Fine-tuning GIMP performance for huge canvas sizes (Resource Cache question)

[MaxClifton]

Hey folks,
Quick question regarding hardware optimization. I recently upgraded my PC to 32GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD, but I’m still noticing some stuttering and brush lag when working on massive digital painting canvases (around 6000x6000px with dozens of layers).
I’ve looked into the Preferences under System Resources, but I’m a bit confused about how high I should safely set the "Resource Cache" (Tile Cache). Is it safe to allocate around 70-80% of my total RAM to it, or will that starve my OS and cause system instability?
Also, does GIMP actually utilize GPU acceleration effectively through OpenCL on modern setups, or am I better off leaving that toggle unchecked? Any advice on making GIMP run as buttery smooth as possible would be greatly appreciated!

[rich2005]

(9 hours ago)MaxClifton Wrote: Hey folks,
Quick question regarding hardware optimization. I recently upgraded my PC to 32GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD, but I’m still noticing some stuttering and brush lag when working on massive digital painting canvases (around 6000x6000px with dozens of layers).

Are you really using Gimp 2.4 ? Maybe you should upgrade

Are you using a graphics tablet or a touch screen ? Might be a Windows thing.
I do know that a large brush (size 500 +) in a large canvas is laggy. As far as I know, that is just rendering pixels on the display, not much you can do.

Quote:I’ve looked into the Preferences under System Resources, but I’m a bit confused about how high I should safely set the "Resource Cache" (Tile Cache). Is it safe to allocate around 70-80% of my total RAM to it, or will that starve my OS and cause system instability?

The docs about that is here: https://docs.gimp.org/3.0/en/gimp-prefs-...tile-cache
..quote..If you have a modern computer with plenty of memory, setting the Tile Cache to half of your RAM will probably give good performance for GIMP in most situations without depriving other applications. Probably even 3/4 of your RAM would be fine.

Quote:Also, does GIMP actually utilize GPU acceleration effectively through OpenCL on modern setups, or am I better off leaving that toggle unchecked? Any advice on making GIMP run as buttery smooth as possible would be greatly appreciated!

I do not think OpenCL is effective at the moment. For those who do not know, you enable it by running Gimp with the --show-playground switch and then Edit -> Preferences. Might make it worse, probably best left off.

Edit: One caveat, I am using linux,
Just swapped computers (laptops) to one closer to your spec - 24 GB memory +SSD (and default settings) using a large, many layered image (4000x3000 40 layers)
Gimp 3.2.4 using a large brush (about 1000) still a bit laggy.
However, using Gimp 2.10.38 is smoother, It might be all those new Gimp 3 features slowing things down. You can install a Gimp 2.10 along side Gimp 3, might be worth a try.

Another Edit: Back to my 16 GB + SSD laptop and a 30 second comparison of Gimp 2.10 then Gimp 3 https://sendvid.com/9mi6z2vn

[Tas_mania]

32Gb was once a lot of ram. My graphics workstation has 64Gb and can be taken to 128Gb but so far I'm getting along with 64Gb. It also has a 16 core Ryzen processor and it has OpenCL via Nvidia graphics with 12Gb ram. I found Gimp can't use OpenCL and on Gimp 2.10 .x I advise not even trying it, a system crash can result.

Once graphics were done on dedicated workstations but I find a high-end gaming computer is today's equivalent.
I can render files like this at 1080p but I prefer to leave it at that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYGeiJAILaQ

Good on you for attempting big stuff with Gimp