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Chapter 1. Building a Photoshop System > Virtual Memory
Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a programming trick that fools the computer into thinking it has more RAM than it really does. It works by reserving a specially marked amount of space on your hard drive that gets treated as RAM. The real, physical RAM is then used as a cache for the virtual memory stored on the disk. If the data that the computer is looking for is cached in RAM, your computer won’t slow down, but if the computer has to go searching on the hard disk instead, things can slow down a lot.
Tip
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| I often slip into talking about virtual memory as if it always happens on the hard drive, but if more than 4 GB of RAM is installed in your computer, remember that Photoshop may be using your unused RAM as a fast virtual memory buffer. |
