Memory Card Readers - USB 2 vs 3

[Jonathan Huyer]

But, I just looked at Window's "Resource Manager" while scrolling through images at 100% in lightroom. My CPU is ~50-60%, data transfer is ~50 MB/sec....but RAM. I am really pushing my RAM. As soon as I get going in lightroom, my RAM usage goes from 4GB to ~7+ GB of my 8GB sticks (which, in 2011 was pretty good).

I am thinking I may need to drop some new sticks into my system. Anyone that is more computer savvy that myself have thoughts?

I think you've nailed it there. I'm running with 32 GB of RAM, and when LR is chugging away I've seen the resource monitor go up as high as 16 GB usage. So when your system starts to top out at 8 GB, I'm guessing it begins to use the hard drive instead. Or maybe it just throttles back the processing to keep within the RAM limit. If your system can handle 16 GB RAM, it would probably be your most cost-effective upgrade.

[Kayaker72]

I think you've nailed it there. I'm running with 32 GB of RAM, and when LR is chugging away I've seen the resource monitor go up as high as 16 GB usage. So when your system starts to top out at 8 GB, I'm guessing it begins to use the hard drive instead. Or maybe it just throttles back the processing to keep within the RAM limit. If your system can handle 16 GB RAM, it would probably be your most cost-effective upgrade.

Thanks Jonathan. I checked and my motherboard can actually handle 32 GB. Knowing that you see up to 16 GB while using LR, I ordered 32 GB.

I am sure my 2011 home build will begin to fail at some point. But, right now I am hoping to get several more years out of it.