Working with Higher Resolution Images in Windows 10 Home 64

jcloversX · 17 Mar 2020

My Computer HP Pavilion G7-1260US Notebook PCProcessor Intel Core i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20Ghz Installed Ram 4.00 GBC: Drive 640 GBVideo Integrated on MLBWindows 10 Home 64 Bit Version 1909Installed 02/25/2020OS Build 18363.720
Computer 8+ years old
Data Storage External 3.0 USB-C HD but USB ports are USB 2.0

1. When I use Windows Explorer to open a file folder that contains images. the higher resolution images take longer to load onto the screen. When I click through the next image there is a delay before it precedes to the next image.

I am going to be getting a newer computer within the next week or so.
The newer computer will be an Intel Core I-5 With at least 8GB Ram and USB ports will be at least USB-C 3.0
Will I see a vast improvement of load times and moving through images quicker?

2.0 Would I have better results using a different image viewer software?. I current use Irfanview 4.51 32 bit version.
3.0 Not a fan of Windows/MS Picture Viewer but would I have a better experience viewing images.
4.0 Should I just bite the bullet and get a paid version of Image Viewers via ACD or one of the lite versions of Adobe etc. Adobe Photoshop Elements?

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated!

1ThursayJC

Pejole2165 · 17 Mar 2020

I would say the CPU and iGPU are the problem here, when displaying images Windows/ the app you use has to read the file header information and then generate the thumbnail/ open the image, there is quite a bit of overhead related to the process (involving accessing the disk, reading file allocation table, finding the location on disk, reading image header etc), using an external disk adds more processes to the chain and is also slower overall.
I would hold off on buying software yet (Irfanview is a very capable image app) see how you get on with better hardware first. Adobe software is very good, but also it is a resource hog, even the lite versions will probably slow your current system to a crawl.
Depending on what you want to do with images I suggest you look at some free/ low cost alternatives such as the excellent GIMP (www.gimp.org), or Paint.Net (MS Store I think).
When looking at a new computer 8Gb is probably ok for you, but keep in mind Win10 uses 2 - 2.5 Gb (64bit), an iGPU may use up to 2Gb, I would look for 16Gb, the extra 8Gb is a cheap enough upgrade and depending on your usage case might be a better option.

Samuria · 17 Mar 2020

When you say high resolution files what resolution are we talking about?

jcloversX · 18 Mar 2020

Pejole2165,
So I need to make sure my newer machine has the memory capacity. I am at somewhat of a disadvantage at this time I am on SSA-DI and my mother has agreed to help with the financial acquisition, My newer computer will not be "brand new" just a more modern one that I am currently on.

Samuria

individual images could be anywhere from 5.3mb to 9.3 mb per image

Pejole2165 · 18 Mar 2020

Certainly a slight upgrade in CPU and memory capacity will help when opening/ browsing/ manipulating images (especially larger ones), accessing images from an SSD rather than a spinner HDD would also improve overall system speed (USB 3 is also viable), just don't go to high in an upgrade, getting the balance of the system right would be much better. An 8th gen i5 or the AMD equivalent plus 16Gb RAM should suit your needs and keep you happy for quite a while. If doing a lot of imaging work with consistently large images/ projects I would suggest maybe a dedicated GPU, something like a 10 series Nvidia (1030/ 1050/ 1060 etc,) which can off load some of the processing overhead from the CPU. Certain image manipulation apps can use the dedicated GPU to accelerate operations.
For pricing example an i5-8400, GTX 1030, 16Gb RAM should be able to be bought for around £300 -350 (sorry, English here), a cheap performance SSD maybe £35 - 100 depending on size required. Taking advantage of sales periods could get you significant savings, if buying new of course, buying second hand you could use those specs I listed to find a suitable system.

Samuria · 18 Mar 2020

They are not really high resolution just standard files any of should handle them even if slow

Pejole2165 · 18 Mar 2020

Agreed Samuria but it is specifically the speed the OP is concerned with, hence my no where near over the top suggestions, at the very least adding a moderate/ low end dedicated GPU and maybe some more RAM would help his situation. He currently is running on 4Gb with an iGPU so at load his system might be hitting VM a lot.
And the system he is looking at is pretty much what I have suggested.

xaccell · 18 Mar 2020

Yes, it will be faster as long as you use USB 3 or just the HD (preferably an SSD)

You don't need to buy any software.
The Photos app for Windows 10, in my opinion, is SLOW as hell. The regular viewer is perfect.

Berton · 18 Mar 2020

One issue I helped a client with was figuring out why his camera's memory card was filling up too fast. Turned out he was saving as .jpg format but also as .RAW format. While the .jpg were running 3 to 6MB the RAW format files were usually 20 to 25MB. For his publishing needs at the time the RAW was much better for editing and printing.

sygnus21 · 18 Mar 2020

As a photographer I have various file type images - RAW (NEF), JPEG, TIFF. Anyway there are a few things that can impact rendering - file type, size of file, PC hardware, and software (image viewer). Also number of files in a given folder - a folder with one file will render a lot faster than one with a hundred files.

In answering the OP's question in simple terms - yes, hardware (CPU, GPU, storage type) can impact image rendering no matter the file type, so yes, a newer PC would be better; especially one with SSD drives.

My two cents.