Athlon XP 1700+ too slow for drawing?

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June 9th, 2002, 02:10 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

Athlon XP 1700+ too slow for drawing?

I am trying to draw an image using my pressure & tilt sensitive graphics tablet and unless I move the pen very slowly, what I draw with the pen takes a few seconds before it appears on the screen. Image size is 7*5 inches @ 600DPI (4200*3000 pixels).

Shouldn't an Athlon XP 1700+ be enough for medium resolution image edeting?

Thanks
June 9th, 2002, 02:17 PM
JungleMan1

Has this tablet worked fast on other machines? If so what were the specs of those systems.

Also what interface does the tablet use?

Although I'm also thinking the video card...what video card is in the system.
June 9th, 2002, 02:31 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by JungleMan:
Has this tablet worked fast on other machines? If so what were the specs of those systems.
>No, my other systems were way to slow to do image editing (Pentium 166 & Pentium II 450)

Also what interface does the tablet use?
>The tablet connects to a USB port

Although I'm also thinking the video card...what video card is in the system.
>ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (64MB DDR)
<hr /></blockquote>
June 9th, 2002, 02:38 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

I also only have 256MB of DDR RAM, could that be the problem? (Image size is 36.1MB)
June 9th, 2002, 02:56 PM
JungleMan1

That might be the problem...DDR, I assume?

Do you have Windows 2000/XP? If so, open the Task Manager and see how much main memory the image is using. Is this in Photoshop or what?

Tell me how much memory it's using...
June 9th, 2002, 03:04 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

Yes I'm usign photoshop in XP pro and have 256MB DDR RAM with a RAID 0 array of 80GB (2 * 40GB).

Photoshp.exe is using 6,300 K, now that I started drawing again (didn't use photoshop in the last 10-20 minutes) it went up to 118,576 K. There are about 40-45 other processes running.
June 9th, 2002, 03:43 PM
JungleMan1

118576K, that's all? :confused:

I have Photoshop, Outlook, and Internet Explorer, among some other smaller apps running right now.

Are you sure that measurement is right, that seems way too low..
June 9th, 2002, 03:46 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

That's the memory that photoshop alone is using, isn't that what you where asking?
June 9th, 2002, 05:34 PM
Outcoded

That should be easily fast enough. Do you have any other USB devices connected? If so, try without (including hubs).

Make sure all your drivers are up to date, Windows' built in tablet drivers are pretty poor, so make sure you're not using those.
June 9th, 2002, 05:41 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Outcoded:
That should be easily fast enough. Do you have any other USB devices connected? If so, try without (including hubs).

Make sure all your drivers are up to date, Windows' built in tablet drivers are pretty poor, so make sure you're not using those.<hr /></blockquote>Yes I have 7 USB devices but none of them are in use. I use the pen all the time as my mouse because I work twice as fast with a pen and I HATE mouses and it's only slow when drawing high resolution images so USB bandwidth isn't the problem, the cursor in photopaint moves with the pen, only the "ink" itself appears a few seconds later.

And I am using the latest drivers for my tablet, the built in ones are horrible, I get like 75DPI resolution instead of 2540DPI and the built in ones aren't even pressure or tilt sensitive.

Thanks
June 9th, 2002, 05:45 PM
JungleMan1

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com:
That's the memory that photoshop alone is using, isn't that what you where asking?<hr /></blockquote>Ohhh...hahaha no I was asking how much total system memory is in use. Go to the last tab of the Task Manager and it's the second graph...to the left of the graph you'll see total memory used. :)

I'm thinking it's well over 256MB.
June 9th, 2002, 05:51 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

I'm guessing you mean the 3rd tab ("Performance"). The PF file usage was 276MB.
June 9th, 2002, 06:16 PM
DocPC

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com:
Yes I'm usign photoshop in XP pro and have 256MB DDR RAM with a RAID 0 array of 80GB (2 * 40GB).

Photoshp.exe is using 6,300 K, now that I started drawing again (didn't use photoshop in the last 10-20 minutes) it went up to 118,576 K. There are about 40-45 other processes running.<hr /></blockquote>Whoa!!! 40-45 OTHER process's???? Wrong answer.

You need to be at around 15 to 20 to make any processor/memory intensive program work for you.

Try shutting down the unused crap and do it again.

Same thing as with 98, ME, etc. SYSTEM RESOURCES!!!
June 9th, 2002, 06:21 PM
ClickHere2Surf.com

Who are you *EDITED BY SOWULO*? Are you the admin "SOWULO" from before?
June 9th, 2002, 07:20 PM
DocPC

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by *EDITED BY SOWULO*:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ClickHere2Surf.com:
Yes I'm usign photoshop in XP pro and have 256MB DDR RAM with a RAID 0 array of 80GB (2 * 40GB).

Photoshp.exe is using 6,300 K, now that I started drawing again (didn't use photoshop in the last 10-20 minutes) it went up to 118,576 K. There are about 40-45 other processes running.<hr /></blockquote>Whoa!!! 40-45 OTHER process's???? Wrong answer.

You need to be at around 15 to 20 to make any processor/memory intensive program work for you.

Try shutting down the unused crap and do it again.

Same thing as with 98, ME, etc. SYSTEM RESOURCES!!!<hr /></blockquote>Uh.............no. DocPC. Just a gesture.