slow mac

[kentucky]

using tiger 10.4.9
g-4
1.25 gb ram
1.25 GHz Power Pc
1mb Lc cache

my photoshop is slow.
i have 2 drives. my regular hard drive
and another drive inside.
even if i use the other drive as a scratch disk.
it does not help.
small files are ok. but large files take for ever to open up.

 

[chiph]

What does Activity Monitor say?
Is your CPU maxed out or is there still black area visible?

I'm thinking you don't have enough memory, and the OS is paging to disk.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
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[jmgalvin]

First, what version of PS are you using? After CS1 you need more RAM to run it on a G4, especially CS3.

Second, is it only PS that's slow? If you can open a bunch of other apps, with open docs, and they run ok, it might be PS. If so try quitting PS, trashing prefs and relaunching. If still bad, and everything else is ok, try reloading PS.

Check your dirves to see how much space is left, especially your boot volume. If you're very full, things get messy. you cna move old file/folders to the other drive or throw some stuff away.

You have to be a bit careful on drives for that machine. The rear drive bays have a faster bus speed than the front ones. I beleive it's 100 for the rear and 66 for the front. Check the manual, or check the Apple site for the manual and make sure you have the right drive - but only if at least one is fairly new. If everything was ok before, with both drives, and only PS is acting up, it's more likely a PS problem.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[kentucky]

1.25 ghz.
doesn't that seem extremely slow compared to windows pc's.
i was thinking that may be the problem.

can macs get spyware on them. i am using firefox. won't that prevent spyware

 

[jimoblak]

How are you comparing a 1.25 GHz computer to a Windows PC? That Mac is old and would compare to a 1.25 GHz Windows computer of that time. Depending on your version of Photoshop and the workload that you expect to do, it may work fine or it may be slow.

Yes, Macs can get malware. They don't get it through ActiveX exploits like Windows users get in Internet Explorer so you can use any web browser on Mac.

 

[jmgalvin]

One of my machines is the exact same machine with the same amount of RAM and 2 drives, with the boot drive doing everything and the second one as a mirror of #1 in case of a HD problem. It runs Creative Suite 1 like a dream, never slowing down one bit.

Don't confuse a G processopr with a pentium. The speeds look like less but they work as fast or faster then pentiums of their time, especially with Photoshop (through CS 2) because it was written to take advantage of the architecture.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jimoblak]

Regarding confusing Mac PPC with Windows x86 (Pentium & AMD): I was referring to the 1.25 GHz PPC in particular. At the time of that processor, comparable Windows systems were also listed around the same speed. That was the closest the two processors were in marketed GHz. As time progressed, the GHz values diverged.

Now that Macs allow ideal comparison testing on the same Intel processor, several benchmarks show that CS3 works a little better in Mac than in Windows. But it is not accurate to say PPC was as fast or faster than the Pentiums of their time. Other apps, such as those for 3D, were written for and excelled on x86.

If 'kentucky' intends to compare systems and determine if one is acting slower than it should, it would help to know what he/she is comparing it to.

 

[kentucky]

i opened up my activity monitor.
photoshop cs2 is using 222.61 mb real memory
and 569.26 mb virtual memory

firefox is using 111.78 mb real memory and 492.58 virtual memory.

those are the larges ones.
i do not have illustrator or quark open.
but i am sure when they are alot more memory is used.
does this sound right.

 

[jmgalvin]

The VM is assigned not used. Look at the bottom of AM window and look at Used after clicking System Memory. See how that compares with the total installed RAM. The pie chart also shows free RAM. While there click on Disk usage and see what's used and free, especially on the boot volume.

Have you had this machine for a while or did you just get it? If you just got it, you might consider doing an archive and install of the OS as well as the Apps. It's an older machine (I have the same one though) so it could be gunked up by previous users.



Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[kentucky]

had this mac for 3.5 years. bought new. here at work.

how do i know what graphics card is in it?

i have one more slot to add more ram.
do you think that would help.

 

[jimoblak]

Apple Menu->About this Mac->System Profiler

 

[jmgalvin]

More RAm certainly cannot hurt but, before I did that, I'd make sure that the hard drive is not too full and that the OS and apps are OK. First, I'd trash Photoshop, especially if it's the ONLY app behaving slow, along with its prefs and reinstall. Then I'd do an Arcive and install of OSX. and see how that worked.

If you didn't make any recent changes to the machine and PS just started running slow, there's a good chance there's a problem with that app. I have the exact same machine with the same RAm and 2 drives. The only difference is that I use the original 10.3X and PS CS1. I have no problems.

Lastly, you said you had 2 drives. The rear bays on your mahcine (and mine) have a faster bus speed (100) than the front bays (66). If you're using other than the hard drive that came with the machine with the worng configuration in the wrong slot, this will hurt. That should only happen if you recently added the drive or if you made the newer drive the boot drive (and it's not the right one for the slot)

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jmgalvin]

Forgot - you shoul have an ATI 64 meg video card on the AGP bus.

If it's worked ok all this time, it should not be a problem.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[kentucky]

thanks i found out about the card.

do you think we should add more ram since i still have one slot open

 

[pentode]

I've found Firefox can be an incredible memory/processor hog. You might try shutting it down and see if anything improves.

 

[jmgalvin]

I can't hurt since a 512 meg chip is about 29-35 dollars I asume that right now you have the original 256 plus 2 512s. If it were me, I'd get 2 512s and ditch the original 256 - giving 2 gigs.

Before you do that you still have to look at Activity monitor and see how much actual ram you're using in your normal work setup. If the already installed ram is not maxed out, or close to it, more ram won't help. Just click the System Memory at the bottom of the window to see.

I assume you've alredy trashed Photoshop prefs and relaunched.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5