importance of pc performance?

[L0bo]

hey guys.

i bought my wacom ( intuos 3 , 9*12 ) about 8 months ago or so, and still dont felll very comfortable. probably i just should practice more to improve my coordination. but maybe it is also a little lag between pen and display.
i also tried to change settings and watch if it is getting better, but i cant really say. maybe this is beyond perception or so.... dont know :shrug:
im working on vista , photoshop cs3 with c2d 6300 @ 2,2 ghz , 3gb ram, mostly at a resolutin of 1680*1050,
my question is, what do yout think about how important the performance of the system is related to a natural feeling of drawing, and if my pc should be fast enough to display things in real time.

thanks, cheers
-l0bo

[rattsang]

your machine is plenty fast enough spec wise' however i cant say you havent overloaded your system with junk software and virus which can also affect performance.
ive certainly never heard of tablet lag and i doubt its possible (barring complete system lag i.e. the normal mouse lags and the keyboard lags too)

even if there was lag this should have no affect on your drawing' i use painter mostly and at hi res the brushes lag the only difference it makes is time.

[L0bo]

thanks for your reply.
i feared that it wount be that easy :P
guess i have to do it like everyone... practice, practice, practice..... :er:

[J Wilson]

Are you sure installed the drivers correctly? It seems a lot of the tablet issues people have comes from not using the correct drivers like using the default ones that windows come with. Even if you did install the drivers that were included with the pad, maybe uninstalling them and trying again might help. If that isn't the problem it could be junk bogging your machine down (like rattsang suggested).

Otherwise some people do need a little time to adjust to using a pad. Many people adapt quickly, especially if they grew up on video games and are used to watching a screen while the hands control something elsewhere. You can try some basic exercises like drawing parallel lines, drawing circles, etc, until your brain learns to adjust.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Try writing something on your tablet while looking at your hand rather than the screen. If you find that what appears on screen is better than what you might write while looking at the screen it is probably down to your coordiation because your PC sounds more than adequate. You could possibly try running on a slightly resolution but I wouldn't have thought it would change much, worth a try to see if you notice a difference tho.

I found it pretty hectic at first getting used to the idea of moving my hand on one plane while watching a cursor that's moving on another but it's just about practice really.

[r.mccabe]

Lag is a direct result from performance. Cleaning the system is only playing with your margin. Painting with complex brushes / large sizes will eat up your processor. Memory isn't the issue its processing power. Ovclocking is a good option if your serious. If your on a prebuilt thing its most likely junk, the specs they give you are misleading.

I've upgraded my PC overtime for photoshop. The biggest thing I learned is its not the ram PS wants its the CPU. Second is the advertised specs for most things are rubush.

I started with a modest PC. It always lagged. For upgrades the biggest improvement was overclocking the the RAM and CPU. After that new CPU, then graphics card. Last is more RAM, I really think its a waste of money after 2 gig though. RAM does so little change compared to everything else; yet, people always seem to think more RAM is best.

The faster my computer is the more it feels natural to paint on it.

The set up I found to be the min for a good experience in PS and Painter is:
Duo core 2.2 ghz overcloaked to 3.61 ghz
8800gt video card
2 gig of RAM at set to run at 1066 Hz*

*how fast your ram is is more important than how much you have. Chaep RAM is slow.)

So many people run out and spend money on cheap computers. They never get to kow what computers are really capable of. I can't stand sitting on most people's computers now because of waiting. Hehehe I remember avoiding turning off my PC because it too much time to turn back on. Now its like a ten second wait to get firefox up.

If your on your computer doing cg then a good computer is like a better apartment. Getting everything going in a instant and running smooth is a sound investment and makes things more enjoyable.

[L0bo]

thanks a lot for all your replies.

J Wilson: I installed the latest driver, but I think it didn`t make any difference. thanks though. junk should not be the problem.

Smashed_Pumpkin: i tried what you said, and i think it`s really all about the coordination. the difference was not that big, but I recognized that the feeling is very different.I'll also decrease my resolution, to be on the safe side.


r.mccabe: thanks for your detailed explaination, but i don`t think that this is my problem. I tried some thinks, and realized that the cursor always moves simultaneously to your pen, or mouse, or whatever.
You are right that more performance causes less lag, but this lag only relates to the rendering of what you are drawing( as you said more complex brushes do need more power),but not to the movement of the cursor, what i think is the important thing for me.
I also belief that i can remember to a lesson at my old school (did a thecnical school ) where we talked about a similar think, and that all inputs to your pc ( keybourd, mouse ....) causes "interrupts" which always brake the current calculations and therefore are more or less in realtime.

l0bo

[revelations]

A lot of it has to do with what type of brush you are using, if you are using a big brush with a high Count on it, with a texture that has lots of detailing/noise or is simply too sharp, it will take time for Photoshop to process. Also the size of the project matters as much as the brush, because Photoshop is a high resource program. CS3 with Vista will easily take up half of your RAM, so there is a lot of factors that you need to consider. Closing unnecessary programs, cleaning up your harddrive, etc. will help bolster your response time.

[Jaycephus]

You can always lag in any version of PS on any system, and probably any system that comes out in the next several years. Make your brush too big and set spacing to minimum, and stroke fast enough, and you can set back and sip some coffee while PS finishes the stroke. On the other hand, your specs should be enough to at least not lag with reasonable brushes.

I find that the biggest issue for me is the feel of a wacom nib on the tablet surface. It's too much like drawing on ice. This can really increase the time it takes to build the hand-eye coordination development for using a wacom off to the side while staring at a screen, because you're really having to learn to use a tool that feels completely different from a real pencil or any other tool. I think it also makes whatever lag you might have more apparent because your pen moves so much more easily, and therefore faster and wilder. I've done this in the past and it does work: find some grade of paper that feels 'right' with the Wacom nib, and tape that over the tablet surface. The increased friction helps slow down your strokes and lets you make much more 'intentional' strokes. A slower stroke also reduces lag without having to upgrade your PC, too.