Photoshop Performance: multi-threading, 4vs8Gb RAM

[D.P.]

Building a new rig since my old one can't support 12MP photos with any usable speed. LR and PS are both very slow.


Was going to build an i5 set up, so thats a quadcore. But I understand that PS (and so perhaps LR) can take good advantage of multi-threading in CPUs like the i7, so was going to stretch by budget a little.
Anyone have a noticeable improvement with an i7 with multi-threading compared to a similar CPU without?

Similarly for RAM. Was thinking 4Gb is plenty but been hearing that PS takes good advnatge of 8Gb. Is this apparent on 12mp photos with more basic editing or does it really only affect very large files?

 

[Makhaira]

I can't answer your question first hand, but here's a couple of bits of info.

Raw CPU power only really comes in to effect when you're applying filters, the rest of the time it's fairly irrelevant in Photoshop. Depending on how you use it, this may make it pertinent or less valuable to you.

Regarding RAM, Photoshop stores several snapshots of an image when it is opened. This can be set in the preferences, and relates to how many different zoom levels of the image are kept ready in memory at any time - scale this up, and expect faster response moving in and out of an image - scale it down, and expect a lower RAM footprint requirement with corresponding drop in performance.

I am aware of some professionals running PS on 16Gb, but I have no idea of what real performance gain this provides.

 

[smogsy]

well i havent used ps extensively but

when Aperture (200 pictures),Photoshop (editing 3 12.1mb pictures) msn,ftp,itunes,internet

i was easily using 5GB (have 12GB)

 

[sid]

well i havent used ps extensively but

when Aperture (200 pictures),Photoshop (editing 3 12.1mb pictures) msn,ftp,itunes,internet

i was easily using 5GB (have 12GB)

Isn't photoshop only 64bit on pc atm? so that 12gb can't really all be used for 1 app

 

[p0ss3s3d]

Whilst CSx only get 32 bit's of RAM - I'm pretty sure those other apps get a juicy slice of RAM pie.

Besides I've never found 4gb a struggle with CS3 (finally got out of elements ) Lightroom, Spotify and sometimes firefox, unless I apply lens blur to the 14 bit CR2 files.