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DECISION MADE: Lightroom and PS use: More speed or cores?

J

JoeyC

Member
Just a quick intro...

Looking to do a quick, budget friendly upgrade to one my PCs. It currently has a slightly overclocked 7750BE Kuma. This PC is primarily going to see Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop use. I know that Lightroom will use any available cores.

My question is an x4 at a higher speed or an x6 at a lower speed?

The two CPUs in question:
-Phenom II x4 975BE 3.6 $160 (Newegg)
-Phenom II x6 1045T 2.7 $130 (Microcenter)

I am stuck on these two as it is a cheap, simple upgrade. My Asus board is already flashed and ready for AM3 chips.

Thanks for any input,

Joe
 
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As a heads-up, the OEM 975BE has a $15 promo code until 2/21, making it $130. So you can get it with the Hyper 212+ for the same price as the retail CPU even before the rebate on the HSF.

But I'd go with the X6. It should have oodles of overclocking headroom.
 
I think speed would be marginally faster but not really enough to make a difference.

having 12-16 GB of ram and an SSD are going to improve a whole lot more though
 
I use ps, most modern quad can handle it very well, I'd personally go for speed than core since it's not really that threaded, at least the filters I use. however, since you get a x6 cheaper than x4, I'd say go for it, just overclock it to the same speed, it's very OCable really. so I'd say x6+OC=no compromise win and much more future proof too.

PS: if you really newbie to OC and not sure if you can do it, get the x4 BE in that case, it's easier OC. but honestly, x6 1045T isn't that much harder to OC. what board you got?
 
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DominionSeraph said:
As a heads-up, the OEM 975BE has a $15 promo code until 2/21, making it $130. So you can get it with the Hyper 212+ for the same price as the retail CPU even before the rebate on the HSF.

But I'd go with the X6. It should have oodles of overclocking headroom.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that. I have been over Newegg's site so many times and never picked up on that. I was obviously planning on replacing the HSF anyway, so this would make sense if I go the x4 route.

mchammer187 said:
I think speed would be marginally faster but not really enough to make a difference.

having 12-16 GB of ram and an SSD are going to improve a whole lot more though
Click to expand...

Unfortunately my current board is max 8GB, but I agree how important RAM is for this type of application. Currently, 8GB is sufficient for my uses, but I do suppose it is not too future proof. Though in that regard, neither is an AM3 CPU.

nyker96 said:
I use ps, most modern quad can handle it very well, I'd personally go for speed than core since it's not really that threaded, at least the filters I use. however, since you get a x6 cheaper than x4, I'd say go for it, just overclock it to the same speed, it's very OCable really. so I'd say x6+OC=no compromise win and much more future proof too.

PS: if you really newbie to OC and not sure if you can do it, get the x4 BE in that case, it's easier OC. but honestly, x6 1045T isn't that much harder to OC. what board you got?
Click to expand...

I probably should have specified that my use is probably 75% Lightroom and 25% PS. Lightroom will use all available cores as necessary. Much of my work includes batch processing, where I believe the 7750 is the big bottleneck.

Current equipment is the following:
7750BE Kuma
Asus M3A78-EM
8GB OCZ Reaper DDR2
Antec AE380 PS
SSD for OS/Apps
Various 7200RPM HHDs for storage

I am really trying to spend as little as possible to get another year or so out of my current rig. I considered going with an i5 2500K, but by the time I added in a new mobo and DDR3 RAM, I couldn't justify the price when an AM3 processor will seem like a huge improvement over the Kuma.

I am no expert on overclocking (actually quite stupid in that regard), but I am running the 7750 slightly overclocked and I do have another system with a Celeron E3400 overclocked. I know the absolute basics. The Asus M3A78-EM has no unlocking capabilities and is limited in the amount OCing you can accomplish.
 
beginner99 said:
How did you come to that conclusion? Just saying that hdds could be the bottleneck too and also much more likely.
Click to expand...

Honestly, nothing too technical - just watching the CPU usage during these processes. Easily jumps to 100% during this and then the slow down occurs.

7750 works great for daily tasks, but the computer bogs down under load.

The HDDs include WD Black 640GB (32MB Cache) and an Intel 40GB X25V for OS/Apps (latest firmware). While its not the best and may not be set-up in the best fashion for speed, I do think they are sufficient.
 
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beginner99 said:
How did you come to that conclusion? Just saying that hdds could be the bottleneck too and also much more likely.
Click to expand...

Really? A hard drive bottleneck when he's trying to run Lightroom and Photoshop on an old AMD Dual-Core cpu?

OP, definitely get the X6 processor. For $130 it's an excellent upgrade over what you have. And make sure you pick up a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ heatsink while you are there. 🙂
 
DominionSeraph said:
To give you some heartburn: Neither of those processors is listed as a supported CPU for that motherboard.
http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M3A78-EM&p=1&s=24
Click to expand...

Good point. I am certainly no expert, but how could the 1035T and 1055T be supported, but not the 1045T? I just assumed (perhaps incorrectly) all AM3 CPUs would be OK.

If it truly isn't supported, then my next option may be to take advantage of the current Microcenter bundle of the FX8120 and Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 for $200. Might be the next best 'wallet friendly' choice. I contemplated this from the beginning, but then the whole snowball effect sets in. More RAM, new ATX case, etc.
 
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AtenRa said:
I would go for the FX8120 + the GigaByte mobo but you'll have to buy ddr-3 ram as well.
Click to expand...

