Best CPU type for Photoshop use?

Hmm, might need to find someone in the same situation. Perhaps posting in the Adobe forums might produce a better answer. There are some GPU accelerated tasks these days that can process much faster then a CPU.

5820k also has more cache and more memory bandwidth quad channel DDR4 vs dual channel DDR4 in the 6700k. So I would lean that way. But you do have to get a GPU for X99, they don't offer video.

Xeon processors tend to make better workstation processors. Usually a few features flipped on. X99 Xeons are rather expensive, but you can get ALOT more cores (up to 18 for Haswell-E and 22 for Haswell-EP) but generally at lower clock rates.

Skylake Xeons require a completely different chipset/motherboard, so I no longer consider them a decent option. But they are available.

http://www.provantage.com/intel-bx80660e52620v4~7ITEP48F.htm?source=googleps&gclid=CjwKEAjwuPi3BRClk8TyyMLloxgSJAAC0XsjT0pU10F6Ke5HVxjt9-xP93Kf30pVjVXCm29XRn4lgxoCRGjw_wcB

use the newer brodwell-e. the 8 core unit not as fast as the gaming cpu but with hyperthreading you have a 16 core beast. use a 950pro m2 ssd for speed as the boot drive. pay for 32 meg ddr4 ram kit. set up a ram drive for the aps or a large scratch drive. then pick up two storage drives on for work and one for backup. also use a backup software that save to the drive then nightly to the cloud. todays hard drive can just up and die. use one of the newer pascal gpu for the video card.

Fairly slow offering on the 2620 V4. Not sure I would want 2.1 Ghz cores. Boost to 3.6Ghz? Not my cup at $400 anyway. Rather pick up the 5820k in that case.

Photoshop 'Heavy' Actions
- Start Application and Load PSD File
- Upscale with Bicubic Interpolation
- Change Color Depth to 16-bit per Channel
- Create Color Range and Copy to New Layer
- Merge Two Picture Layers and Insert as New Layer in Front
- Compute and Add Unsharp Mask to this Foreground Layer
- Create and Delete Elliptical Selection in this Layer
- Merge All Layers into One Layer
- Add Gaussian Blur
- Add and Delete Gradient Mask
- Decrease Layer's Opacity
- Export File to PSD, TIFF and JPEG
- Flatten Picture and Downscale with Bicubic Interpolation
- Compute and Add Unsharp Mask
- Export as JPEG and Close Application

Click to expand...

THG Skylake Article: Desktop Publishing And Multimedia

In the THG AMD A10-7890K APU Review the following results were posted . . .


The general consensus in the APU comments was snagging the A10 7870K and clocking it to -7890X levels was the way to go --- put the cash somewhere else.

Not sure what difference using RAW ----> PSD would make. Tom's listed the 'Heavy PSD Export' as 1320MB -- 7000x10457 -- 300 DPI

I guess the point in this you can get a lot of mileage from a Haswell i3 or i5, or even an AMD Kaveri APU.

Wrong. An i3 is fast enough to not notice any bottlenecks. The primary bottlenecks which are going to prevent you from working in "real time", if you will, is going to be your drive setup, speed of drives, amount of RAM, and project file sizes. Photoshop doesn't need more than 4 threads, a few effects can use more, but no noticeable workflow speed inprovement going above an i3.

zoutv,

The best recent description of performance effects of multi-threading and multiple CPU's is this article, "Adobe Photoshop CC Multi Core Performance" by Matt Bach on Puget System site.

To summarize, Photoshop does have improvements in several functions , though it appears that the benefits taper off after 5 cores except in some functions such as blurs, hue, saturation /lightness, and bright / contrast intensity which do well up to 7 or 8 cores. Photoshop apparently definitely does not like multiple CPU's.

My computer use is mostly 3D modeling and rendering, but with a lot of graphic design so my main system system focuses on single-threaded performance but also has fast base clock speed of the 6-cores . My thought is that the best direction for your system is to use LGA2011-3 with a single six-core or possibly eight-core of the best possible single-threaded performance and high base clock speed.

The best cost/performance CPU choice in this category is the Xeon E5-1650 v3 6-core @ 3.5 /3.8GHz (about $575). using LGA2011-2 is just now going into the 12nm series with 22-cores so a future in which Adobe really optimizes for all cores avaialable can be accommodated.

Use a fast X99 motherboard: ASUS X99-E WS/USB 3.1 LGA2011-v3/ Intel X99/ DDR4/ 4-Way CrossFireX & 4-Way SLI/ SATA3&USB3.1/ M.2&SATA Express/ A&2GbE/ CEB Workstation Motherboard > $494

with M.2 SSD: SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZHPV512HDGL-00000 > $302

There is a lot of debate on GPU's for graphic design, but I'm convinced that x64 anti-aliasing alone is a good reason to use a workstation GPU and with Adobe which is CUDA accelerated, a Quadro. If you have any 3D use or plan on it, consider a Quadro M4000 (8GB) or for 2D, a Quadro K1200 or K2200 (4GB).

Add two large enterprise level storage drives in RAID 1.

If you're on a budget, don't care for the fuss of of researching sources, assembling, and wiring a system, or simply enjoy paying less, I've bought my last two workstations both as unused, open box with almost the entire warranty period. How about this:

HP Z440 Workstation Xeon E5-1650 v3 3.5GHz Six Core 16GB 256GB SSD Win7 F1M56UA > sold for $1,275

Add the GPU, more RAM, and change the SSD if the inclused 256GB is not sufficient, but that could become a scratch disk.

Another tactic is the budget is tighter is to buy a lower specification HP z420 and upgrade using a used CPU:

HP Z420 Xeon Workstation E5-1603 2.8GHz 4GB 1TB HHD NVidia Quadro 400 > sold for $280

And change the CPU to: [2392H] BX80635E52687V2_Intel Xeon E5-2687WV2 8 Core 3.4GHz 25MB L3 LGA2011

And for $1,300, have the base system with one of the best Xeons ever- the E5-2687W v2 8-core at 3.4 /4.0GHz.

Or, ab even tighter budget, an Intel Xeon E5-1650 v2 (B2011-677) 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Max) 12MB SR1AQ Processor CPU > sold for $280.

And for $560 have the basis for a fair percentage of the E5-1650 v3 system:

_________Average Passmark CPU score___Single-Threaded

E5-1650 v3_____ 13493 ______________________2116
E5-1650 v2_____ 12551 ______________________1954
E5-2687W _____ 14432 ______________________ 1872
E5-2690 _______ 14438 ______________________ 1874

I have a 2013 z420 with an E5-1620 and My plan is to replace it with an E5-2690 in the Summer.

So, a couple of alternatives.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

(Passmark V9.0 Beta Rating = 5019.1 > CPU= 14206 / 2D= 779 / 3D= 5032 / Mem= 2707 / Disk= 4760]

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1)

With Quadro K2200:
[ Passmark Rating = 4918 > CPU= 13941 / 2D= 823 / 3D= 3463 / Mem= 2668 / Disk= 4764

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)