How much RAM is needed to run Affinity software please? Is 4 Gigabytes enough?

[William Overington]

I probably need to buy a new computer as I want to continue to use Affinity software. The Lenovo computer running Windows 10, upon which the Affinity software here is installed has big problems, and is probably irreparable unless sent away to be repaired.

I am writing this on another computer, a smaller computer running Windows 10S that I do not want to unlock to Windows 10, and I don't think there would be enough memory anyway.

I am looking for a fairly basic computer as long as it can do the job. I have no need for a computer than can run fast video games and the like. A 14 inch screen is fine for me.

My question is this please. How much RAM is needed to run Affinity software please? Is 4 Gigabytes enough? A lot of the lower priced computers seem to have 4 Gigabytes of RAM.

Also, how much storage memory do Affinity programs themselves need please, quite apart from the storage for files produced by users of Affinity products as a result of using Affinity products.

William

 

[PaulEC]

[GarryP]

If you’re worried that there probably isn’t enough RAM for a full Windows 10 installation then there’s probably more of a worry that it's not enough RAM for that and the Affinity applications.

I’ve just started a clean launch of Photo 2, with no open documents, and it’s using just under 0.5Gb of RAM.
Opening a single FHD image takes the memory usage up to around 0.7GB, with no edits (and every edit takes up memory).

It’s possible that you could use the Affinity applications with just 4GB of RAM but I don’t think the experience would be a good one.

As for storage, there’s no way for us to know how much you will need because we don’t know what you will be doing.
The V1 Affinity application installations took around 1GB each but the V2 applications are installed differently and have more ‘shared things’.
I generally wouldn’t recommend anything less than 500GB for storage, maybe 256MB if you also have an external drive (which can be bought later if needed).

All-in-all, it’s quite rare that anyone says: “I wish I hadn’t spec’d my machine so high, I’ll never use all of it.”

[v_kyr]

What I said some time ago here to you still applies! - Aka avoid buying something crappy here, which means some weak underpowered consumer Laptop/Notebook! Nowadays I wouldn't take anything below >=16 GB RAM memory & >=512 GB SSD capacity, since that's more realistic todays minimum! - Thus as Murphy's Law always said, the more the merrier!

[William Overington]

21 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

What I said some time ago here to you still applies! - Aka avoid buying something crappy here, which means some weak underpowered consumer Laptop/Notebook! Nowadays I wouldn't take anything below >=16 GB RAM memory & >=512 GB SSD capacity, since that's more realistic todays minimum! - Thus as Murphy's Law always said, the more the merrier!

Oh, thank you for reminding me of that thread, I had forgotten about it. I had been using the computer fine with the workaround of using the NOVO button facility to get it started.

I produced output from it.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/176267-a-winter-poem

This is now another problem as the hinge seems to have come apart.

https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?id=351

William

 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, William Overington said:

My question is this please. How much RAM is needed to run Affinity software please? Is 4 Gigabytes enough? A lot of the lower priced computers seem to have 4 Gigabytes of RAM.

This is from 2 Macs so isn't really applicable. But... My laptop with 4 GB of RAM will run the Affinity version 1 suite, but very slowly. What takes seconds on the desktop Mac takes tens of seconds to minutes on the laptop. So the answer is probably a yes but your experience will be frustrating and time consuming. Even simply saving a file takes a long time on the laptop.

[William Overington]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

All-in-all, it’s quite rare that anyone says: “I wish I hadn’t spec’d my machine so high, I’ll never use all of it.”

Yes, and in a world of the money tree that can be the only criterion.

William

 

[henryanthony]

1 hour ago, William Overington said:

Yes, and in a world of the money tree that can be the only criterion.

William

 

I have had good luck buying cheap computer stuff like used RAM for old computers on eBay. 

On Windows 10, installed size of Designer and Photo is about 1 GB for each program.

FYI, if you are thinking of repairing your Lenovo, you might try asking for help on this really great forum dedicated to such issues: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

Good luck!

[SrPx]

I recently realized that opening a laptop doesn't mean its immediate destruction/explosion/armageddon/Thanos burping.    (not completely sure, yet, tho...)

I have always been a PC desktop user (for the OS, some Mac OS and Linux handling at the jobs, and quite some Linux at home, but  that's it; am a windozer) and never saw the point of having a laptop till recently (due to EU's energy costs, mobility and that these things are now finally powerful).

I don't know all of you in your countries, but I keep finding that in my area 16GBs RAM PC (even without Windows, as I get it apart) laptops are usually at a fine or slightly high price, 8gb ones are the only ones at super low prices, but 32GB ones require a huge investment, like jumping to a whole new category where you are getting many other premium stuff you maybe don't need that badly. Like there's nothing in between, it needs to go super premium for just 16 gb more (well, I did a replacement (2x16 kit), to get dual channel memory performance, and for it to actually work due to compatibility etc).  

So I went ahead and followed a Youtube tutorial (yeah, high tech education ) to avoid breaking the thing and opened a new one which I got with 16gb, installed 32gb (which I previously had seen would be compatible (brand and type) after some touches in the BIOS) and the resulting price was a lot lower. Maybe not an advice for everyone, as even the idea hurts, to do it to a brand new laptop, and seeing how you have to like push certain plastics in the joint with a visa card or similar, which sounds as if you were breaking  the thing, and how you need to unplug the battery if changing other thing than RAM or disk (well...even for that is a good idea. I just don't do it) , I can see how a lot of people prefer to avoid it. But I lost the fear, haha. Now I call it "mobile PC build" . Much more disk and RAM makes it practically a desktop for graphics (if having at least a 1650 or 3050 graphics card. I've looked up how to change the GPU, but finally that's too much, and a 3060 is plenty. Tho the external GPU entire thing is tempting (but rather expensive)).