Is there a way to speed GIMP up with large 6 and 7 megapixel images? After adding about 5 simple layers, GIMP turns into an elephant; this didn't happen with Photoshop on the same computer I'm using now. I'm using Gimp 2.4 RC3 on a 3ghz, 512mb ram, 512mb swap, computer with Ubuntu 7.10.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

1st Add more memory. Memory is cheap right now. If you are running 32-bit 2gig would be a good target.

2nd The general rule of thumb for swap is 2Xram.

Digital cameras works differently. The amount of sensors that digital cameras are calculated is in megapixels. A 6 megapixel digital camera has a resolution of about 2800 by 2100. Image editors work in resolutions not megapixels. The size of this image in megabytes is about 17 megabytes if assuming it is BMP file. If it is a RAW file, it will be about two to four times bigger. Worst case scenario it will be about 68 megabytes. If five additional layers are used, it will be about six times this size or over 400 MB. If you are using KDE as your desktop/window manager, you will not have enough RAM for your task. I recommend use iceWM, XFce4, Fluxbox, or Blackbox.

You can get by using a 1 GB of RAM, but it will limit you on larger images. You could also use solid-state hard drives for swap.

No way - with 2 GB of RAM 4 GB of swap would be overkill...

It depends on what you are doing. If you are regularly using the memory then the 2Xram rule still applies. I have 2gb of ram and regularlly use 3 of my 4 gigs of swap. If you do not use the memory then no you do not need that much swap.