Need Graphic Card for Photoshop/Lightroom

[TDY2KN01]

I'm currently building a Skylake editing computer. I have two monitors Dell 2715 & 2412

I'm planning to use the onboard graphic card for the Dell 2715 until I have money for a discrete graphic card. What's the best bang for your buck graphic cards for dual monitor setup? No gaming needed.

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Here is what I've ordered
Intel Core i7-6700K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Dell U2715H 60Hz 27.0" Monitor

 

[Bearmann]

I'm no expert, but I've been researching the same thing myself. You can start here with the Adobe list of tested cards:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-graphics-processor-troubleshooting-faq.html

I always heard the nVidia cards were better for PS than the AMD cards. You'll probably want something from GTX 750ti at minimum, a GTX 950 in the middle, or a GTX 960 at the top end.

I read that to run a 4K or 5K monitor that you may need 2 DisplayPorts per monitor. Since I may conceivably buy one in the future, I wanted to get a card that could accommodate this. That pushes you into a few 950's or a large selection of 960's.

Some cards are semi-passive now- the fans don't start up until the temp gets to be ~60 degrees. You probably won't reach that temp unless you are gaming, so the cards are very quiet.

Your best bet is to go to pcpartpicker.com and choose video cards. Select those with the ports that you want, etc. and narrow down your choices. Be sure and check the length of the card and make sure you can fit it in your case.

 

[bononos]

......
I always heard the nVidia cards were better for PS than the AMD cards. You'll probably want something from GTX 750ti at minimum, a GTX 950 in the middle, or a GTX 960 at the top end.........

Photoshop CS4/5 uses cuda which would favour Nvidia but CS6 uses opencl which means AMD should be at least on par. From what I remember, low end cheap cards like the 7750 work just as well as high end cards so its pointless getting anything more expensive.

 

[Techhog]

Photoshop CS4/5 uses cuda which would favour Nvidia but CS6 uses opencl which means AMD should be at least on par. From what I remember, low end cheap cards like the 7750 work just as well as high end cards so its pointless getting anything more expensive.

The thing about it is that, IIRC, Maxwell is much better at OpenCL than previous Nvidia architectures while AMD has always been good with OPenCL, so AMD would be cheaper for this.

 

[Bearmann]

Photoshop CS4/5 uses cuda which would favour Nvidia but CS6 uses opencl which means AMD should be at least on par. From what I remember, low end cheap cards like the 7750 work just as well as high end cards so its pointless getting anything more expensive.

I haven't researched the AMD cards, but if you do go with nVidia, I would get one of those cards I mentioned as the new Maxwll architecture is more efficient than previous nVidia cards, and therefore runs cooler and quieter. Of course, that assumes that you want a somewhat permanent solution, and not buying something cheap, but adequate, now with plans on replacing it later.

By the way, I was ready to buy an i7 6700 myself until I saw this. Now I am not so sure. Perhaps an anomaly.

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

 

[Ho72]

The GTX 750ti is doing it for me (PS, LR, C1, DxO). As long as you're not wanting to run dual 4K monitors you should be fine. I do wish the card had 4GB of memory since some editing apps can take advantage of more than 2GB now with the certainty of more able to do so in the future.

EDIT: Asus announced a 4GB GTX 750 Ti Strix back in February but AFAIK, it's vaporware.

 

[Bearmann]

The GTX 750ti is doing it for me (PS, LR, C1, DxO). As long as you're not wanting to run dual 4K monitors you should be fine. I do wish the card had 4GB of memory since some editing apps can take advantage of more than 2GB now with the certainty of more able to do so in the future.

EDIT: Asus announced a 4GB GTX 750 Ti Strix back in February but AFAIK, it's vaporware.

Could you elaborate on the 4GB of memory. I was wondering about the optimum amount myself.

pcpartpicker says the Gigabyte GV-N75TWF2OC-4GI 750ti has 4 Gb VRAM, but no DisplayPorts. It does have DVI-D, DVI-I, and 2x HDMI. After that, you have to skip over the 950's to the 960's in the nVidia line up to get 4 GB.

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 760 plane vanilla.

 

[tweakboy]

My dad uses Photoshop and Adobe Elements and Adobe Premiere He has a 2600k Sandy @ 4.2Ghz and 560 GTX for video card. Its flawless he has never complained about speed or hickups etc. Make shure you have 16GB RAM ... gl

 

[Ho72]

Could you elaborate on the 4GB of memory. I was wondering about the optimum amount myself.

I've not found much specific info on how much video memory can be utilized by imaging apps, however a Capture One test engineer offered this:

< 1 gb - not supported by CO
> 1 gb < 2 gb supported by CO in general, and gives a solid performance boost over CPU rendering.
> 2 gb - with very big files, like IQ280 or p65 raw files, there can be a performance increase over the 1 gb cards, as the processing tiles can be bigger, and thus the GPU can process the file in bigger chunks.
> 3-4 gb - no performance gain in CO, but may be useful if running many GPU intensive applications at the same time. Please note that this is the current status and that this pattern can change without warning as technology evolves.

So, assuming no 4K monitors in play, 2GB should be a safe amount with 3-4GB being the practical maximum, especially if you tend to run all your imaging apps at once as I often do.* I expect by the time imaging software really sees a benefit across the board with 4+GB, most cards will come standard with at least that amount.

*Here's a sample of memory usage after doing only some minor adjustments. It doesn't take much to swallow up 2GB.

 

[Bearmann]

Thanks, Ho72.

 

[rootaxs]

I've used a 1gb 560ti for the longest time on LG/PS (among others) on a WQHD screen without issues.

I think anything at least similar or above will work just fine for you. With LR/PS, what you really need is a good SSD to act as a scratch disk as well as to place the database/catalog files.

Get a decent card and spend the rest on a color calibration device.

 

[calahan]

You don't need special graphic cards to work with PS, just you may use more memory 32GB or more.