Bit slow on Photoshop calcs / Adobe file conversions. New Processor?

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

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I built my current PC 1 couple of years (approx) ago now.

This is the gist of of it!

CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600
MAG B550 Tomahawk (MS-7C91)
BIOS A.00 - AMD AGESA ComboAM4v2PI 1.0.0.0
Graphics - AMD Radeon RX6600
Memory - DDR4 32GB 1600 MHz

I feel it needs a bit of a boost on some photoshop stuff (e.g. focus stacking 20 Raw files). I only use it for photoshop , lightroom, excel word, access occasionally. My Grandson uses it even less for "x-plane" when he gets bored on s visit!

I know the Ryzen 5 is pretty "old hat" now.

Web search says Ryzen 7 3700X is next step up? OCUK has only one of these - B grade at £200. Is that the way to go?

(https://www.overclockers.co.uk/?query=ryzen%207%203700x £200 / B grade)

IF I did go this way would I need to upgrade the BIOS for the CPU?

Thanks for any advice. Mel
 
Can you show us a screen of task manager while you're stacking, just to be sure what the bottleneck is and if all your cores are being loaded?

Mel_P said:
Web search says Ryzen 7 3700X is next step up? OCUK has only one of these - B grade at £200. Is that the way to go?
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Very unlikely to be good value, a 5600 or 5700X would give you better single and multithread, but unlike the 3700X, a BIOS update will probably be needed, as yours sounds like it is the release BIOS? (can you get the date from cpu-z?)
 
Thanks - been on MSI web site and looked at all of the Bios issues.

Mine says
MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C91) V10.0 BIOS Release
1. This is AMI BIOS release / 2. New BIOS Release /3. 2020/5/15

Latest is:
MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C91) V10.F BIOS Release
1. This is AMI BIOS release / 2. This BIOS fixes the following problem of the previous version: - AGESA ComboAm4v2PI 1.2.0.B update.
- AMD security issue patch. / 3. 2023/10/24

5700X = £209 - about the same.
5600 = £125 - cheap!

"Can you show us a screen of task manager while you're stacking, just to be sure what the bottleneck is and if all your cores are being loaded"

Will have a look at that tomorrow and report back! Thanks for the suggestion.

Just a bit concerned about flashing the BIOS !!!! - don't want to end up with a dud motherboard!
 
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Mel_P said:
Just a bit concerned about flashing the BIOS !!!! - don't want to end up with a dud motherboard!
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It is worth the risk because the newer CPUs have a big uplift in single and multithread performance, which is particularly important for something like Photoshop, since the 3700X would only increase the number of cores which aren't useful for every task. Though, I'd definitely check with task manager, because sometimes the bottleneck is RAM, storage or even the graphics card (rare for Photoshop, but the new AI features do use it).
 
Mel_P said:
£229. Ok will look at some task mamger data asap.

Which is the most reliable / safetst way to update the BIOS?
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B550 tomahawk has a flash bios button on the back I think..checking manual


Updating BIOSUpdating BIOS with M-FLASHBefore updating:please download the latest BIOS file that matches your motherboard model from MSIwebsite. And then save the BIOS file into the USB flash drive.Updating BIOS:1. Insert the USB flash drive that contains the update file into the USB port.2. Please refer the following methods to enter flash mode.▪ Reboot and press Ctrl + F5 key during POST and click on Yes to reboot thesystem.Press to activate M-Flash for BIOS update.▪ Reboot and press Del key during POST to enter BIOS. Click the M-FLASH buttonand click on Yes to reboot the system.3. Select a BIOS file to perform the BIOS update process.4. After the flashing process is 100% completed, the system will rebootautomatically.

or

Updating the BIOS with MSI DRAGON CENTERBefore updating:Make sure the LAN driver is already installed and the internet connection is setproperly.Updating BIOS:1. Install and launch MSI DRAGON CENTER and go to Support page.2. Select Live Update and click on Advance button.3. Click on Scan button to search the latest BIOS file.4. Select the BIOS file and click on Download icon to download and install the latestBIOS file.5. Click Next and choose In Windows mode. And then click Next and Start to startupdating BIOS.6. After the flashing process is 100% completed, the system will restartautomatically.Updating BIOS with Flash BIOS Button1. Please download the latest BIOS file that matches your motherboard model fromthe MSI® website.2. Rename the BIOS file to MSI.ROM, and save it to the root of your USB flash drive.3. Connect the power supply to CPU_PWR1 and ATX_PWR1. (No need to install CPUand memory.)4. Plug the USB flash drive that contains the MSI.ROM file into the Flash BIOS Porton the rear I/O panel.5. Press the Flash BIOS Button to flash BIOS, and the LED starts flashing.6. The LED will be turned off when the process is completed.


