I have both a MacPro and an i7 Core PC and am on the fence deciding which one to use for my photography.

I don't mind Vista but it's slow opening up images in Bridge..My folders contain a few hundred images at times and the files are produced with a Canon 1ds3..

I've played around with some cache settings, etc. but I still find it rather slow displaying the images..I have 6 GIGS of ram and not much else on the computer..

Any suggestions on how I might be able to speed up loading up the images to display in bridge? I've tried different sizes of course but wonder if I am missing something obvious?

Thanks for reading!

There's the normal Vista stuff. Turn off (disable) readyboost and superfetch. You can also turn down indexing to a low power setting in power options. All these make a difference because they all kick in every time you load Bridge.

Gordon

flash wrote:
There's the normal Vista stuff. Turn off (disable) readyboost and superfetch. You can also turn down indexing to a low power setting in power options. All these make a difference because they all kick in every time you load Bridge.

Gordon

Thank you Gordon. I am a complete Newbie with Vista, I know very little..where do I find these settings to change?

Hit the start button and type "services". You'll get a huge list. There you need to disable (not just stop the service) readyboost and superfetch. For the search options right clkick on the battery icon and select "power options". Then choose "change plan settings" and then "change advanced settings". Find the search and indexing in the list and change to power saver.

Also if you use anti-virus you should, if possible, exclude Bridge and Photoshop from being checked on launch.

One last thing. Is this a factory install or a clean install of Vista? Vista reacts badly to "bloatware". If you can remove it, or do a "vanilla" (ie: from a MS Vista disc not a recovery DVD) then Vista will run faster. Also make sure you have the latest service packs installed. there were good performance boosts there too. Also, stop if you can, any stuff running on start up you don't really need, like folder watching from your DVD burning software or skype/messenger etc.

I had Vista running as fast as XP for PS work with just these tweaks.

Gordon

Thank you Gordon, will try all these tweaks out in the next day or so and report back!

also if you want to run photoshop CS4 in 64 bit mode you need windows. That alone is a huge advantage, especially when working with large files, since you can use more RAM.

joezasada wrote:
also if you want to run photoshop CS4 in 64 bit mode you need windows. That alone is a huge advantage, especially when working with large files, since you can use more RAM.

Actually you'll need Windows 64 bit, which may add cost. And CS5 should run 64 bit natively in Snow Lepoard. Thge cost of the CS5 upgrade (roumered to be 1st half 2010) may be less than an 64 bit Windows upgrade.

But yes, a 64 bit OS and 64 bit Photoshop do play nice together.

Gordon

64 and 32 bit versions of windows have the same cost.

joezasada wrote:
64 and 32 bit versions of windows have the same cost.

Only if you buy retail discs. OEM Windows installs are one or the other and you'd have to pay for anjupgrade to 64bit if you were delivered a 32 bit system. The OP didn't specify if he had an OEM install or retail discs.

Gordon