For Adobe Suite, you can use either 32GB or 64GB of RAM depending on your needs.
For Adobe Suite, you can use either 32GB or 64GB of RAM depending on your needs.
She’s nearing completion of her graphic design studies and relies heavily on Adobe tools, especially Photoshop and Illustrator. Animator skills are also in play. Recently she’s encountered RAM shortages as her projects grow larger. With only 16GB, performance drops and occasional freezes occur—especially when both Photoshop and Illustrator run simultaneously. Some suggest 32GB is ideal, 64GB offers a significant improvement. For regular users, I’d recommend either a 64GB kit now or a full 64GB system. A 16GB upgrade later would be cheaper, but I’m planning for a bigger investment if needed. We’re not expecting CPU upgrades soon; a summer refresh in 2023 seems likely at the earliest. Current setup includes a Ryzen 3600, 16GB, 3600MHz CL16, and multiple SSDs.
Memory usage is manageable with 32 GB, and I’ve handled long editing sessions of four hours without issues. Going to 64 GB would only be necessary for very large projects, and I’m not sure Photoshop would benefit from that much space. Don’t forget to save often! I was actually surprised you didn’t choose Intel processors for Adobe products—they usually prefer Intel CPUs for better performance.
I suggest going with 64GB. I haven’t needed Adobe software, but my system ran out of RAM when editing videos on 32GB. There’s no limit to how much memory you need. 32GB might work temporarily, but you’ll eventually have to upgrade to 64GB once it becomes insufficient.
The latest software update will store cache in the SSD if available, which you probably don't want.
@Shimejii PC was designed for gaming and budget-friendly builds. The developers didn’t initially plan Adobe work during construction. It performs adequately though. Back then, spending the extra $150 would have made sense, but it wasn’t practical. @dogwitch I understand they’re trying to use the SSD as a cache, but it doesn’t look great. @SupaKomputa I’ve considered this, but many seem to view mixing sizes or components as disrespectful. In my past build, I used an additional 4GB DDR3 stick with two matching sticks, and extra RAM improved performance more than any uneven slot setup ever could. I’d prefer saving the $100 difference between 32 and 64 GB to upgrade to a more color-accurate monitor if possible.
Combining two different kit sizes works perfectly fine. I've done this several times. Prices for 16GB dimming units are dropping, making it a smarter choice than sticking with 8GB ones. In about 2-3 years, when you plan to upgrade to DDR5, 16GB is likely to sell quicker than 8GB units.
The right tools for the right tasks are key. Photoshop might struggle with heavy memory use if you're working with many smart objects or vectors on a big canvas, but this is rare. Illustrator would manage similar work with far less memory. The focus should be on editing or refining assets in Photoshop and then transferring them to Illustrator for final touches. This approach works regardless of available RAM. Adobe applications rely on a scratch disk to store uncompressed files, effects, and versions. Without it, performance would plummet and changes would be slow. A high-res PSD file can reach 200MB when uncompressed, but on the scratch disk it drops to about 2GB. If you combine several similar images or a large composite, the memory demand increases significantly. Unless you invest in substantial storage, using a scratch disk is necessary. Ideally, keep at least 30GB free for this purpose.