get a gaming card. Look for one on ebay, 2 year old used cards go for as little a $10. Just double check you have an AGP slot in there. Should be brown in color. I recommend an nvidia based Geforce card. They are simple to setup.

 

[fizzak]

Oh yea, If you get a card, make sure you disable the integrated video in the bios. There also may be a setting which asks what bus the video card is on, Tell it AGP. Do this before you boot to Windows with the new card.