Best PC for Graphics?

R
Posted By
ross
Mar 27, 2006
Views
207
Replies
2
Status
Closed
I would like to know from this knowledgeable group: what is the best computer for using Photoshop CS2? I have upgraded the video card and I have reduced the image cache levels. I have a Pentium 4 and 1 Gig of RAM. Still the bridge is still very slow. I am considering buying a new computer and my friends say wait for the 64 bit CPU and Visa (next year). If I buy now, what do you suggest? I appreciate this newsgroup. Dick Ross
Related Tags
best graphics pc

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

B
bmoag
Mar 27, 2006
Many "slow" problems are due to fragmented hard drives and too many background programs running simultaneously. Shut off everything you don’t need and I guarantee PS will run faster.
Makinsg sure scratch drives are set up properly helps some. If you are working with very large files, 50mbs and above, and 48 bit color then no matter how fast your computer is you will still see the hourglass and work progress bars.
In general the best performance will be seen with dual core Athlons (not because of dual threaded processes in Photoshop but because of the way Windows works) with dual data rate matched sticks of memory. The video card is the least important factor as even the most lowly AGP or PCI-e card exceeds the requirement for resolution and color depth needed for Photoshop. Although Intel dual core processors use faster memory the CPU access to memory is much slower than with Athlon dual core processors. Get at least two physically separate hard drives as, with large files, a physically separate scratch disk can help some.
A
Avery
Mar 27, 2006
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:22:41 -0600, "ross"
wrote:

I would like to know from this knowledgeable group: what is the best computer for using Photoshop CS2? I have upgraded the video card and I have reduced the image cache levels. I have a Pentium 4 and 1 Gig of RAM. Still the bridge is still very slow. I am considering buying a new computer and my friends say wait for the 64 bit CPU and Visa (next year). If I buy now, what do you suggest? I appreciate this newsgroup. Dick Ross

It is kind of hard to quantify "very slow" or "fast enough". I am using a very old P4 @ 1.4 gigahertz and 1 GB memory with two hard discs. I generally find the system more than adequate. The RAW files from my camera are about 12 megabyte. It takes about 15 seconds to open one of these. I find that acceptable – I guess you may not. If you are loading bigger files, this may account for the lack of speed. My guess is that there is something in your software configuration that is slowing you down. The basic hardware config should work OK.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections