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SSD vs ram (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter njlarsen
- Start date
Think the extra RAM is your better bet for improving the performance when photo editing. You can put in 16 GB for much less than $100, which will allow your computer to pull in all the photo editing data and have it available at once, without going to the hard drive. Even if you use an SSD, access is much slower than to RAM. The main effect of an SSD is much faster boot times and snappier program loads, while RAM helps speed processing.
JTweedie
Well-known member
They're really two different things, with RAM important in the processing of calculations by the computer - the more RAM you have the more calculations it is able to perform and therefore you'd get a faster computer. Extra RAM will make a noticeable difference to the working performance of your PC, you'd find that you might be able to more easily more programs open at the same time, or work more easily with larger files.
The SSD will make a performance improvement when it comes to saving and loading documents and programs.
The SSD will make a performance improvement when it comes to saving and loading documents and programs.
Think that if you have gobs of RAM, 16Gb or better, the computer does not need to access the SSD at all while it is doing the image processing, because everything can be pulled into the RAM. The SSD only gets accessed when fetching the next image.
HantaYo
Well-known member
I am researching a new PC and ran across this article:
http://improvephotography.com/35216/windows-photo-editing-super-guide/
I will do the SSD over memory. Memory is a lot easier to upgrade as well, depending on what computer you are using. My Mac mini has a fusion drive (part SSD and part mechanical) and programs open up in a snap. I believe the SSD compensates for the less than stellar hardware of the Mac Mini (especially the graphic card). No matter how much memory you have, programs are still going to be writing temporary files to the hard drive as well as accessing your images. There are always reads/writes to the hard drive. Also, a lot of gain in additional memory depends on the software program, whereas the hard drives is not as dependant on good software programing. Depending on the size of your photo library, if it is on the SSD as well as your photo editing program, everything is going to scream!
On a side note, I likely will be migrating away from Mac back to PCs. Hardware is significantly cheaper, you have a lot more hardware options, and so much easier to upgrade- if you can even do it on your Mac.
http://improvephotography.com/35216/windows-photo-editing-super-guide/
I will do the SSD over memory. Memory is a lot easier to upgrade as well, depending on what computer you are using. My Mac mini has a fusion drive (part SSD and part mechanical) and programs open up in a snap. I believe the SSD compensates for the less than stellar hardware of the Mac Mini (especially the graphic card). No matter how much memory you have, programs are still going to be writing temporary files to the hard drive as well as accessing your images. There are always reads/writes to the hard drive. Also, a lot of gain in additional memory depends on the software program, whereas the hard drives is not as dependant on good software programing. Depending on the size of your photo library, if it is on the SSD as well as your photo editing program, everything is going to scream!
On a side note, I likely will be migrating away from Mac back to PCs. Hardware is significantly cheaper, you have a lot more hardware options, and so much easier to upgrade- if you can even do it on your Mac.
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