Using an external SSD for caching
It is recommend to add an external fast SSD which is dedicated to just ON1's Scratch space and PerfectBrowseCache. Would that also be advisable on an older Mac or PC with a USB-3 port which tranfers up to 5 gB/s?
Thanks for the advice.
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Yes, the idea is to give the scratch space & browse cache their own I/O channel so the data transfers don't have to wait for other I/O to finish before they can start.
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Interesting....can you please explain better how to configure PR to use a dedicated SSD to improve its I/O performance ?
Shall the images be saved in this SSD or they can remain in the current HD?
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Just go in PR prefs, system and move the 2 files cache & browse on the SSD. It can take some time during the first time if you have many datas.
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Andrea, No, you do not want your pictures on the same drive as the program's scratch space. This is the whole idea behind adding an SSD just for the scratch space. It gives the program's working space its own I/O channel that isn't used by anything else. You'll want to connect the SSD to its own connection, not through a hub or daisy chained to another drive.
Once you've added the new drive go to Preferences > System. There are two Move buttons, one for the Scratch space and the other for the PerfectBrowseCache.
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Will I realize any benefit if I get a SSD drive and hook it up to my USB 2.0 ports? I have an older machine and I'm not sure how much it would cost to add USB 3.0 ports and if it would really be worth it.
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You should still see a performance improvement. The idea is to open up another lane of I/O traffic.
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Brian:
Right now my Scratch and Cache are located on my (SSD) C drive which is getting low on free-memory so moving these to a separate SSD drive makes sense. As a further benefit, what area of performance improvement might I see -- quicker thumbnail access? better brush tracking? something else? (Currently I am not using any Browser catalog/album features. My searches and access are all manual).
Gerry
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Yes, you should see quicker thumbnail access (if you move the PerfectBrowseCache there) and better overall performance from the program as all its internal working space I/O now has its own traffic lane. I can't say about the brush performance, sorry. I'm on a Mac and I don't have the same hardware & driver issues to contend with. Still, I do have to occasionally go in to preferences and tweak my performance settings. Less & less with each update's performance improvements.
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Thanks Brian, I'll give it a try.
Even if not much performance improvement (PR2020 seems to be working well, as is) I'll be moving about 30 GB from my C drive, Couldn't hurt!
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Last weekend I moved both cache files to an external ssd disk and the performance is indeed much better. So thanks Brian for the explanation.
Thera are two points of attention though:
- it took approx. 9 hours to move my perfect browse cache. Way more than expected.
- It looked like that when a photo is opened the move stops at a certain moment. Not sure, but when I restarted the process with none selected it had a regular pace.
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Is there a reliable way to work out the appropriate cache size and hence the appropriate size of an external SSD drive for those wanting to move their cache to a dedicated drive?
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You can use your operating system's file browser (Finder or Window Explorer) to select the current cache and see what size it is currently. There is also this from the Catalogs and Caches document in the ON1 Knowledge Base.
Q. How much space does the cataloged folder cache and databases take up, and can I move them?
A. The preview cache can grow to be pretty significant. Its size depends on the number of photos cataloged, the size of the primary display, and the preview size option you select when creating a cataloged folder.
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thanks Brian, I have a while before my catalog finishes building but this is great info. I've been running short of space on C: and performance is slower than expected so I'm hoping the dedicated SSD is an improvement
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Be sure to give it its own connection to the computer, not a shared connection, and move the program’s scratch space there as well. You’ll see an improvement.
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