CPU effect on RAW conversion performance

rpstewart

rpstewart

rpstewart

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There are plenty of subjective reviews out there comparing the output of different RAW converters - colour accuracy, sharpness etc.

What I'm wondering is - has someone done a comparative test using different CPUs? Given that I can spend a fair while sat in front of the PC post processing and a lot of that is time spent waiting for previews & final processing in RSE.

Now any upgrade to the PC is unfortunately going to be CPU, board, RAM, Graphics etc etc etc so I'm looking for some hard evidence of an improvement before I start looking at costs.
 
There is a difference, quite a noticable one too.

When i had my CPU at the stock 2.2ghz, it was absolutely fine in my eyes, just had to wait a while. Then i overclocked upto 2.8ghz and the difference is quite clear in my eyes. It knocks a good few seconds off whilst converting the photo and switching between them in Rawshooter Premium :)
 
I've not looked for anything like this before myself, but the common theme I have found with all hardware upgrades that the better spec the PC is, the faster the software is going to run surely :confused: Especially when it comes to graphics heavy problems where the CPU, RAM and Graphics are under heavy load.

This is obviously basing the knowledge that the PC is not running software over the network as performance in this case can vary somewhat.
 
Im guessing he meant Pentium vs Athlon 64 or Dual Core vs Single Core rather than 2.8GHz is faster than 2.2GHz.
 
are you talking about a visual improvement, or the performance of your computer? surely the visuals would be down to the application?
 
I'm pretty sure they're talking about the time it takes to perform the task rather then the end result being improved.

I've been wondering myself wether its time to go for 2gb, it gets so frustrating when playing with photos and constantly fine tuning the settings that you're forced to wait every time you make the tiniest change.
 
He is talking about general performance times mainly when the system is handling a RAW image while applying alterations. He wants to know if by updating the cpu he is going to see a noticeable wait time deduction. However to do this he is going to have to upgrade a new more things to accept a new professor. so he needs confirmation and an estimated performance rundown before he goes out of pocket.

If you want better raw handling. Get a lot of memory (2gig should do) I guess going 64Bit would be a good start however Photoshop is still only a 32bit application. Dont know about RSE
 
^Got it in one^

I reckon any processor upgrade is going to cost about £1k by the time I add in new RAM, new GPU cos I'll end up going PCI-e etc etc etc

I'm already running a P4 3.06Ghz (533MHz FSB) with 1.5Gb of RAM so the current box is no slouch. Thinking about a 4400+ X2 or the like with 2-3Gb of RAM but I'm not sure what the improvement's going to be. RSE is fully multithreaded so it'll use a dual core CPU so I think I might get approximately a speed doubling by the time you factor in the increased memory bandwidth.

Does anyone have a similar spec that they could do a test RAW conversion on?
 
If you wna t a slighter cheaper upgrade option for now look at getting a second hand 800fsb P4. I have a 3.4 Nortwood at 3.8 witha gig of RAM and it shifts pretty quickly. If you look at getting a decent set of 2 Gb RAM and a 800 HT enabled P4 you should see some improvement.
 
rpstewart said:
^Got it in one^

I reckon any processor upgrade is going to cost about £1k by the time I add in new RAM, new GPU cos I'll end up going PCI-e etc etc etc

I'm already running a P4 3.06Ghz (533MHz FSB) with 1.5Gb of RAM so the current box is no slouch. Thinking about a 4400+ X2 or the like with 2-3Gb of RAM but I'm not sure what the improvement's going to be. RSE is fully multithreaded so it'll use a dual core CPU so I think I might get approximately a speed doubling by the time you factor in the increased memory bandwidth.

Does anyone have a similar spec that they could do a test RAW conversion on?
Click to expand...
What kind of tests would you like to see ?
 
Fstop11 said:
What kind of tests would you like to see ?
Click to expand...
The output doesn't bother me, I'm more interested in an idea of how long a RAW conversion would take on the likes of an AMD X2.
 
Froam what I understand a dual core processor, as yet, wont be quicker than a single core clocked the same. This is because photo editing progrmas arnt yet scripted for dual cores I dont think.

From what I have ready Pentiums are meant to be quicker at photo editing!
 
jezsoup said:
Froam what I understand a dual core processor, as yet, wont be quicker than a single core clocked the same. This is because photo editing progrmas arnt yet scripted for dual cores I dont think.

From what I have ready Pentiums are meant to be quicker at photo editing!
Click to expand...
So Basically what your saying is. Go with Pentium now and in a few months still want something better. Best to be future ready.
 
Fstop11 said:
4 Seconds on AMD 4400+ X2 64Bit. 2 Gig RAM
Click to expand...
:eek: 8Mp RAW in 4 seconds! Which RAW converter is that with?

jezsoup said:
Froam what I understand a dual core processor, as yet, wont be quicker than a single core clocked the same. This is because photo editing progrmas arnt yet scripted for dual cores I dont think.
Click to expand...

Photoshop has been fully multithreaded for several versions and RAW Shooter has been since the official release.
 
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