Photoshop Upgrade

katie279

katie279

katie279

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Ok, so a 'max out the min cost' style question here.

Have a PC that I've been using for many years for donkey work (ie office apps etc) and only app that really is of note is Photoshop which I use heavily.

I just bought a fourth screen - so have a 35 inch 4k screen and also a 22 inch cintiq-style tablet screen as well as two 'normal' 1920px screens (one widescreen, one not)

I've noticed Photoshop's starting to lag a little, but nothing too bad, so would like to work out what's the best way to upgrade for a modest amount.

Quick specs of key areas:
Geforce 970 - 4gb
Asus P5Q
Q6700
8GB RAM

Obviously another 8gb of RAM would free up photoshop significantly, but I'm not sure what the max graphics card and CPU would be on this MB - or whether it's worth biting the bullet and upgrading that too.

I know sometimes the lowest spec pc on a better motherboard can end up being better value than the highest spec PC on an end of life motherboard...

Thoughts appreciated as always!
 
The best thing to do is run up some measuring tools like Task Manager and GPU-Z to see where the bottleneck lies.
 
Cool - good advice - daft question, how?? Got GPUZ, do you mean just check if memory is maxed out etc?

Likewise Taskmanager just monitor CPU/Memory % under load?
 
Cool - it's idling around 75% for CPU 80% for memory - tell a lie on the GPU, it's got 2gb, not 4gb.

Under load - eg photoshop tasks/processes both seem to max out to 100.

Some tasks in Photoshop are GPU heavy, but wonder if the CPU is maxing out first...?

Am leaning towards a rebuild with a fresher motherboard - maybe if I started with a good value MB like the tomahawk max, chuck a Ryzen 2700 (or X) in there, it'll be worth it in the long run...
 
4 screens, all different sizes. You must have a lot of space. :p How are they attached - does the 970 have 4 outputs?

I can't really see anything 2d troubling any modern graphics card, so I'd be looking at RAM and CPU for Photoshop performance.

So, as you say. A new low end Ryzen processor (+ board and ram) would be the best route. Nothing wrong with the GPU - if anything it's overpowered for what's required.
 
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Heh, well there's another PC in the same room with four screens.... so 8 in total... ;)

970 is attached with 1 x hdmi and 3 x displayport from memory, so yes it had four outputs (it actually might have had 5 - an old DVI port also). I recall this being a key feature...!

I'm thinking of something like:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £848.19 (includes shipping: £12.30)


Anything silly here?​
 
If we're talking max bang for the money

No need for a new GPU. 970 to 1060 isn't worth the expense.
I'd go for a 3600 instead of a 2700x. Do you really need 8 cores?
You 'might' not need a PSU. If your existing one is powering a 970, it can't be that old / bad.
No real need for a new case either - but depends if you want a whole PC, or just an upgrade.

Also, keep in mind that you'll probably need a new Windows license as well. Plus, remember to deactivate Photoshop before you take it apart.
 
Good tips!

GPU - yes good advice, might stick it out - I just wonder if me being from 2gb vram to 6gb would help (eg some Photoshop processes now use GPU) - will mull and may stick with the 970

3600 - sensible, yes don't really need the cores (don't believe Photoshop is too well designed here) - very occasionally use blender, but can survive without

PSU - yes, certainly don't in terms of watts (in fact think this would be a downgrade), just get fed up with PSUs constantly needing new connectors (eg GPU 8 pin Vs 6 pin Vs 4 pin). Will check which version I installed in this - would certainly pay if it's not fully modular.

Case - yeah don't need it, but was very impressed as just built another PC and this case was recommended by others on this forum and was impressed at how much things have moved on - all screw free, neat cable management etc, so figure I'll tidy this at the same point!). Have a thermaltake armor at the moment.
 
katie279 said:
very occasionally use blender, but can survive without
Click to expand...
Cycles render (default render engine in Blender) uses GPU by default & is generally quicker with that than with the CPU - Evee render is similar. So it depends on the task but Blender should do very well on a 3600 in general, but would probably love a Graphics Card upgrade if you happen to get one for other purposes. If you don't, I think you'll still see a boost from the hugely improved CPU & RAM.
 
Should note that the GTX 970 only came with 4GB of RAM so it's worth confirming that's the card. A 970 is definitely powerful enough to drive something like Photoshop happily, it's still an adequate gaming card for many.

From experience, moving from a Q8200 to an i3-2120, was almost twice as fast. The architecture jump there more than compensated for fewer cores. Considering the 2nd gen i3 is also wildly dated, any current gen Ryzen will be a big improvement.

Also check whether Photoshop will happily install and validate on the new machine - now they've moved to a subscription modem I've heard of people having issues continuing with their old license.
 
Hmm, dead link for some reason?

Really good advice all, I'll probably stick with the gfx card then (easy enough to swap out if need be)
 
Ah, what do I need for that?? Might need to join a flame-war thread to get my posts up.... ;)
 
Heh, a wee bit to go then..... ;)

Clearly need to spend more time in the forums - I would have thought being a member since 2007 and designing the actual overclockers logo was enough.... ;)
 
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