Lenovo P910 Dual Xeon build runs Photoshop CC as fast as my Surface Pro 4. Why? GPU?

[Steve082119]

Hey all!

I just got a Lenovo P910 Dual Xeon and in playing with it, right out of the box, so to speak, I was sad to find some arbitrary tests of Photoshop filters were taking as long to process and open as on my tablet PC. Just did some messing with smart sharpening, blur library, and smart objects/compounded layer tests, but I do Illustrator, AE, Maya, I'm getting into Unity, as well, and if smart filters are slower than I'd like, I am worried about future prospects and larger projects.

Here's my full build as Lenovo writes it out:

Component QTY/Unit
1st HDD selection 3.5" 2TB SATA HDD 7200 rpm 1
2nd HDD selection No 2nd HDD Selected 0
3rd HDD selection No 3rd HDD Selected 0
First PCIe M.2 HDD Selection M.2 512GB PCIe SSD 1
Memory Selection 16GB ECC 2400MHz RDIMM 4
ITC 2 - Enhanced Service NONE
ITC2-Solution Using SmartImage NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 1 NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 2 NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 3 NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 4 NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 5 NONE
ITC 2 - Imaging Service 6 NONE
ITC 2 - Project Type NONE
ITC 2 - Who Created The Image NONE
ITC - Harddrive Encryption NONE
ITC - Cloud Recovery None
ITC - Essential Image NONE
ITC - Image Management None
ITC - Vpro Provisioning (VPRO) NONE
1st Graphic Card DP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
1st Graphic Card DVI Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
1st Graphic Card MiniDP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
1st HDD Boot Drive No
1st RAID Array No 1st RAID Selected
2nd Graphic Card DP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
2nd Graphic Card DVI Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
2nd Graphic Card MiniDP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
2nd RAID Array No 2nd RAID Selected
3rd Graphic Card DP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
3rd Graphic Card DVI Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
3rd Graphic Card MiniDP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
3rd RAID Array No 3rd RAID Selected
4th Graphic Card DP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
4th Graphic Card DVI Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
4th Graphic Card MiniDP Dongle No Graphics Dongle Selected
Additional IO NONE
Adobe No Adobe Selected
Adobe Acrobat NONE
Country USA
Processor 2x Intel Xeon E5-2620V4 2.1GHz
Additional Ethernet None-use 2x integrated ports
First PCIe M.2 HDD Boot Drive Yes
Flex Bay Storage Enclosure None
Front I/O - 1394 Front 1394 I/O
Front I/O - eSATA Front eSATA I/O
GPU Computing Card No Computing Card
1st Graphic Card NVIDIA NVS510 2G 4mDP
2nd Graphic Card No Second Graphic Card
3rd Graphic Card No_Third Graphic Card
4th Graphic Card No_Fourth Graphic Card
Hard Drive Controller Adapter Intel Integrated Controller
IEEE 1394 Firewire Adapter IEEE 1394
Interface pack None
Internal USB NONE
Key Kit Key Lock Kit With Unique Key
Keyboard No Keyboard Selected
Line Cord LineCord_US
McAfee No McAfee SWAPP Selected
Media Card Reader Integrated 9-in-1_MCR
Motherboard P910 Motherboard - Dual CPU
Mouse No Mouse Selected
Norton No Norton SWAPP Selected
Optical Drive 16x DVD +/- RW DL Win10
2nd Optical Drive No 2nd Optical Drive Selected
3rd Optical Drive No 3rd Optical Drive Selected
Microsoft Office No Office Software Selected
USB 3.1 Type C Rear Adapter NONE
P910_SHANGHAIOTHERS10 NONE
Independent Audio Card NONE
1st Front Access HDD Selection No 1st Front HDD Selected
Front Access Storage Enclosure No Front Storage Enclosure
Enterprise Ready Preload NONE
P910_SHANGHAIOTHERS6 NONE
P910_SHANGHAIOTHERS7 NONE
P910_SHANGHAIOTHERS8 NONE
P910_SHANGHAIOTHERS9 NONE
PCIE Add-in-Cards storage No PCIe Storage Selected
Platform Tower 1300W 92%
Preload Language WIN10 PRO64_ENGLISH
Preload OS WIN10_Pro64
Preload Type Standard_Image
Pub PUB_English
Recovery Media No Recovery DVD
Rear I/O– eSATA No Rear I/O Port Selected
Stereo 3D Connector No NVIDIA Stereo 3D Connector
Thunderbolt I/O No Thunderbolt Card
UltraSlim ODD None
USB 3.0 No USB3.0 Adapter Selected
Warranty 3 Year On_site
WiFi Network Adapter Intel 7260 AC Wifi Card


Everything is rather top of the line, I think, and should be able to handle all I need and more, except the graphics card, which I'm hoping to upgrade to a GTX 1080 soon, but is that really why Photoshop is running about as fast on this build as my tablet? I know there's optimizations that can be done in PS, but shouldn't it be crazy faster without manually setting up hardware allocations?

Thanks in advance for any shared thoughts!

 

[Spartan70NL]

Looks like a nice workstation build to me. Do you have your photoshop/etc files on the pcie ssd or on the HDD? Loading files directly from a slower HDD or network nas/server could slowdown load times significantly. Other than that, to me it looks like your GPU is the bottleneck.