Question Upgrade or buy new?

[LaneG]

I have a 2021 Dell XPS 8940 with 16 GB memory and Intel i7-11700 processor. It has served me well. The only complaint I have is that I use Corel Photo Paint, and when touching up large pictures it is very slow. Today I'm working with a picture that is 11"X15" at 1200 dpi, Everytime I do something it takes a while for the program to do it and release control back to me to do something else.

I have Task Manager up to try to get an idea of what is going on. The only thing is that I see is memory is at 50-70%. All others are very low, GPU 11%, CPU 5%.

I've looked at Dell website and the newer XPS computers you can get a i7-13700 processor and 32 GB of RAM. This processor is about twice the speed of mine.

My gut is telling me that I need mor RAM. If that will speed up my computer that is a lot cheaper than a new one. And this one isn't that old.

Help me please, what would you do?

 

[COLGeek]

What storage devices (SSD/HDD) does this rig have? Yes, more memory would help.

 

[LaneG]

What storage devices (SSD/HDD) does this rig have? Yes, more memory would help.

512 GB SSD and 1T HD

 

[COLGeek]

How full is your SSD and is it that the location of your "scratch drive"?

 

[LaneG]

How full is your SSD and is it that the location of your "scratch drive"?

SSD says it has 174GB used space. How do I tell about "scratch drive"? And what is it?

 

[COLGeek]

Where is the virtual memory located for Windows and the temp folder for Corel Photo Paint?

For Windows, see here: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-manage-virtual-memory-on-windows-11

For Corel, check the application settings.

http://product.corel.com/help/PHOTO...ng-workspace-options.html#1023654&single=true

 

[LaneG]

Where is the virtual memory located for Windows and the temp folder for Corel Photo Paint?

For Windows, see here: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-manage-virtual-memory-on-windows-11

For Corel, check the application settings.

http://product.corel.com/help/PHOTO...ng-workspace-options.html#1023654&single=true

My system is using the C drive (SSD) for that.
That URL is for an older version of Corel. My Corel 2023 menu system doesn't have what that points out.
I found this in a Corel help forum. "Older versions CorelDraw used to allow the user to increase the amount of ram dedicated to CorelDraw, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore."

 

[thestryker]

It seems likely that this is a DRAM situation, and while any DDR4 should work fine if you want to guarantee compatibility: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-8940

I imagine any upgrades available from Dell would carry a significant price premium.

 

[LaneG]

It seems likely that this is a DRAM situation, and while any DDR4 should work fine if you want to guarantee compatibility: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-8940

I imagine any upgrades available from Dell would carry a significant price premium.

Thank you for that link.

 

[artk2219]

I have a 2021 Dell XPS 8940 with 16 GB memory and Intel i7-11700 processor. It has served me well. The only complaint I have is that I use Corel Photo Paint, and when touching up large pictures it is very slow. Today I'm working with a picture that is 11"X15" at 1200 dpi, Everytime I do something it takes a while for the program to do it and release control back to me to do something else.

I have Task Manager up to try to get an idea of what is going on. The only thing is that I see is memory is at 50-70%. All others are very low, GPU 11%, CPU 5%.

I've looked at Dell website and the newer XPS computers you can get a i7-13700 processor and 32 GB of RAM. This processor is about twice the speed of mine.

My gut is telling me that I need mor RAM. If that will speed up my computer that is a lot cheaper than a new one. And this one isn't that old.

Help me please, what would you do?

I agree on the ram, doubling it to 32gb should give you a good improvement.

 

[COLGeek]

All agree, upgrading to 32GB (2x16GB) would be an improvement.

The reason for asking the storage location questions was to determine if you are using the much slower HDD for the picture editing, as opposed to the SSD.

The first pair on the Crucial link provided earlier should do the trick:

https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k16g4dfra32a/ct19034580

Do not mix with the memory you already have.

 

[LaneG]

All agree, upgrading to 32GB (2x16GB) would be an improvement.

The reason for asking the storage location questions was to determine if you are using the much slower HDD for the picture editing, as opposed to the SSD.

The first pair on the Crucial link provided earlier should do the trick:

https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k16g4dfra32a/ct19034580

Do not mix with the memory you already have.

Oh, thank you I didn't know about mixing.

 

[COLGeek]

Oh, thank you I didn't know about mixing.

If I was making that purchase, yes.