Fast computer

[Keith B]

As you can tell from the article I referenced I am a Mac guy. I actually work exclusively on a 2.4 Santa Rosa MBP with with 7200rpm HD and 4 gigs of RAM. I never wait on Photoshop. Aperture on the other hand I can bring to absolute halt.


When Apple puts the new 4 Core chip in the MBPs I'll probably upgrade just to speed up Aperture.

[btaylor]

The i7 is a great chip and more than capable of handling bulk photoshopping. As mentioned, photoshop chews ram and spits it out so a 64 bit OS is a must. I run Vista Home Premium 64 bit with 8gb of 1066 MHz ram and itruns well. I am using a much older CPU (e6600 core 2 duo) soCPU isobviouslynot the limiting factor.


Invest in a decent graphics card such as the Nvidia 275/285/295. The 260 GTX, although an excellent card, was well and truly superceded by the 275 GTX and the price difference is small for the benefit you get.


I would also suggest Windows 7. I trialled a beta version and it was much more stable than Vista... and by "much" I mean HEAPS.


Happy spending.

[FI-Photo]

All great feed back. That is why I wrote you guys (and gals) in the first place. You seems to have saved me a lot of money.


My understanding than about PS is that it seems to be more dependent on video and memory. Since I have been running Windows 7 64-bit Professional since it was out in beta form, I already have 4 gig of memory. I will first upgrade my video card (maybe dual card) and since memory is cheap now I'll throw on 2 more sticks for a total of 8 gig. No need to upgrade my processor from a E8500 OC even though the i7 will be somewhat faster, but a lot of expense for not much more improvement.


Tom

[Sean Setters]

All great feed back. That is why I wrote you guys (and gals) in the first place. You seems to have saved me a lot of money.


My understanding than about PS is that it seems to be more dependent on video and memory. Since I have been running Windows 7 64-bit Professional since it was out in beta form, I already have 4 gig of memory. I will first upgrade my video card (maybe dual card) and since memory is cheap now I'll throw on 2 more sticks for a total of 8 gig. No need to upgrade my processor from a E8500 OC even though the i7 will be somewhat faster, but a lot of expense for not much more improvement.


Tom
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I think you've got the right idea...that's what I'd do.

[elmo_2006]

Using Photoshop or any other image editing software you will ONLYneeda card that supports the resolution you need to run at, any 50.00cardshould do this. If you arelooking at gaming and CAD and stuff then gofor a beefy card.


Photoshop speed is not done via the GPU,its more dependant on the CPU cycles. Save$$$for the processor, RAM and mainboard!


I have the following rig:


Q6600, 4GB DDR2 1066, 2T HDD, ATI 3450 &amp;Win7 x64 Ultimate.I use Lightroom, Photoshop Elements and Premiere for video all without a hiccup.


[]

[btaylor]

Using Photoshop or any other image editing software you will ONLYneeda card that supports the resolution you need to run at, any 50.00cardshould do this. If you arelooking at gaming and CAD and stuff then gofor a beefy card.


Photoshop speed is not done via the GPU,its more dependant on the CPU cycles. Save$tiny_mce_markernbsp;for the processor, RAM and mainboard!

That depends on which version of Photoshop you are using. If you a using CS3 then photoshop utilises the CPU for rendering. CS4 however, introduced GPU and Open GL acceleration so it uses the GPU for its graphical rendering. I would suggest a GPU capable of DirectX 10 (Nvidia 275 GTX or higher) and any of the i7 Cpu's.


RAM is also important as when you are working with many layers that information is stored as separate packets within the RAM. Get 8Gb and you'll never have to worry about the machine bogging down.


Hope this helps.

[Colin500]

I would recommend a single Core i7, and since PhotoShop surely uses RAM a lot you should go with one of the 900-series, because they have three memory channels, whereas the i7 800-series and below only have two memory channels.


You then need to get memory in sets of three in order to maximise memory performance. I can't tell you about Windows, because I only use Linux and Mac OS, but 6 GB should work fine on a 64bit system(?), and I wouldn't get less for an i7.

[elmo_2006]

@ btaylor...


....not necessarily, unless you are 'rendering'but here is the url to confirm....


http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405711.html


As anyone can see, a simple video card is required and video cards today do support OpenGL and directx 10. My little ATI Radeon that cost me CAD40 works just fine.


Simple test, buy the card, as it seems that he will, build the system and then test with both cards, theoretically there should be no difference in performance, unless there is 'rendering' involved!


If you are purely and simply editing images then there is no need for a top end videocard, RAM and processing cycles are more important.


[:$]

[btaylor]

There's a multitude of articles that suggest otherwise but I'll take your word for it.


I guess the OP was really after high performance when using whichever version of Photoshop they're using. So buy the best of everything and you'll be happy, but broke.