I actually have 8GB DDR3 RAM that I can use. However, I have limited space in my desk and currently use an mATX case. I'd have to find a shallow (16") ATX case (which is not easy or inexpensive) and I would feel it was necessary to purchase another 8GB RAM - especially at the current prices. So instead of $130 + HSF (1045T), I am looking at $200 + RAM ($40) + case (??) + HSF. I am easily over $300. That's my dilemma. If performance was a huge increase, I could possibly justify it, but I am not sure the FX8120 route is worth 2-3x as much money as my other options - at least for my purposes.
 
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Note that the latest (2701) BIOS description says "Support new CPUs," but every CPU on the supported CPU list was supported since 2501. It's possible they added the 1045T and 975 in the BIOS but didn't update the list.
 
JoeyC said:
I actually have 8GB DDR3 RAM that I can use. However, I have limited space in my desk and currently use an mATX case. I'd have to find a shallow (16") ATX case (which is not easy or inexpensive) and I would feel it was necessary to purchase another 8GB RAM - especially at the current prices. So instead of $130 + HSF (1045T), I am looking at $200 + RAM ($40) + case (??) + HSF. I am easily over $300. That's my dilemma. If performance was a huge increase, I could possibly justify it, but I am not sure the FX8120 route is worth 2-3x as much money as my other options - at least for my purposes.
Click to expand...

FX8120 has a good 4x heat-pipe heat-sink in the box. You will be fine even at 4GHz+ OC, you dont have to spent more for HSF at the moment.
(just raise the multiplier up to 18 and you have a nice FX8150) 😉

If you have 8GB DDR-3 no need to purchase another 8GB now.

Just buy a new case and you will be fine for now. later you can buy another 8GB ram when you can afford it + better HSF 😉

The FX8120 + Mobo will get you a better upgrade both in CPU performance and Mobo features than just upgrade to 1045T.
 
JoeyC said:
I probably should have specified that my use is probably 75% Lightroom and 25% PS. Lightroom will use all available cores as necessary. Much of my work includes batch processing, where I believe the 7750 is the big bottleneck.

Current equipment is the following:
7750BE Kuma
Asus M3A78-EM
8GB OCZ Reaper DDR2
Antec AE380 PS
SSD for OS/Apps
Various 7200RPM HHDs for storage

I am really trying to spend as little as possible to get another year or so out of my current rig. I considered going with an i5 2500K, but by the time I added in a new mobo and DDR3 RAM, I couldn't justify the price when an AM3 processor will seem like a huge improvement over the Kuma.

I am no expert on overclocking (actually quite stupid in that regard), but I am running the 7750 slightly overclocked and I do have another system with a Celeron E3400 overclocked. I know the absolute basics. The Asus M3A78-EM has no unlocking capabilities and is limited in the amount OCing you can accomplish.
Click to expand...

I think if Lightroom is your main stay, which I am also considering using over Bridge (my current content manager of choice), it does have reputation of been well threaded. I'd definitely go for x6 in this case. In well threaded apps I doubt you will be that far off from a 2500k. You probably don't need to OC at all, just buy a 1045T will be set. At $130 it can give your batch processing jobs a real boost in speed.

If you also need acceleration on PS5 filters, you can later get a cheap htpc g-card, PS5 will use GPU to accelerate many filtering/effects. But I believe you current motherboard 780G has HD2400 core might already be enough for PS5 GPU acceleration: link to tested graphics card for PS5:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/831/cpsid_83117.html
 
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When I walked into my local MicroCenter, I made a game time decision. I chose the FX8120 and Gigabyte 970A-UD3. I was swayed because I found a buyer for my Asus M3A78-EM to offset the costs. After tax and deducting the payment for the Asus board, this only cost me $172. It was a tough choice, but I think I did OK.

I really appreciate all the input in this thread. Everyone was quite helpful. Regardless of what I chose, I am going to see a huge bump in performance from my current mobo and CPU. A few more upgrades are possible (additional RAM) and I want to find a shallow depth ATX case, but I will reuse what I have for now.
 
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nyker96 said:
I think if Lightroom is your main stay, which I am also considering using over Bridge (my current content manager of choice), it does have reputation of been well threaded. I'd definitely go for x6 in this case. In well threaded apps I doubt you will be that far off from a 2500k. You probably don't need to OC at all, just buy a 1045T will be set. At $130 it can give your batch processing jobs a real boost in speed.

If you also need acceleration on PS5 filters, you can later get a cheap htpc g-card, PS5 will use GPU to accelerate many filtering/effects. But I believe you current motherboard 780G has HD2400 core might already be enough for PS5 GPU acceleration: link to tested graphics card for PS5:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/831/cpsid_83117.html
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing this info. I actually chose the FX8120 in the end (see post above), but I think I will certainly appreciate what the FX8120 offers using Lightroom. Will probably OC as soon as I get an aftermarket HSF.
 
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I'm a photographer myself, and a Lightroom / PS CS5 guy as well. I just made the upgrade from my Core 2 Duo system (with 4GB RAM) to my new one. What a night and day difference. Not only in LR rendering and exporting, but especially in multi-image stitching or HDR processing...it's literally saving me an hour per shoot at minimum. Enjoy your new rig! (And get as much RAM as you can muster, if you're doing high MP images...with HDR or panorama stitching, I'm regularly using 10GB of RAM actively...the same can be said for when I'm working with a lot of layers).
 
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