CPU Recommendations

[EJ53]

building a new PC, need a recommendation for CPU.

Running Windows 10 Pro
Darkroom Software Core Professional
Adobe Photoshop
Photo Mechanic

Computer's primary use is for printing photographs, will have 4-6 printers running on USB

Suggestions for best value.

Thank you
EJ53

 

[Arachnotronic]

Intel Core i7 7700K.

 

[Markfw]

Intel Core i7 7700K.

Considering thats one of three apps you are running, based on what I know, I say Ryzen 1700 or 1700x. Oh, and price and platform considerations also.

 

[IEC]

OP asked for best value. *If* money is no consideration, those apps don't really scale well with more cores (yet), which would mean the i7-7700K would be best overall processor except for tasks like exporting. Until Adobe gets off their rear and scales to 6+ cores.

However, if money *is* a consideration, then a Ryzen 1600X + B350 motherboard combination is hard to beat for value. My 1600X + motherboard costs $200 + $70 on sale, versus a sale price of $299 + mobo for a i7-7700K.

So it depends on the absolute performance level the OP is looking for.

 

[Jan Olšan]

Intel Core i7 7700K.

If the software doesn't scale to more cores (which I'm not at all sure about), then claerly i7 is not a good value, you'd get the i5 version (4 cores, no HT) and save money.

 

[amd6502]

would 1500x outperform a 1600 here?

 

[Arachnotronic]

If the software doesn't scale to more cores (which I'm not at all sure about), then claerly i7 is not a good value, you'd get the i5 version (4 cores, no HT) and save money.

i5 isn't clocked as high.

 

[LTC8K6]

Probably Coffee Lake if you can wait for it.

 

[Jan Olšan]

i5 isn't clocked as high.

Both are unlocked. And if anything, he should wait a week or so to see if Coffee Lake (i7-8700K, i5-8600K) is going to be launched soon and at what prices.

Recommending 7700K without any commentary as if it was a no-brainer at this point of time is mostly helpful to Intel (for clearing out their inventory), less to the guy who asked for best value. Two more cores potentially at the same price in 1-2 months is bloody lot better than 7700K.

Edit: Intel is revealing the 8000 series of CPUs on the 21th, so if nothing else, I would wait for then to see.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Both are unlocked. And if anything, he should wait a week or so to see if Coffee Lake is going to be launched soon and at what prices.

Recommending 7700K without any commentary as if it was a no-brainer at this point of time is mostly helpful to Intel (for clearing out their inventory), less to the guy who asked for best value. Two more cores potentially at the same price in 1-2 months is bloody lot better than 7700K.

The OP said he needs something soon; seems like it's for work.

 

[Christopher Bohling]

Considering thats one of three apps you are running, based on what I know, I say Ryzen 1700 or 1700x. Oh, and price and platform considerations also.

Darkroom Software Core Professional
Photo Mechanic

Do either of these programs show a notable improvement with extra threads?

 

[cfenton]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CC-2017-Intel-Core-i7-7700K-i5-7600K-Performance-879/


https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CC-2017-1-1-CPU-Comparison-Skylake-X-Kaby-Lake-X-Broadwell-E-Kaby-Lake-Ryzen-7-976/

If value is important then an i5 isn't that far behind an i7. Though, there's really not a huge difference between any modern 4+ core CPU.

 

[Pick2]

It's not weather any one program uses multi-thread well , It's that you can run all your programs at once. !

... Computer's primary use is for printing photographs, will have 4-6 printers running on USB ...

That right there is reason for MAX CORES

 

[eddman]

How much are you willing to spend? That's the main question.

Since you might be doing a lot of multi-tasking, I'd say a 1600X if you want something cheaper. If money is not that much of an issue, go for a 1700X.

If you are not in much of a hurry, maybe you could wait for coffee lake to come out and then make your choice, but that's probably at least 2 months away.

 

[Ratman6161]

building a new PC, need a recommendation for CPU.

Running Windows 10 Pro
Darkroom Software Core Professional
Adobe Photoshop
Photo Mechanic

Computer's primary use is for printing photographs, will have 4-6 printers running on USB

Suggestions for best value.

Thank you
EJ53

I see you say its for printing photographs. Do you really mean that you will just be printing from here, not editing? And because you say that there are 4 to 6 printers, are you actually using this as a print server?

If so, a heavy duty CPU is not required at all. Check out the following Technet article regarding print server Scalability:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn554243(v=ws.11).aspx

Many times on a print server, disk IO actually becomes a bottleneck on large print jobs because of the creation of spool files. Its fairly common for a pretty low end CPU to be used on print servers as processing power usually inst the problem.

 

[formulav8]

Suggestions for best value.

A Ryzen 5 1600 6 Core CPU with cheap B350 mobo. If your apps start scaling better you can go 8-core in the future quite cheaply.

 

[Jan Olšan]

If it is for work then it probably won't be overclocked, so if you wanted a hexacore Ryzen, R5 1600X would be better idea than R5 1600. Downside is, no bundled cooler.

 

[Rifter]

A Ryzen 5 1600 6 Core CPU with cheap B350 mobo. If your apps start scaling better you can go 8-core in the future quite cheaply.

This is by far the most economic choice.

 

[amd6502]

If it is for work then it probably won't be overclocked, so if you wanted a hexacore Ryzen, R5 1600X would be better idea than R5 1600. Downside is, no bundled cooler.

It's also more expensive. 1600x does not come with cooler. 1600 and 1500x do come with cooler.

With it not scaling above 8 threads I think a 1500x actually may perform better than the 1600 for photoshop.

With a few jobs preparing to be sent to printer while doing photoshop the 1600 may win though. How often does that really happen though? Future proofing is maybe a better reason for going over 4c/8t.

For 8 thread loads where SMT efficiency isn't so high hexacores also do better.