I know the answer is out there but can't get 'search' to work, so here goes.

[flamin lib]

I am editing photos and the process is slow. It stops to execute commands, save work and it takes quite some time. Also the cursor lags and it acts like it's buffering.

Hardware is:
Lenovo C460
Intel G3220T @ 2.6 Ghz with MMX support
4 Gb ram, 1.43 aavailable
64 bit OS

Just added an XP-Pen tablet input device but the problem pre-dates this modification.

Software:
Windows 10
Corel Paintshop Pro 2018 (newest version just out).

Will more RAM help? If so how much? 4 GB or 8?
edit to add: Not running any other software while editing. Nothing else open, just PSP.

[Break time]

1. What video

What are you using for a video card.... and more ram would be a help...8 gigs at least...

My bad here, didn't catch it.. this is a Laptop then more ram will help but you are pretty much stuck with video as is...

[flamin lib]

3. Okay, more ram it is. nt

[JayhawkSD]

2. Running Win 10 with 4 Gb RAM is a nonstarter.

You need at least 8 Gb to do much of anything with Win10, and 12 would be better.

Are you editing photos or videos? Editing photos should not take any time at all, although I have no experience with Corel.

I use Irfanview, which is freeware, and even with extensive alteration of tone and color depth, the change takes less time than my fingers on the keyboard does, and saving is instantaneous. Editing videos may a while, but photos? No.

[flamin lib]

4. Okay then, 8 gigs it is. nt

[earthshine]

5. Sudden slow downs indicate that the hard drive and processor are busy doing other things.

It may be the case that your computer is running real-time hard disk and memory scans for malware when you are trying to get work done. Try shutting it off temporarily to see if it helps.

You might not be aware of it, but each photo-editing maneuver involves writing to the disk in the designated TEMP folder. It's twice as much if the PSP undo system is enabled, and it probably is.

If there's contention for the disk or processors, there will be stuttering on the screen.

You could upgrade the drive to an SSD, and it would help substantially with these disk-access problems.

This particular computer is not designed to be a production-oriented workstation. Adding memory and a new drive will only get you so far.

It's definitely a nice one for watching videos and doing email. Real nice.

[flamin lib]

6. "Dammit, Jim, I'm a photographer not a hardware engineer . . ."

So, now that we know my main purpose for owning one, what specs do I look for in my next 'puter? I know Apple is the defacto standard for graphic arts but the software I've used for a decade or more isn't compliant. That limits me to the PC platform.

Educate me.

[earthshine]

7. Sounds like you need a Spock to elucidate it for you.

Or better yet, get the Morgan Freeman character from any movie he is in. (He’s always splaining stuff.)

Too bad for you that I’m much more of a Kirk-type character. I just give orders telling people what computers to buy.

That having been said, before buying a computer, you need to get a real handle on what your needs are.

Editing on a computer is like using addictive drugs. First it starts with word processing. Then you need something stronger, and that’s photo editing. Next you move on to audio editing, which easily parlays you into video editing.
Each progressive drug is 10 times more potent than the last. That is to say, it takes 10 times the computer power (or time) to process photos compared to text. And 10 times that for audio. And 10 times that for SD video. And four times that for HD video. And four times that for 4k video).

It just took my computer two hours to render a five-minute 4K vid. But because my computer has 8 processor cores, I was able to do other things during the rendering.

You are using Paint Shop Pro. I am currently using version 15. Have been using it since version 5. New version, same bugs. PSP crashes a lot. That means you need to keep autosave on. But any time it does an autosave, it completely locks you out of the keyboard and mouse until the operation is done. You need to be aware of this and it may account for some of your problems.

Here are some other recommendations with very simplified explanations:

- Monitor: get bigger monitor. The photos you are taking have so many more pixels than the monitor you're using.

- Processor: The number of cores determines the number of different programs (threads) that can be simultaneously run. Speed is measured in cycles per second. That tells you how many instructions can be executed per second on each core. More cores and more speed equates to a much smoother user experience. (No stuttering.)

- RAM: more is merrier, but with diminishing returns. 16 or 32 gigs will be enough. The more RAM you have, the more the computer can do in memory, and the less it has to access the hard drive.

- Hard drive: You want a solid-state drive as your C: drive. Traditional mechanical drives should only be used as ancillary drives for long-term or archival storage.

When it comes to learning things, say about processor cores, Google is your friend, and YouTube is your best friend.

Go to YouTube and type in any of these terms. A list of videos will appear made by people like you and me for the benefit of people like you and me.

I currently am using Vegas Pro to do video editing. I am learning everything I need from YouTube. There are so many videos about how to use Paint Shop Pro.

[flamin lib]

8. Ok, that helps a lot. I'm using the tutorials on YT to good advantage.nt

[csziggy]

9. In addition to RAM make sure you have enough disk space for a scratch disk

That is what PhotoShop calls it - basically it is the disk drive space it uses to save versions of your images as you work with them. PhotoShop loves a huge amount of scratch disk space.

I had a dedicated 128GB SSD drive just for my PhotoShop scratch disk when I built my "new" computer a few years back. When I added a 4 TB drive (in addtion to the 1 TB hybrid drive for Windows and the older 3 TB for my other data) to store scanned images I didn't have a connection for that disk drive so while it's still in the computer it's not hooked up. Now PhotoShop take whatever space it wants from the free space on the drive partition where I sort old documents after I scan them.

Between that and the 32 GB of RAM I put into this computer PhotoShop does not slow down at all when processing huge images.

[flamin lib]

10. Disk space isn't an issue as I edit the quantity of images like a miser.

Only the best, display quality pictures survive. I've ordered more RAM and Corel chat made some suggestions that helped pending the additional memory.

[csziggy]

11. Hope the RAM works!

I haven't used Paintshop Pro for about twenty years so I'm not familiar with what it needs.

I'm trying to cut down on the images on the hard drives in my computer - backing the full sized ones to external drives. But I can't eliminate any of the photos - I am archiving old family photos with the idea that no one will need to re-scan them. I scan at extremely high resolution to TIFFs, then I convert to full size JPEGs. After that I downsize to smaller JPEGs, edit those and post online.

Between my family and my husband's we have thousands of old photos going back over one hundred and fifty years. Some are the original tintypes, some are the original glass slides, most are the original medium/large format (about 4x5&quot negatives. A few we have the old prints made from the negatives - many all we have are negatives.

Until I started this project most of these pictures had not been seen by anyone currently alive.

[ManiacJoe]

12. Video editing really wants 16 gig of memory or more.