5 Things to Know About RAM for Large Photoshop Files

16GB is the minimum, not the ideal If you regularly work with 300MB+ PSDs with many layers and smart objects, 16GB will likely run out before the file finishes loading.

32GB is the sweet spot for big files Photoshop will use all the RAM you give it. Going from 16GB to 32GB cuts load times noticeably when handling large, complex files.

RAM shortage forces slow scratch disk swapping When RAM runs out, Photoshop swaps data to your scratch disk, which is much slower. This causes load times to crawl.

Upgrading from 8GB to 16GB is a big improvement You will see a real difference jumping from 8GB to 16GB. But if you already have 16GB and still wait, another 16GB helps further.

Your scratch disk must be a fast SSD with free space Even with 32GB of RAM, a slow or full scratch disk will bottleneck performance. Use an SSD with plenty of room.