PC 2 years old - what graphics card for Photoshop work?

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Owen Sutton

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Aug 18, 2014
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Hi Guys,

I built my pc a couple of years back but have been using the standard graphics processor on the motherboard. As this is one of the weaker parts of my build I thought I'd upgrade to a dedicated card.

I use my PC for graphics work - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign. I run two 24" monitors.

What would you recommend?

This is the current build:


  • Intel Core i3 3225 Dual Core CPU (Socket 1155, 3.30GHz, 3MB Cache, Ivy Bridge, 55W)
    Asrock H77M Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 7.1 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
    Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 XMS3 8GB
    OCZ 240GB Vertex Plus R2 SSD
    Seagate ST31000524AS 3.5 inch 1TB Hard Drive
    Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Heatpipe CPU Cooler
    Alpine JSP-750P12N 750W ATX PSU Power Supply

Don't want to spend too much. I guess £300 would be max budget.

Thanks in advance.
 
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davidarad02
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davidarad02

davidarad02

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Dec 27, 2014
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with 300 pounds to spend, you can get the GTX 970 or the r9 390. I'd say that you will be better off with the 390, if your projects are really big, because that can use a ton of vram, and the 8GB on the 390 will be a blessing.

BUT, I dont think your little i3 can handle such big boy GPU's, so I'll say that the best GPU to add to the system is a GTX 960 4GB or a r9 380 4GB. the money saved can get you closer to your next upgrade - an i5/i7 and a new motherboard, but wait until skylake if you do want to upgrade something right now.
 
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Owen Sutton

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Thanks for the speedy response. At the risk of sounding very dumb, is there any difference between an "Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 960" a "Gigabyte Nvidia Gtx 960" and a "MSI Nvidia Gtx 960"?? My guess is that it's teh same internals, but branded up differently. Is that correct? Amazon has this at £164
 
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davidarad02

davidarad02

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different companies make different coolers and PCB designs for their graphics cards (unless its using the stock cooler from nvidia or the stock PCB, also from nvidia). the one you linked is made by asus, and they designed the PCB and the cooler for that graphics card. the Gigabyte one and the MSI one are also different PCB designs (Designed by the respective brand), as well as the cooler.heck, some companies put extra vram on thier cards. the only thing similar between all of the GTX 960 cards is that they have a GM206 core, which powers all GTX 960.
 
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Owen Sutton

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Aug 18, 2014
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Ah, right. So what's the best/most appropriate to go for?
 
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davidarad02

davidarad02

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I like MSI cards, but any card from a good brand with a good cooler and a good name, would be a good pick. that means the ASUS one is good, the Gigabyte one is good, the EVGA one is good, as well as my personal favorite - MSI.
im running a MSI GTX 970 in my PC currenty, and I love the 0 RPM fan mode, which turns the fans off at idle. I cant hear my GPU while im typeing this answer. btw, dont worry, as long as you buy the gaming 2G version from MSI, you will have this feature, the regular blower style cooler from MSI doens't have that feature.
 
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Quixit

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Just don't expect it to improve your Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign performance. That is, unless you're using one of the few GPU-accelerated filters or plugins. Those applications are mainly 2D. Video cards are mostly for playing video games and doing 3D Rendering (Maya, 3D Studio Max, etc.)
 
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