Graphics card for photo editing

Aguillem · Aug 23, 2015

Hi,

I'm choosing components to build my PC.

I'll use it mainly for photo editing (Lightroom 5.2, and sometimes Photoshop CS6, etc.).
I may also use it occasionally for CAD (Computer Assisted Design) (Catia V5)
The whole budget is about 1000$ (excluding monitor, etc.).

My configuration would be this one:
- Motherboard: ASRock Mod 1150 Z97M Pro4 (MATX/Z97)
- Monitor: Full HD, HDMI
- CPU: i5-4690K
- RAM: 2x 8GB DDR3
- Hard disk: 1x 1TB
- SSD: 1x 250GB
- Case: probably "SilverStone GD09B"
- OS: Windows 10

I know graphics card is't the most important component for photo editing, so I'd like to keep it quite cheap.
However I don't want to create a bottleneck because other components are quite powerful.

Do you think I need a dedicated graphics card with the motherboard I chose?
Maybe I should just choose a better motherboard?

Otherwise, can you recommend some good values graphics cards?
I hope it could be cheaper than 100$.

Nb: the case manual says "When choosing a graphics card, we recommend models that have fan blowing exhaust air to the rear slot, this will ensure smooth and efficient airflow within the GD09 for maximum cooling performance."

Thank you in advance!

Robert Cook · Aug 23, 2015

save money, and get 8GB of RAM, an you will not get much if any benefit from 16 with that CPU and workload, 16 is more for video render with Xeons. also get this motherboard, and get the i5 4690, or get an intel i7 4770. unless you plan to OC, you do not need a K processor, and that is not a good OC motherboard anyway, with the 70 saved, you can either get the 4770, or a GTX 750.

Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163 · Aug 23, 2015

If you're working with RAW images, or lots of layers, or multitasking-- 16 GB is going to be very helpful, because PS alone will allocate ~55% of your RAM for itself by default. Generally PS is great with more cores, but there are instances were single core performance is slightly better. As for GPU, you will need one that is using CUDA/OPENGL, this will help speed up everything color in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Robert Cook · Aug 23, 2015

^Photoshop utilizes Cuda better, so hence the 750 suggestion. a quadro is simply too expensive. I just realized, you do not need the fastest i5 out there, and this one will perform about as well and is about $30 less. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117302 with these savings, you might be able to get 16 GB of RAM, but I really feel it is not needed.

Aguillem · Aug 23, 2015

Thank you!
If I understand correctly, "GTX 750" refers to all the graphics cards which use the Graphics Engine "GeForce GTX 750".
So the following ones are ok?
Asus GTX750TI Scheda Video PCIe, OC 2GB
Msi nVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Scheda Video, PCIe, 2 GB GDDR5
Gigabyte Scheda Grafica GTX 750, 2 GB DDR5

Would you recommend one of these, or another one?

About the CPU: In Italy the i5-4690 and i5-4690K cost the same so I decided to go for the K, to have the possibility to overclock in the future. Are there some drawbacks?
Probably an i5-4460 would be fine, but I prefer something more powerful so I don-t need to upgrade it during the next years.

About the RAM, maybe I'll get only 8GB now, and I can upgrade later if I need it.

Robert Cook · Aug 23, 2015

I would get the Asus one, a 750ti is much better than a 750.

Robert Cook · Aug 23, 2015

No drawbacks to having a K processor. and RAM upgrades are always a good idea down the read if you want to.

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Graphics card for photo editing

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