PS6 ext animation slowing computer

[McBryde]

Hi - I'm making animations in PS6 extended using timeline.
Some of the files are a bit hefty - 5 or 6 smart object files deep - and are making the computer go really slow [I have 8GB RAM and 1067Mhz].

I wondered if it might be caused by too many bits of info going backwards and forwards in the engine room ... and a defrag is necessary....??

I understand that the Mac only defrags files up to 10MB ... so these 60+MB files will be left out.

It starts to seize up after I've been working on a files ... going down into the deeper and deeper smart objects [eg a body with smart object arms going to smart hands going to smart fingers, etc]

Do you think I need to get a defrag program for this or would there be a cache somewhere which I can empty when the going gets rough, perhaps?

I don't have much else running at the time, by the way.

Many thanks

john

 

[chscag]

You didn't supply us with any information about your Mac and which version of OS X you're running, therefore, we can't provide you with an accurate answer. Your Mac may be slowing down for a number of reasons.

 

[McBryde]

Sorry [Duh - bad boy]

I'm using a Mac Mini [2009]
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
OSX 10.9.4

There seem to be so many background operations using up RAM..

When I open the last file I was using, it uses 549mb [ about the same as Safari [currently with 4 open pages @ 45mb ea] and Mail]. The total RAM used is 3/4 of memory.

After working on it for a while [diving down into the smart objects] it rose to 1GB [see screenshot].

I thought 8GB RAM was plenty....

 

[chscag]

Thanks for posting back your specs. Looking at what you show and what's going on, you have some hefty requirements for what you're doing although the swap file is not being hit.

Your memory looks OK which leads me to ask... how much free space is remaining on your hard drive and how often do you restart? We can try a defrag to speed things up but if your HDD is being pushed for free space, a defrag won't do any good.

Before you consider doing a defrag, run a verify on the hard drive first. Let's see if there are any errors that might be slowing things down. You can also try using the free "OnyX" maintenance and cleanup tool. It's the only one we recommend and is safe to use. Download from here. OnyX will also do the verify for you and in addition check the SMART status of your hard drive.

Let us know how the above goes and we can proceed from there if you think you need to do more. The iDefrag program can be downloaded from here ($39.95)

 

[McBryde]

I wrote you a detailed reply, but got timed out and lost it

Will try again on Monday.
Thanks
J

 

[McBryde]

I've used only about 1/3 of the memory [of about 300GB].

I downloaded that onyx prig [nice!] and ran a test = ok.

I had to restart often before I wiped the HD and reinstalled everything a few weeks ago. Since then PS has behaved quite well ... hardly ever hanging. I was concerned that the numbers on the activity monitor were suggesting there was some unaccountable background RAM usage. But I think that was due to my ignorance of how the RAM, scratch etc work [I'm still not up to speed on it].

(I was wondering if an ext SSD scratch would make any difference [where I have a firewire800]... Not that it's going TOO slow right now)

Thanks for your assistance, chscag

 

[chscag]

(I was wondering if an ext SSD scratch would make any difference [where I have a firewire800]... Not that it's going TOO slow right now)

It probably won't make much difference if you have to attach the SSD using USB 2.0 which is what your Mini has for USB. I suppose if you could find a carrier which accepted a SSD and also had a firewire input, it would speed things up. But that might not be easy to find and could be expensive.

 

[pigoo3]

One thought. This PS6 work you are doing. Is this something you did previously on this computer & everything was fine. Or is this something new?

If something new…it's possible that the Mac-Mini is doing the best it can do with the cpu & gpu hardware it has.

- Nick

 

[McBryde]

It probably won't make much difference if you have to attach the SSD using USB 2.0 which is what your Mini has for USB. I suppose if you could find a carrier which accepted a SSD and also had a firewire input, it would speed things up. But that might not be easy to find and could be expensive.

Ah - that sounds messy! I think I'll just make do.... It's certainly behaving itself pretty well now that I've reinstalled everything.
Thanks chscag

 

[McBryde]

One thought. This PS6 work you are doing. Is this something you did previously on this computer & everything was fine. Or is this something new?

If something new…it's possible that the Mac-Mini is doing the best it can do with the cpu & gpu hardware it has.

- Nick

I was working on it with this computer... It started to get slower and slower - crashing lots.
I wiped the HD and reinstalled everything, and now it seems ok.
I was only under the misimpression that the numbers showing on the activity monitor were telling me that something was eating up a lot of RAM in the background.
A little education from the forum has settled my mind on that score.

Thanks for your suggestions .... I think I'm ok now.

John

 

[McBryde]

Thanks you two for your support.
I'll think about my options.

Best wishes

John