Solved! PDF files are killing me

[Greenman]

I work with a lot of large PDF files, and they bring my computer to it's knees. Would a hardware upgrade help? I'm running a six core AMD something or other and 16 gigs of ram.
Is there faster software that I should look at? I have PDF Pro 10 which chokes to death on these files, and some freeware thing that does a bit better. Any help is appreciated.

 

[SkyDiver]

If you have 6 cores and 16 GB of RAM, I don't think hardware is your problem. Is PDF Pro from Adobe? I have had bad luck with Adobe's software. I finally switched over to Foxit Reader. It sounds like you are doing a lot more with it than I do.

 

[ubern00b]

I work with a lot of large PDF files, and they bring my computer to it's knees. Would a hardware upgrade help? I'm running a six core AMD something or other and 16 gigs of ram.
Is there faster software that I should look at? I have PDF Pro 10 which chokes to death on these files, and some freeware thing that does a bit better. Any help is appreciated.

How big are the PDF files? as in MB/pages? What drive are they stored on? HDD/SSD/NAS/file server etc?

 

[Greenman]

How big are the PDF files? as in MB/pages? What drive are they stored on? HDD/SSD/NAS/file server etc?

Around 4 MB, 18 to 22 pages, stored on an SSD.

 

[ubern00b]

Try adobe reader or foxit reader, they're not especially huge files and you should have no problem opening and scrolling through them on an AMD 6 core processor, 16GB RAM and an SSD, out of interest what GPU do you have?

 

[lxskllr]

Something's wrong. Sounds like whoever created the pdfs botched the job somehow. I routinely open 100mb+ pdfs on my low end phone with little problem. For Windows I usually recommend Sumatra, but really, anything should work. A 4mb pdf shouldn't be demanding.

 

[Greenman]

Try adobe reader or foxit reader, they're not especially huge files and you should have no problem opening and scrolling through them on an AMD 6 core processor, 16GB RAM and an SSD, out of interest what GPU do you have?

Radeon RX 480. The CPU is a AMD FX6300

 

[Greenman]

Something's wrong. Sounds like whoever created the pdfs botched the job somehow. I routinely open 100mb+ pdfs on my low end phone with little problem. For Windows I usually recommend Sumatra, but really, anything should work. A 4mb pdf shouldn't be demanding.

The files are all 24"x36" cad drawings from two different creators. Since they both exhibit the same behavior, I assume the problem is on my end.
I'll try foxit and sumatra and see if the results are any better.

Edit: Installed Foxit and the difference is night and day. I wouldn't have believed how much difference it could make.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[lxskllr]

The big pdfs I deal with are blueprint sets. Last year I got some from the county that were terrible. They were only ~40mb, but they'd lock my computer up, and scrolling pages took forever. I meant to look into it to figure out what they did wrong, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it. I'll try to remember to take a look, but I don't know enough about the pdf spec/construction to do more than guess,

 

[balloonshark]

I've only used foxit to view manuals but in foxit reader one of the options in File - preferences - trust manager - lets you enable or diasable javascript actions. I've always turned that option off for security but I wonder if some pdf's with javascript could slow things down. The other two settings deal with internet access for the pdf which I guess could also cause a slow down.

 

[ubern00b]

Radeon RX 480. The CPU is a AMD FX6300

Your CPU isn't a true 6 core CPU it's 3 modules with 2 "cores" on each module that share a floating point processor and other resources, it actually get's beaten by old intel quad cores so it could well be it get's choked down a bit when working with larger files, have you checked your CPU useage in taskmgr when your running the PDF's in question? have you any examples of one of the PDF's you could post for people to have a look at, obviously if there is sensitive or personal data or whatever in them that would be a no, though I'm just curious to see if anyone else with a similar setup or even better has the same issues with the files in question. But definitely look at the performance tab on taskmgr and see whats going on with your CPU/RAM and Disk usage when you are using the PDF's

Edit: Just seen Foxit has solved your problem, my bad. As you were

 

[Greenman]

Your CPU isn't a true 6 core CPU it's 3 modules with 2 "cores" on each module that share a floating point processor and other resources, it actually get's beaten by old intel quad cores so it could well be it get's choked down a bit when working with larger files, have you checked your CPU useage in taskmgr when your running the PDF's in question? have you any examples of one of the PDF's you could post for people to have a look at, obviously if there is sensitive or personal data or whatever in them that would be a no, though I'm just curious to see if anyone else with a similar setup or even better has the same issues with the files in question. But definitely look at the performance tab on taskmgr and see whats going on with your CPU/RAM and Disk usage when you are using the PDF's

Edit: Just seen Foxit has solved your problem, my bad. As you were

You still get points for trying, it's all good!