Question about memory usage in PI XL

[jimojimo]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to pixl, and I have a large project ahead of me. The problem is that I've noticed early on that PI seems to eat up a huge (unreasonable to me) amount of RAM, dipping heavily into the virtual memory.

I've got 512 Meg on the system, and with nothing else running, I look at the Windows XP Task Manager in the Processes tab, and PI (Iedit.exe) has about 40 Meg memory. Fine. But when I open a simple 20 Meg .jpg, it goes to over 400 Meg--and I haven't even started to edit anything. I've turned the Undo completely off because I thought this was the culprit, but it's not. When I start cutting and pasting and doing filters and all, the pagefile goes past 2 Gigs of use.

I guess my questions are:
What's up with that?
and:
Is this common--do you all see similar behaviour? Should I just accept it and maybe add memory to the system? Or is there some setting I should tweak? I don't have any system problems that I'm aware of--all other programs on my system run extremely fast and efficiently. But when PI runs, I stare at a hourglass and listen to the disk churn.
Thanks for any insight...
--Jim

[NetButch]

If you are planning on using PIXL alot, I would recommend getting a video card with at least 8X AGP and 128MB on it (make sure your mother board supports 8x) ... it is common for the newer photo programs to eat alot of memory. What video card are u using now?

[MaryLouW]

I was wondering that too - why the huge file size? Mine too are in the 2-3 meg size. Not sure what I'd do with one that big. Maybe that's why they have the partial load - it's very nice because you just load in the portions you want to work on and when you save, it updates the image.

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[gidgit]

Hi ML... yea that auto save, though a nice option for some, really just gets in the way for others eh http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Hi Jim... hmm, repetitive tasks... haha...

it's all repetitive tasks when using editors of any sort... Here's to tasks managers, and improved workflow, within all apps http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

While suggesting that I have not noticed such concerns with PIXL, as you have, it should also be noted that I did follow through with such testings as have you... hmmm

I would think that if anybody in the PI community knew of this type of bug, that somebody would have posted such already... ML here for instance, has a PI specific board, to which, should suaid bug been noticed by the members, and brought to attention, then I would think ML would know about it... really http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

so I really don't have an answer for you Jim, not as of yet anyways... we will look further http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[gidgit]

I have but a old Visioneer scanner, as well a very small .8 megapix Canon A5, so that would explain my part in all of this http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

....interesting that your scans are better than your photo's... with me it is the other way around, no, make that... they both are about the same... and niether close to what my old Konika was able to produce...

It's all in the glass I tell ya http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

As for the app, well... maybe next year will see this kid sporting some new and much more powerful toys, to which I will remember this thread, and be sure to attemt same just to see ...

and will do such in every version from 4 up, just to get a better glimpse towards just what all the bells and whistles have cost us... the hard part is factoring in the workflow concerns, as in time spent processing vs time spent creating via PI's wide array of user friendly, multiple level, tool options...

I feel for you no doubt, and do hope you find a resolve... more ram http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif ...

and... uggg, no doubt, if something bogs and leaks...

and, yes, please keep us posted with this... most interesting http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

thanks Jim http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[coaster1robert]

Maybe you need,a good memory manager?
you should try(cachman)
http://www.outertech.com/
it's a great program!

[gidgit]

I duuno, I think it may have something to do with the specific system config... I mean I only have a very small Celeron 400, with only 256 megs ram and a puny 8 meg 64 bit v card, and am running Win98... to which, well... I mean it isn't gonna win me any grsfx races for sure,but yea... I am able to use PI just fine, and I have tried out XL and didn't have any bumps along the way... sure I can see the progress bar when applying fx. and of course I only have the undo level set to 50, and auto save is a must go from the git go, but yea... it even runs on my wife's machine... 266 Celeron (no L2), 192 megs ram, 16 meg 128 bit vcard...

so in short... I really dunno what to say, other than it works as PI always does, over here http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

hope you get this resolved http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[NetButch]

I have a question for you jim.

what are you doing that your files are SO big?

my RAW files from my Nikon D100 are only 2 or 3 MB? you are working with 30MB files at 600 DPI? are you printing billboards?

just curious.<grin>

[jon spain]

From what I've been told elsewhere, the installed fonts don't consume much memory in 98SE onwards because small pointers alone are loaded (unlike 95). So this may not help but I'll be happy to be told I'm wrong if I am

Jon

[MaryLouW]

Just had another thought - are you running the autosave feature? that really hogs up memory because it has to keep track of where you are and watch the clock so it can save according to the time you specified.

MaryLou

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