4 core 6700K vs 6 core 5820K for Lightroom raw Develop module and Photoshop

[danphotoman]

Greetings,

I've done my best searching forums, comments and benchmark sites but still cannot figure out if a 4 core 6700K will out perform a 6 core 5820K in Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop.

Price is not too much of a factor in this build. I'm targeting around $2K USD.

With this PC, I will only process 20+ megapixel raw photos using Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 and basic Photoshop CC 2015 adjustment tools. I do not game, I do not process video. I'm just a photography nerd who wants those sliders and previews nice 'n speedy

I will also have dual SLI'd GeForce 970s as I've confirmed the latest version of Lightroom makes use of SLI'd GPUs.

Hope this is enough information. I'm more than happy to read/research more myself on this but might need some ideas on what benchmark metrics to look at or which sites to visit. So far I've only been to CPUBenchmark.net which has the 6th gen below the 5th.

Many thanks folks.

 

[Gamer1985]

For what your doing this may surprise you, because most would think the extra cores on the 5820k will be more useful for these applications but they wont. Adobe photoshop doesnt utlize the additional threads very well. Read this https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CC-CPU-Multi-threading-Performance-625/#Conclusion

For lightroom it really depends on your exact workflow as some it has a mix of Single, light and heavily threaded operations. Read here https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-6-CPU-Multi-threading-Performance-649/#RelatedArticles

Also the skylake platform will be slightly cheaper, even with the price of the 6700k at this point. If you were doing more rendering etc. i would say the 5820k.

 

[synphul]

Even a skylake 6600k i5 would keep up with the i7 in photoshop. Like Gamer1985 mentioned photoshop isn't really heavily threaded. Unless there's a photography buff out there who can confirm sli'd 970's to be a major benefit I think it will end up likely being wasted money. 16-32gb of ram would be a good starting point for memory.

Maybe instead of sli'd 970's take the money from the one 970 and use it toward data drives. For instance a 250gb ssd for the main os/program files, a 120gb ssd for the scratch disk, then a larger storage drive like a 1-2tb hdd for bulk file storage.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skylake-intel-core-i7-6700k-core-i5-6600k,4252-5.html

Edit: depending how important this is to you, whether work, hobby, etc be sure to leave some of the budget for a decent monitor if you don't already have one. Something like an 8-10 bit ips panel and a calibration tool. It doesn't have to be a fast 1-2ms response type monitor favored for gaming, for photo work it's more about color accuracy.

Not suggesting your monitor is terrible, I have no idea what monitor you currently are using or if you need one. It is however an important consideration since the best photos and hardware in the world won't make much difference if using an inexpensive <$100 tn panel monitor with poor color accuracy.

 

[danphotoman]

Wow, I have to say I am extremely grateful for the quality answers you both gave me. Asking questions on forums such as these typically renders a lot of rude, elitist, smarty-pants replies.

Not sure how I did not find the Puget Systems article but that is precisely what I needed to see! Thank you @Gamer1985. Looks like Lightroom takes advantage of 4 maybe 5 cores just fine but flattens out after 6. So there goes my 5820K 6-core idea.

@synphul, those are some great suggestions and now I have more to ponder! I have my eye on two Dell P2415Q monitors. I'm unsure if they are true 10-bit or not. Dell's site says "1.07 billion colors" but on another review site I read something about them being 8-bit with a frame rate refresh (fake 10-bit). I'll need to read up some more in the next few days.

Regarding the GPUs... I haven't read anything that tells me 100% for sure that Lightroom will take advantage of SLId GPUs. I know Lightroom uses GPU, but unsure of how much btter it'll perform with two of them. I had a 980TI in my cart but then changed to dual-970s thinking it's the same-ish price and... why not have two. I know, not very scientific/factual on my part. Again, probably something I need to continue researching (one 980TI vs dual-970s).

Finally the drives, more good stuff to ponder @synphul. Today while doing more motherboard research, I learned about something called M.2. So now I need to re-think my drive situation. I was going to just keep my 3-year old SSD.

Thank you again for the help folks, very appreciated.

 

[Gamer1985]

Go with the 980TI as opposed to the sli 970s. 980 Ti advantages are more VRAM, less noise, less heat, no hassle with SLI profiles, and much less power consumption. Plus you leave the option of SLI 980TI down the road. Running SLI 970s are nearly equal to a single 980Ti in most cases. Plus you wont have to deal with multi GPU supported applications to take advantage of your hardware.

 

[danphotoman]

Awesome, thanks @Gamer1985, I've added the EVGA 06G-P4-4996-KR to my cart. Thank you for the input!

 

[mRoy62]

@danphotoman - what config did you decide on? I'm about to build my new PC and I only care about the speed for Lightroom.

 

[danphotoman]

@danphotoman - what config did you decide on? I'm about to build my new PC and I only care about the speed for Lightroom.

Well, I still haven't decided yet and still have my old PC. That said, I am strongly considering the new Skylake-based MacBook Pros when they finally come out in Q3 or Q4 this year. This is because A) They claim to support dual-4K monitors and B) I have an older Macbook Air which I use for everything other than Lightroom editing. I'm not saying a Skylake-ed MacBook Pro is better than a custom-built PC, however for my life and what I do... this might just be the best solution.

 

[SeymourButtts]

5820k all day

 

[mRoy62]

5820k all day

why?

 

[Rangalover]

@danphotoman - what config did you decide on? I'm about to build my new PC and I only care about the speed for Lightroom.

Well, I still haven't decided yet and still have my old PC. That said, I am strongly considering the new Skylake-based MacBook Pros when they finally come out in Q3 or Q4 this year. This is because A) They claim to support dual-4K monitors and B) I have an older Macbook Air which I use for everything other than Lightroom editing. I'm not saying a Skylake-ed MacBook Pro is better than a custom-built PC, however for my life and what I do... this might just be the best solution.

 

[Rangalover]

So heres what i just built for my mrs after a butload of research...who is a wedding photographer...she uses lightroom 90%...10%everything else including photoshop...
256gb samsung 950 pro - for os and all programs
800gb - intel 750 series - for lr cache and all catalogues/imported raw files
2tb toshiba 7200rpm hd - she zips and stores outputs for a set time frame in case clients lose there copy
Corsair 4x8gb 2800mhz ram
Skylake 6700k
Nvidea quadro m4000
Gigabyte z170 gaming 5 mx mobo

Obviously theres other parts ie coolers ect but there the bits that count...so things id do different is get a nvidea gtx 980 ti instead of a quadro...got the quadro for 10 bit output, but they switched it on for all models in win 10, i only went quadro for 10 bit and went up a couple of models as whilst lr doesnt use a gpu at all atm it seems like something that will change as most other programs are starting to rely more and more...and could havee got cheaper ssd as long as you seperate the run drive from the cache and catalogue, itll still be fast, i think i just went ott here...lastly got lg mu97 true 10 bit 4k moniter...be wary of these they have massive problems i am on my second in a month and its starting to have issues...i recomend true 10 bit though the colours are amazing...the difference is huge from the old one...when it works...lastly from everything ive read lr in developing responds to higher mhz and only uses more cores for import and export...lets face it editing is where the bulk of time is spent hence why i went with the skylake...currently overclocked to 4.5 mhz...this is about $5.5k worth including the monitor...but hey its completely tax deductible and hopefully will get 5 years out of it...probs not the monitor...might go for a refund on that one if the third time lucky fails.