does pictures slow down computers?

@jhl930 (3601)
United States
October 13, 2008 10:07am CST
i think i have ask this before but i am not sure and honestly i don't feel like looking it up so i am just going to ask again, i have a lot of pictures on my computers and i have heard before that it only slows computers down because the pictures are so big and stuff like that...and my computer is slowing down and i have eefgraged it and all of that cleaned out temp internet files...so i was just wondering if you think that it slows it down? i would like to take the time to thank you all for taking the time out of your day to stop by and read and review my discussion and hopefully answer, i hope that you all have had a great weekend and that you have a great day and safe week, thanks again for taking the time to come by.
1 person likes this
15 responses
• Australia
13 Oct 08
The answer is yes, no and sometimes! As files, accumulating them on your hard drive will increase search and indexing times, and if you have any background album-style programmes (like picasa), the backbround updates it runs will reduce you available memory and slow down our system. If you have used up more than the designated space on you hard drive (usually about 85%) your system will slow down even more. Remember that your OS sets aside a section of hard drive to act as a temporary store for data being swapped in and out of RAM. Too many files on the drive, and it can't do that efficiently. When you open any photo file, even if it is only as wallpaper or a scrensaver, you gobble RAM, and since the OS caches recent files (in case it needs to access them again), more memory is lost to your system. During editing, not only the imasge file, which is likely to be large, but all the edits you have made during the session are stored, in case you want to undo or redo them, and complex images with layers or multi-level panoramas are very heavy on virtual memory and RAM. Page size also comes into play, and you should check you settings to see if it is set high eough to cope with your images, especially if you open more than one at a time.
@jhl930 (3601)
• United States
13 Oct 08
Thanks for telling me all of that information I really appreciate it its really helped me, I think that I am going to watch what i put on my computer, thanks for taking the time to reply!
@nanciem (1105)
• United States
14 Oct 08
Great Comment
@apples99 (6556)
• United States
14 Oct 08
I usually delete my pictures after a while especially if I'm not going to use them so I dont have to worry about them cluttering up the my computers hard drive.
@apples99 (6556)
• United States
14 Oct 08
Oh and one more thing maybe you should scan your pictures with virus protection software to make sure there isn't a virus attached to the pictures in your computer I always scan mine.
@lexus54 (3572)
• Singapore
14 Oct 08
Pictures in themselves don't actually slow down your system. But if you store lots of large pictures or video files, and they take up much of your disk space such that you have little free space for the OS and file system to use, then that may impact performance. Also once there isn't large chunks of contiguous space left on your hard disk, larger files that you subsequently store will have to be broken up and stored in multiple locations on the drive. Such files will take longer to retrieve. Also if you use a large file as your PC wallpaper, each time you load up your PC, it will take a while longer to load this wallpaper. Changing to something smaller can improve the loading up process a little. Usually if you do graphics work and handle large photos, images or video files, the resources used can be quite intensive and if your PC resources are not exactly high, running such programs can slow down other programs and processes you are running. So bear in mind that if you do graphic-intensive work, use a faster PC with higher resources so as not to make the PC crawl or hang because of insufficient resources.
• India
14 Oct 08
may be because for loading picture also it requires some time depending on the pixels that pixels only make the things to be slow as we are seeing some photos will be 10MB memory with more clarity like this pictures also requires more time for a buffering to load all the compact pixels.
14 Oct 08
No i dont think so that pictures slow down the computer its all depends on whats the size of your ram as well as harddisk. and also your computer should not contain any types of virus then only your pc will be faster . and most importantly you must have some free space in your hard drive this is also the one factor to make the pc slow...
@adihindu (1922)
• India
14 Oct 08
Not only photos makes your computer slow. If there is too much files in a folder and when you are browsing in that folder, at that moment your computer may hangs a little. When you are not on the folder that had somany files, then it won't effects you in any way. If you are accessing the folder with more files (not specifically photos) then your computer slows. Pictures may take a little time than other files as pictures need to show their thumb image and this is the case only when you are viewing the folder in thumbnail view. Other wise it won't slow your computer.
@tikei18 (359)
• Philippines
14 Oct 08
Yes it does. Like what others had just said. I eats up space in our hard drive that makes the computer slower. Allowing the computer to use less space. Anyways others have explained that already. No need to repeat. Have a nice day!
@pkraj111 (2458)
• India
13 Oct 08
i dont think pictures will have any effect on your system. My cousin has thousands of them and I am responsible for the systems upkeep and never had a problem with pics.
@srikool (936)
• India
13 Oct 08
hi yes this is a true one..i think so..i am not sure about this..the picture wants a large memeory to store..while loading it may take the same memory in the RAM..thats while the system may get slow down..i am not sure about my answer..this is a guess..have a happy mylotting
• Philippines
13 Oct 08
I don't think pictures has a great effect on your pc's performance. The only thing they do is fill up your hard drive. Defragment when necessary.
@arunmails (3011)
• India
14 Oct 08
Yes.. certainly pictures slows down my computer..... that was my old computer.... the configuration of the computer is very old.... that time I don't know keeping pictures in my computer will slow down it..... I had pictures for about 5 GB that too in my c: drive.... later on my computer starts responding slower than before..... then it hangs sometimes... I was literally confused why?? Then I call upon to a service point... they said that keeping more pictures on your computer will slow down it.....
@loxion (1553)
• India
13 Oct 08
Pictures? never.it might be that your system has lot of information and your hard drive is only left with few space on it or it might be the virus on your system.Also the ram might need to upgraded or the processor also but i do not think that pictures can cause your system to slow down
• United States
14 Oct 08
Pictures DO NOT slow down computers, Pictures with viruses/spyware do lol. Bottom line though it's mostly memory that slow down computers.
• United States
14 Oct 08
Yes, pictures do slow your computer down because it eats up your memory. It does help to defrag your computer as you said every once in awhile because what that does is compresses your files, pictures etc. into smaller pieces of memory. It does help to keep your pictures on another drive like a flashdrive or memory stick or even an external hardrive. Also check your add/remove programs in control panel and get rid of any unused or unwanted programs, this can also help.
@vimalmeh (63)
• India
13 Oct 08
no,i dont think so