Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop

[swchoi89]

Hi guys,

Do Illustrator and Photoshop rely more on the CPU or the combination of CPU/GPU?

Currently, the system I have for my intern has no GPU, just a i5-2500 CPU. Any advantage in adding a GPU unit?

Thanks in advance.

 

[smakme7757]

Recent versions of Photoshop can utilise GPU power however I'm not sure that it's needed in all cases. You're current CPU with its HD 3000 graphics should be more than enough to run Photoshop without too much trouble.

Another member might be able to give you more information.

 

[swchoi89]

Recent versions of Photoshop can utilise GPU power however I'm not sure that it's needed in all cases. You're current CPU with its HD 3000 graphics should be more than enough to run Photoshop without too much trouble.

Another member might be able to give you more information.

Thanks.

It takes about 30 minutes to save a single file, and makes it almost unbearable for normal use. Is Photoshop normally THIS demanding?

 

[Imaginer]

Thanks.

It takes about 30 minutes to save a single file, and makes it almost unbearable for normal use. Is Photoshop normally THIS demanding?

How much RAM do you have? Depending on how big the image is, and the layers used, it can be demanding on any machine that is not outfitted properly. Also, are you working with solely hard disk drives or have a solid state disk with the OS, programs, and pagefile?

 

[skulkingghost]

I am a full time digital designer. Sounds like you are working with some pretty large files for it to take that long. When I am on the road even my macbook air can handle basic editing. That being said my 32gb of ram 6 core + quadro does a lot better.

What file size / dpi are you designing at? How much ram is on it?

 

[swchoi89]

How much RAM do you have? Depending on how big the image is, and the layers used, it can be demanding on any machine that is not outfitted properly. Also, are you working with solely hard disk drives or have a solid state disk with the OS, programs, and pagefile?

Thanks for your response.

I think the RAM amount is 4GB. Windows 7, and a standard HDD (what is a pagefile?)

 

[swchoi89]

I am a full time digital designer. Sounds like you are working with some pretty large files for it to take that long. When I am on the road even my macbook air can handle basic editing. That being said my 32gb of ram 6 core + quadro does a lot better.

What file size / dpi are you designing at? How much ram is on it?

Thanks for your response!

File sizes range from... 20MB to almost 1 GB. I guess the objects are poorly coordinated/designed so the alternative would be to shrink the size. Even so, a 20MB file sometimes cause a lot of crashes.

RAM is about 4GB I believe.

 

[Lorne]

Are you saving over a LAN?, If yes then check to make sure you have a 1000Mbs set up.
Is the 20MB-1GB files what photoshop says it is or the actual saved file size?

Crashing alot, Have you run antivirus on that system?, If AV passes then run Memtest.
Shut down any other background prossesses as Photoshop is a memory hog.

Adding a GPU will help alot, Something mid level will do with 1GB+ of memory.
You will not need any high end GPU as Adobe has not instilled GPU prossesing in most of there render systems, Only about 10% at best and you need to figure if your using them at all before purchasing a high end GPU just for a simple workstation.

 

[dbcooper1]

Are you using a 64bit O/S? You say you have 4GB of RAM but at the bottom it says 8GB. System should be much faster than that.

 

[ggadrian]

What photoshop wants is RAM. The minimum I'd use is 8GB, although if you can afford 16GB photoshop will use them.

Also is supports OpenCL and has a lot of GPU-accelerated filters and tools, so you might want to use a dGPU. An HD7750 or HD7770 will give you a very good performance for 100$ or less.

 

[swchoi89]

Note: this is a computer for my intern at my work, not the rig I specified in my signature.

No, I am saving the files to the local drive.

No, I am using 32bit O/S. I will definitely try to add more RAM

Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

[Cerb]

No, I am using 32bit O/S. I will definitely try to add more RAM

Be ready to re-install Windows--64-bit, this time. You won't make the most of >=2GB of RAM with 32-bit, and won't be able to use more than ~3.5GB at all.

 

[skulkingghost]

Note: this is a computer for my intern at my work, not the rig I specified in my signature.

No, I am saving the files to the local drive.

No, I am using 32bit O/S. I will definitely try to add more RAM

Thanks everyone for your responses.

32bit and the ram are your real problems. A 1gb photoshop file in an app that can only utilize ~2gb of ram is going to be a nightmare. I'd shoot for 12-16gb if some files are 1gb+

 

[Lorne]

My pos photoshop work station is a A-II 640 w/ 4GB DDR2 1066, Win7-64 and a NV 630.
Using CS-PS 5.5 I can save a 400MB 10+ layer PSD and a flattened JPG (100%) in 8 second over network.
He should be able to do just a little better with an I5 and saving to native drive.

 

[Steltek]

Definitely go to 64 bit Windows and max out the DRAM. The Win7 installation key should work with either version - all you need is the 64-bit Win7 install media. Time is money, and even adding an SSD for use as a scratch/page drive on top of the extra memory would be advantageous for really big files. It would pay for itself rather quickly in terms of productivity alone.

BTW, unless Adobe has changed something since the last time I looked, if you are using the creative cloud version of Photoshop, I think the installer installs both 32 and 64 bit versions but then (stupidly) defaults all the file associations to launch 32 bit Photoshop by default even on 64 bit OSes. Which, unless you correct the issue, will defeat the purpose of going to 64 bit Windows -- definitely something you'd want to check after the OS conversion.