RAM? Video card? Both?

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FullShane

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Mar 11, 2017
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Hey there folks, I have a bit of a dilemma. I do a lot of animating, illustrating, and photo editing, while running a dozen or so chrome tabs. I used to run an older version of Photoshop, so I could get away with it. I can't anymore. I got sponsored, so now I run Photoshop CC and After Affects CC a lot, but my workflow is crap because all I get is constant, seemingly neverending error messages and random crashes when I don't feed the programs enough memory (both the programs and my machine will crash at times). I upgraded to 8 gigs when I first got my laptop, and I dug around on some dell forums and learned that my processor can handle up to 32 gigs. I'm kinda new to all this, so I'm not sure if the 32 gigs is overkill or not, or if the problem also lies in my video card. So, in short: do I upgrade to 16 or 32 gigs of ram, and should I get a new video card?

Here are some specs:
Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i7 2760QM @ 2.40 ghz
8Gb dual channel ddr3 ram
Dell Inc 038C0K (Cpu 1)
Nvidia NVS 4200M 511mb
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB


Any input is appreciated.
 
Solution
shrapnel_indie
With your workload, I'd recommend no less than 16GB of RAM, 32 might be a little overkill, but it may not be at all. Now, you are dealing with a laptop, so, hopefully the system board can support it like what you have heard. Laptops,at least the majority of them can't just update graphics chips, unless maybe your laptop is new enough for Thunderbolt and/or USB 3.0

However, lets go a little further here... Task Manager has some limited behavior in monitoring Physical Memory. On the processes tab, looking down at the bottom, What % is Physical Memory at? If it is high, 90%+, I'd definitely do the RAM upgrade as long as the laptop supports
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shrapnel_indie

shrapnel_indie

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Jan 21, 2010
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With your workload, I'd recommend no less than 16GB of RAM, 32 might be a little overkill, but it may not be at all. Now, you are dealing with a laptop, so, hopefully the system board can support it like what you have heard. Laptops,at least the majority of them can't just update graphics chips, unless maybe your laptop is new enough for Thunderbolt and/or USB 3.0

However, lets go a little further here... Task Manager has some limited behavior in monitoring Physical Memory. On the processes tab, looking down at the bottom, What % is Physical Memory at? If it is high, 90%+, I'd definitely do the RAM upgrade as long as the laptop supports
 
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F

FullShane

Prominent
Mar 11, 2017
2
0
510



I just realized I didn't mention what laptop I have. I have a Dell Latitude E6420.

I checked what my physical memory was running at with Chrome, After Affects, and Photoshop open. It was in nearing 80%, and that was without anything even open. I've seen photoshop eat up 7 of my 8 gigs running on its own (no other programs running, but with a composition that's tasking for it). I guess the only thing left for me to do is gauge whether the 16 or 32 are appropriate.


Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it very much.
 
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shrapnel_indie

shrapnel_indie

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You are welcome.
 
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