Nikon Capture 4.xx RAW converter

[Canis Vulpes]

Using the newfound speed improvement procedure, the image 'loads' much faster, 1 Second. NC then performs 'processing' which is as fast until 50% complete then slows to 25% of the first 50%. I am sure this is due to RAM. I have three slots for memory and currently occupied are two slots with 512MB in each. If I can place a 1GB stick in the free slot then great otherwise I can only upgrade RAM to 1.5GB.

As I am getting older I am losing interest in computers and I am sure if I can mix memory capacities.

The drive light is always on and I have moved the Nikon Capture temporary folder to a free drive on its own IDE channel for maximum speed. Windows scratch pad (Virtual Memory) disk is on the windows drive separate from NC again I figured for max access speed.

[nirofo]

Sticking a 1gb stick of ram in the spare slot might not be such a good idea, you may find it slows down your computer even more, that's if it works at all! I would fill your spare slot with a 512 mb stick only, or renew the lot with 3 sticks of 1 gb ram, (costly!)

If your drive light is constantly on then I think sticking in the extra memory probably won't make that much difference, I think you may need to look at a bigger drive or remove some of the programs, files, pictures etc that hard drives become cluttered with. A complete re-format and re-intall of your operating system and programs might be an even better bet! (don't forget to backup your files and pictures etc, if you go down this road).

nirofo.

[robski]

Have you tried Disk defragmentation ?
How full is the disk ? Disk I/O performance tends to drop off when over 80% full.
The other thing to do is lookup (google) the tech spec of your disk drive(s), Spindle speed, cache memory and head access times. On a budget PC the disks tend to be lower performance spec than the top end machines. This is where SCSI drives have the advantage because their more complex controller can handle multiple read/write sequences. You maybe able to replace the IDE drive with a higher spec version without too much extra expense.

A 7200 rpm drive compared to a 10,000 rpm drive is 25% slower.

Also if you do a Ctrl + Alt + Del and then click on the task manager button. You need to get screen shots of the performance and processes tabs whilst the machine is being trashed these should indicate if you are infact running short of RAM.

Some programs memory map files rather than pull a big file into physical memory but this requires a good disk sub system speed to give good performance.

It maybe this program was designed to use server based hardware rather than a desktop machine.

[nirofo]

A new SCSI hard drive may well be ok for a MAC, but a PC would require a SCSI driver card, special leads, new drivers, and they are difficult to set up on a PC if you are not familiar with them! Oh yes and they are expensive, especially the big capacity drives. A typical 300 Gb Serial ATA hard drive will cost approx £70 inc, a 146 Gb SCSI drive will set you back approx £260, and that's just for the drive.

nirofo.

[Leif]

Originally Posted by nirofo

A new SCSI hard drive may well be ok for a MAC, but a PC would require a SCSI driver card, special leads, new drivers, and they are difficult to set up on a PC if you are not familiar with them! Oh yes and they are expensive, especially the big capacity drives. A typical 300 Gb Serial ATA hard drive will cost approx £70 inc, a 146 Gb SCSI drive will set you back approx £260, and that's just for the drive.

nirofo.

Yes SATA is the route I would take were I to upgrade the disk for the reasons you give.

I doubt adding 1GB RAM would slow the system. I have 1GB + 512 MB and that was much faster than 2 x 512 MB. In the old days you had to match memory as it was in paired banks. I think DDR2 as used in Dells also needs to be in matching pairs, but if you have 3 slots, then it sounds like you do not need to match.

Leif

[robski]

That's why I did not suggest a SCSI drive because I know Stephen wants a cheap fix. Maybe a faster IDE drive will help if his hardware does not support SATA. The thing is we need to find out what resource the program is struggling to get. Is it purely RAM or slow disks ? if he looks at the performance data in the task manager it will show if all the physical RAM has been used.

[Canis Vulpes]

Absolutely,

A cheap fix is on the cards. I realise the computer is now considered old and I do not feel it economical purchasing items when I will probably change the computer entirely shortly after new Windows OS is available.

I shall add RAM in due course but purchasing a SATA drive sounds good as I could use it in the new system as photographing in RAW permanently uses lots of HDD space, 10MB each compressed NEF.

I talked to the guys at the local computer shop and they warn of timing issues when populating all three memory slots. They suggest purchasing a 1GB stick and if it does not work then remove the two 512MB and be left with the new 1GB. Sales scam I know but I could e-bay the 512's and put toward another 1GB from the same source thus matching timing peramaters.

I need to check if the motherboard is compatible with SATA.

[robski]

Rather than stabbing around in the dark if you can get the PC to display the task manager when you are running the program.

Example attached - PC has 512MB of which 40% is available.

[Canis Vulpes]

Glad the task manager was mentioned. I use it all the time. NC has no progress indicator and noise reduction used to kill the computer for ages - rendered it totally useless. I use task manager to see when noise reduction is finished and then transfer to CS. Processor is often 100% during this process and memory around 50% or so, as I recall.

I'll take a capture later and let you chaps see what you think.

[robski]

From what you have just said sounds more like disk than RAM.

Whilst you in that area also click on the processes tab. Most of the columns are hidden. View > select columns menu will reveal extra data. displaying Peak Mem, VM Mem, I/O Reads and I/O writes would be useful to see too.

Another area of setting maybe useful to know. right click on my computer. Select properties from list
then click on the advanced tab
then click on performance options

what is the system optimized for ? Application or Background
How is your virtual memory setup ?