Photographer's Dilemma - 4770k vs. 3930k

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flaminllama

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Jun 24, 2013
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Hi guys,

I am building a new system in a couple of days.

I was all set to go with a 4770k, Z87-Pro from Asus, H100i, 16gb RAM kit, 256gb 840 Pro SSD, GTX 770 - http://pcpartpicker.com/user/flaminllama/saved/1Pzp


Then I priced out a 3930k with the P9X79-Pro and 32gb of ram, replaced the gtx 770 with my trusty HD 4890 from 3 years ago. Everything comes to about the same price (about $80 difference).

The last video game I played was Super Meat Boy and Civ 4.

I need as much power and efficiency in lightroom and photoshop cs6. Adobe recommends a fast cpu, lots of cores and fast cache (I'm getting a 2nd ssd for just cache).

I was initially excited for the 4770k, because the new platform allows for 6xsata 6gbps slots.

My current rig is a i7 920 running at stock speeds.

I'm so confused now. I like that extra native sataIII ports...but those extra 2 cores. I know they'll make a difference...but enough to go with 'older' tech?


Thanks!

 
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flaminllama

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Jun 24, 2013
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I'm using lightroom 4.x right now, upgrading to 5 after I complete the build.

Everything was running fine when I was processing my 12mp files from my D700. Since I switched to the D800, the 36mp raw files are really slowing down my workflow. Even after converting to DNG (lossless), there's a noticeable lag moving from image to image.

Current system is an i7-920 with 12gb of ram.
 
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flaminllama

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Jun 24, 2013
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That's a huge selling point for the 4770k...save on getting a new video card. The HD4600 reviews look pretty great to me.



 
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Intel God

Intel God

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Jun 25, 2013
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I've tested the igp and you can easily play source games or games with bf3 on low settings without much hassle.

Only thing I would change with your build is some faster memory. With my 3770K I ran 2133 then jumped to 2800 with Haswell and its a notable change.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231673
 
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DukeNukemDan

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Dec 7, 2013
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Lol, I have the exact same setup and the same concerns as you except I am a hard core gamer AND heavy cs6 user. i7 920 oc'd to 4.0ghz / gtx 780. I'm extremely curious to hear opinions/data with the 3930k running camera raw. Right now work flow making adjustments in raw is sluggish and annoying. I also would like to start editing gopro footage in Vegas Pro. Yes I know this thread is old but it's a great topic to discuss.
 
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DukeNukemDan

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Dec 7, 2013
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10,510
I'm hijacking this thread too. Question...is it worth it to upgrade from my
i7 to the 3930k WITH the benefit new SSD on SATA3. Will be adding a second
gtx 780. Will I notice any real world difference between games like BF4 and
CS6, Vegas Pro, from my oc'd i7 920. And yes..I've looked and billions of
benchmarks and crap. Note: will be building a pc for my parents and could
throw my i7 920, p6t mobo, and old gtx 580. OR!! buy this http://m.dhgate.com/product/p6x58d-premium-desktop-motherboard-lga-1366/158376459.html#pd-104
Put old i7 in new Mobo, save ~300-400$
 
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jdferdri

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Dec 8, 2013
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10,510
Even with Dual Xeon E5-2630s @ 2.5Ghz each, 64GB RAM, an SSD RAID and a dedicated Nvidia GTX680, Lightroom 4 continued to run quite poorly.
1XU44n
 
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flaminllama

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Jun 24, 2013
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10,510
Ok, it's been a few months and I have actual observations from my current setup, which is:
17 4770k, asus mobo, 16gb DDR ram, 256ssd boot drive (samsung 840 pro), 256ssd seperate cache drive (Sandisk Extreme) for lightroom and photoshop, 2x3TB storage drive (seagate drives). I have windows 8.1, lightroom 5 (latest version) and Photoshop CS6 64-bit. My video card is a GTX 760.

I use a Nikon D800 and shoot exclusively in RAW format. My workflow is to convert every RAW file to DNG using Adobe DNG Converter using lossless compression. Each 35MP file comes to about 30mb. I primarily shoot weddings (2000+ raw files per wedding), but also do a bit of architectural and panoramic photography.

My experience with photo editing - unbelievable speed. I can zip through the raw images as if they are low res jpgs. No stuttering, no issues whatsoever. Lightroom and Photoshop play really well together - export from lightroom directly into photoshop, do my main edits instantly, close and auto-import into lightroom. It's seamless with zero lag.

This past weekend I was stitching together very large panorama's - approximately 150megapixels in size. THAT was more of an issue. About 2-3 minutes to stitch the photo. Content-aware fill's also took a while.

Again, this is all anecdotal evidence, but my experience with the hardware upgrade has been fantastic. I am the bottleneck now, not the machine. I did also do as many optimizations with lightroom and Photoshop (cache storage, file size, preview rendering, individual catalogs, etc), so that probably played an important role as well, but not sure how significant.

The only thing left for me to do is get another 16gb of RAM and create a 24gb RAMDisk (AMD software) for photoshop when working on those 2+GB TIFF files (150megapixels). Other than that, I'm happy. This machine will last me another 3 years, which is all I really expect out of it. Unless nikon gets into medium format, I'm more than happy with 35mp.

As for gaming, the gtx760 is overkill for me.

My 0.02
 
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DukeNukemDan

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Dec 7, 2013
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Flamin llama you are my hero. However...as you said, Is it more likely that you have increased performance because of the ssd setup and "optimizations". Does anyone out there think I would do better to keep the 920, buy the new Gen mobo. If you're ever on the central coast of California PM me, I'll buy you a beer and we can talk photography.
 
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DukeNukemDan

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Dec 7, 2013
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10,510
Also, could you point me in the direction to "optimize" photoshop/LR. I've done what I can in my settings, but they seem pretty limited. That amd software looks awesome, AND it's free.
 
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