[scribus] Speeding up Scribus

[Cezary Grabski]

> At the moment i am compiling single algebra "working sheets" with lots
> of graphical elements to bigger Sets up to about 50 sheets each.
> My PC needs a lot of time to do so.

What you mean exactly - on what actions you get most of delays?
I am working on speeding up some Scribus actions like opening documents or 
importing texts - they needs some code cleanups.

> CPU: Does Scribus handle more than one core well, or is one fast core
> sufficient?
Till now Scribus dont use more than one thread, so it is almost same fast on 
4-core i7 and 2 core DuoCore and single core Petnium if all works with same 
frequency (depends mostly on other system stuff going on simultaneously). 
Differences in internal processors architecture (like internal cache) make 
them faster than other, but not cores number. Also you must remember that new 
processors that also new motherboard with new chipsets - it all may make 
difference.
Meybe some day dev team decide to go to multithreaded model, but not in near 
future I afraid.

> RAM: As there are never used more than 1GB of RAM, running scribus, 2GB
> should be enough. Whereas I guess faster RAM would speed up.
When I am working with above 100 pages document with lots of pictures and mass 
of text frames my Scribus is going to eat even 2GB RAM for himself. Actually I 
have 4 GB and it seems to fit my needs.
Speed of RAM has inpact of performance, but you must to know, that even 2x 
faster RAM (and pherhaps 4x more expansive) dont give you 2x faster computer.
Impact maybe will be 10% or even less.

> Graphics card?
I am not hardware expert but I think graphics card has small impact in overall 
performance of Scribus.

> SSD?
Hmmm. SSD disk may increase Scribus performance, specially when you open docs 
or import big images and graphics. Generally good choice if you have lot of 
money to spend.

BUT
Few weeks ago I buy new hardware for my desktop and switch from Pentium 4 2.4 
GHz/2GB RAM/160GB HDD (SATA150) to i7 4-core 8-threads 2.2 GHz/6GB fast 
RAM/1TB HDD (SATA300) and notice BIG difference in speed in Scribus.

My advice - prepare bootable USB stick with Ubuntu, Scribus and you documents. 
Go to shop and and ask if can ran laptop from your USB - just check in shop 
how new laptop will working for you with yours warkflow.

cezaryece