Seems like similar lines to my asus board..i updated mine from within the bios itself...same sort of lines but main thing is download bios onto your usb drive(boot a cheap new one to keep it clean)..when i downloaded it and renamed it, plugged in the bios port on back and did via bios update in the bios when it seraches and i just highlighted the name of the bios file i had saved and it did everything... think that's along the lines of the 1st option
both options would require you to download the bios onto a usb drive etc

also good to just yt it


1st method similar to how i did mine


below is the 2nd way, bios flashback button


so make sure you have the bios on the main drive..ie not in a subfolder of the usb drive.
 
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PHEW!!!!
Updated bios (JUST SIMPLE WAY, COPY TO USB, REBOOT, GO TO BIOS UPDATE) to:

vendor American Megatrends International LLC.
version A.F0
date 10/19/2023

Sweaty brow time over!
 
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Ps Question - the memory is

Memory Type DDR4
Memory Size 32 GBytes
Channels 2 x 64-bit
Memory Frequency 1199.7 MHz (1:12)
Memory Max Frequency 1600.0 MHz
CAS# latency (CL) 16.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 16
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 16
Cycle Time (tRAS) 39
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 55
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Uncore Frequency 1199.7 MHz

Will this be adequate for a Ryzen 7 5800X? Thanks
 
Productivity. Me every day :D . Games - grandson once every few months :rolleyes:.

BUT 5900 etc are Ryzen 9, socket AM5, so 5800X is furthest I could go with AM4?

Mel
 
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"Can you show us a screen of task manager while you're stacking, just to be sure what the bottleneck is and if all your cores are being loaded"

Task Manager shows CPU <30% duty when focus stacking? Lost snip now!!!
 
Mel_P said:
"Can you show us a screen of task manager while you're stacking, just to be sure what the bottleneck is and if all your cores are being loaded"

Task Manager shows CPU <30% duty when focus stacking? Lost snip now!!!
Click to expand...
Is it loading only one or two cores, or is something else @ 100%?
 
Hi @Mel_P Sadly i don’t think this is your system at fault, Photoshop is notoriously bad at focus stacking especially on the bigger raws like those from an a7r v. We have been pestering Adobe for decades about this and given it still hasn’t been improved i don’t hold out hope.

Helicon Focus is a dedicated software for this which works miles faster. This is arguably the best one in the market though it does come with a price tag though a reasonable one in comparison to adobe prices.

There are others for less and i believe in some cases free though i will leave it with you to research the pros and cons of those.

don’t get me wrong, you may see some improvements from upgrading, just probably not what you will be expecting.
 
FloppyPoppy said:
don’t get me wrong, you may see some improvements from upgrading, just probably not what you will be expecting.
Click to expand...

Yeah in general for tasks like this I think people might be surprised sometimes how little noticeable improvement there is with a newer CPU with things like media filters and other productivity tasks where you can be looking at sub 30% differences going from a reasonably fast 10+ year old CPU to the latest and greatest as the bottlenecks are often not raw CPU grunt or even directly IO limited. In some cases bigger gains can be seen with stuff which is massively multi-threadable when you increase core counts a lot but doesn't necessarily scale with frequency or IPC.
 
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Rroff said:
Yeah in general for tasks like this I think people might be surprised sometimes how little noticeable improvement there is with a newer CPU with things like media filters and other productivity tasks where you can be looking at sub 30% differences going from a reasonably fast 10+ year old CPU to the latest and greatest as the bottlenecks are often not raw CPU grunt or even directly IO limited. In some cases bigger gains can be seen with stuff which is massively multi-threadable when you increase core counts a lot but doesn't necessarily scale with frequency or IPC.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, software manufacturers like Adobe aren’t going to focus on niche applications such a focus stacking something probably 1/2000 people who own nice cameras even know what it is. There’s no money for adobe in optimising this.
 
Mel_P said:
Productivity. Me every day :D . Games - grandson once every few months :rolleyes:.

BUT 5900 etc are Ryzen 9, socket AM5, so 5800X is furthest I could go with AM4?

Mel
Click to expand...

5900X and 5950X are AM4 so would be an option. 5900X is £250 ish and offers 12 cores. Even the 5950X isn't a bad price at the moment being around £350 and would offer double the cores of the 5800X.

It's the 7xxx chips that are AM5.
 
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