These notes are compiled from testing done at Jump and from reports from other sites that are testing and using OptiMem. These notes are provided here in good faith but can provide no guarantee of exactly the same results on your computer (given the infinite combination of configurations possible). In other words, your milage may vary.
• S y s t e m E x t e n s i o n s a n d C o n t r o l P a n e l s
Note: Control Panels and Extensions are loaded in alphabetical order (within a particular folder) so by simply changing the names you can change the order of loading. You might also use a third party startup/extension manager product to control the loading order.
- "Quad Control" by DayStar Digital: please use the latest version of Quad Control (v1.5.1 or later) and arrange for Quad Control to load before OptiMem in order to avoid conflict. If you suspect any difficulties after doing this, please let us know.
- "SoundMaster" control panel must load before OptiMem in order to avoid conflict.
- "Virex" by Datawatch: the publisher recommends using version 4.02 or later of Virex to avoid conflicts with a number of other products, including OptiMem.
• A p p l i c a t i o n P r o g r a m s
- "Adobe Illustrator™": v5.0 optimizes well. You might find additional memory savings with it, if you don't always use large documents, if you reduce its minimum size. Users have found that a 2100K minimum size works quit well.
- "Adobe Photoshop™": Starting with v2.5, Adobe has taken special measures to cater to image processing work requiring very large amounts of memory. In order to deal with dozens (and even hundreds) of megabytes efficiently, they have found it necessary to depart from much of the normal Mac application methodology of memory management. This can circumvent some of the dynamic memory optimization which OptiMem offers an application. (PhotoShop v2.0, however, seems to be very Mac-normal in its memory management and use with OptiMem.) In particular, with PhotoShop v2.5, memory which is no longer used after closing a document is not released until later, after other operations are performed.
So, when PhotoShop 2.5 is optimized, it does start out in a small partition and it grows dynamically as you open documents. But it doesn't give the memory back right away, to use in other apps, when you close a doc (although users have reported that Opening a JPEG file or Copying a very small image will often cause it to give back a lot of unused memory). Adobe says that it holds on to it because the user might do something which needs it again, right away. So, you only get two thirds of the benefits of OptiMem with PhotoShop 2.5. (There are some combinations of operations that get PS to release unused memory that it is holding but we have not determined a command sequence that does this consistantly.)
We have found that PhotoShop works best with OptiMem by leaving the Minimum Size at its built-in setting of 3072K. We also use the "Memory Patch for 2.5" with v2.5 and the "Piggy Plug-ins Patch", an optional extension that comes with v2.5.1, .
The bottom line with PhotoShop 2.5 is that for a good percentage of its use, if you are doing simple tasks with only a few moderate sized documents, you should be happy with having PhotoShop OptiMized. On the other hand, when you are working a lot with memory intensive operations, and/or very large documents you will probably get better performance by turning OptiMem off for Photoshop and using a large Suggested Size.
- "Canvas™" by Deneba: to avoid incorrect operation with Canvas set to "OptiMem On", you must remove the Professional Color Toolkit 1.1 control panel from your system. Deneba has been alerted to a problem in this software.
- "ClarisWorks": Seems to work very well with OptiMem with a very small initial partition. We use a Minimum Size of 340K.
- Communications Programs: We have not found much benefit in optimizing the tele-comm programs that we use, so we set OptiMem Off for them. They seem to have fairly fixed memory requirements. (Some do work well with OptiMem on, though. E.g. ZTerm.)
- Database Applications: Since some of the database systems are essentially specialized programming systems which can be setup to do most anything that a computer is capable of, their memory management and consequent benefits from use with OptiMem can be highly variable. Your milage will vary depending on which database system you use and upon the specifics of your database.
- "4th Dimension": We have had reports from some 4D users who are very happy with its operation and others who are just not able to use it with OptiMem turned on for it. It will depend upon the implementation of the particular databases you are using. However, some known problems when using 4D have been overcome beginning with v1.5.3 of OptiMem. If you are using a fairly small database, you might wish to reduce the initial partition size: we have used 4D at less than 1000K without problems (1500K is the built-in Minimum).
- "FileMaker Pro": Most users have good results running with FileMaker set to OptiMem On (with the Minimum Size the same as what the Prefered Size would be set to without OptiMem). Although the differences in memory use are not dramatic (FileMaker usually stays within whatever initial partition size it is given), users report a reduction in low-memory problems.
- "Panorama": For now we reccommend you turn OptiMem off for Panorama. It allocates most of the memory which is available to it when you first open Panorama (instead of only what it needs at the moment). If you turn OptiMization on for it, it will have access to all free memory in the machine and it will take a lot and not give it back for anything else until you quit Panorama.
- "DateBook™ Pro" by Aldus: Comes with a Minimum Size of 784K. Our use of v2.0.1 indicates that you can benefit by reducing this Minimum to as low as 384K with OptiMem on.
- "Excel": v4.0 works well optimized with its standard minimum size of 512K. However, some users have reported situations where it may slow down somewhat and that increasing the minimum size to 650K or more avoids this slow-down with minimal effect on the total amount of memory used.
- "FaxSTF": Offers major benefits when optimizing Fax/STF Manager. Reduce Minimum Size to get most savings: v2.2.3 can be set below 100K; v3.0 works well at 300K.
- "Now ScrapBook": You can save additional space when OptiMem is on for Now Scrapbook by reducing the minimum size but it will stop working with OptiMem if you ever reduce the minimum below 200K.
- "Now Up-To-Date": Provides the best use of memory when OptiMized with a very small initial partition (Minimum Size). We have tested with v2.0 and the optimization parameters will automatically launch it in less than 100K. Early reports for v2.1 indicate that it now works well at a 500K Minimum Size.
- "Now Contact": Early reports indicate that it saves more memory by reducing the Minimum Size to between 400K and 500K.
- "Persuasion": Preliminary optimization parameters are include for beta release 3.0. (Not yet fully tested.) Persuasion Minimum Size should be reduced to 1000K for best results.
- "PrintMonitor": Yes, PrintMonitor is an application but a somewhat special one that automagically opens and quits and knows how to adjust its own memory requirements. We leave OptiMem turned off for it but if you want to experiment you might find some benefit with OptiMem on.
- "QuarkXPress®": Uses a Minimum Size of 2000K by default, but seems to work well with OptiMem if you set it as low as 1500K. If you use a lot of XTtensions or other features which use a lot of memory you may wish to set it higher than 1500K. If you use EfiColor XTension you will have to set the Minimum Size to at least 3000K.
- "TouchBase™ Pro" by Aldus: Comes with a Minimum Size of 750K. Our use of v3.0.1 indicates that you can benefit by reducing this Minimum to as low as 250K with OptiMem on.
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