Speed up PC for photo editing? What to upgrade?

[haring]

I would love to make my pc faster for photo and video editing. Adobe is trying to help us with some ionstructions on their website but it is not clear how much processing power I gain via replacing one or two components of my desktop. I have read tons of threads on the issue however but I don't seem to find the right way to do it... I would like Lightroom to respond faster when I switch between two images. I would love Portraiture to finish processing the photo I am working on faster in Photoshop, etc My PC: Windows 7, CPU: i7 3770K, Memory 16GB My question: - How much speed do I gain by upgrading the memory to 32GB? - Would an expensive video card help? Which one? - Should I upgrade my CPU? Which one do you recommend? Have you done these modifications before? What is your experience? Which upgrade yielded the best results? Thanks so much!

[AlterEgo]

Would an expensive video card help? Which one?

sure, K5000... Eric Chan is testing LR with this one 

[E.J. Peiker]

It depends on the camera and what operations in your editing flow you find too slow. A higher megapixel camera will gain most from the memory upgrade especially if you are using multiple layers in your workflow.  A faster processor will make things like RAW conversion faster and will make application of things like filters faster.  You don't state your graphics card so it's hard to say but in very general terms the order of importance is Memory, processor speed, graphics card.  HD speed or putting the OS and PS on an SSD will also help.  If you are using 1333 DRAM, going to 1600, which is the fastest that processor supports (as long as the motherboard supports it too) would speed up memory limited operations by about 20%.  It's a complex question and the answer is really "it depends".

[jrsforums]

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=101760.msg835249#msg835249

[AlterEgo]

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=101760.msg835249#msg835249

again - their tests were not about interactive work which OP is asking about (".... I would like Lightroom to respond faster when I switch between two images..."), but about batch processing

[E.J. Peiker]

You still haven't indicated what file size or megapixel images you want to switch between. That helps determine what is limiting you.  If they are small images or previously rendered LR small previews that's one thing, if they are full rez TIF's or RAW's or full rez previews, that's another thing.  We can't determine from what you have written what is limiting you.

[jrsforums]

again - their tests were not about interactive work which OP is asking about (".... I would like Lightroom to respond faster when I switch between two images..."), but about batch processing

One has to use sense in evaluating problems vs recommendations.  SSD drives will improve interactive work if catalog and raw cache are placed on them.

[Czornyj]

When switching between RAW images in LR the GPU can even make things slower, there's a small lag when you use acceleration via discrete video card. The GPU makes thing faster after the image is loaded into video card memory while editing - in case of my rMBP15 with m370x the response to sliders is lightning fast, even on UHD displays.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1828580

[AlterEgo]

One has to use sense in evaluating problems vs recommendations.  SSD drives will improve interactive work if catalog and raw cache are placed on them.

I have 2 raw files, both are on a RAM drive (that is 10-100 times faster IO both bandwidth and iops -wise vs any SSD and ACR /I am not using LR/ cache is there too)... now I am not excited about many aspects of interactive work with ACR9.1 (CC) - specifically zoom in/out of already opened raw, WB, dehaze, etc... and switching before those 2 raws too... with GPU switched on (which is GTX870m, faster than prev poster has in his mac notebook for the record = http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M370X-Mac-vs-GeForce-GTX-870M)... so I wish for Adobe to fix their code eventually...

[jrsforums]

I have 2 raw files, both are on a RAM drive (that is 10-100 times faster IO both bandwidth and iops -wise vs any SSD and ACR /I am not using LR/ cache is there too)... now I am not excited about many aspects of interactive work with ACR9.1 (CC) - specifically zoom in/out of already opened raw, WB, dehaze, etc... and switching before those 2 raws too... with GPU switched on (which is GTX870m, faster than prev poster has in his mac notebook for the record = http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M370X-Mac-vs-GeForce-GTX-870M)... so I wish for Adobe to fix their code eventually...

I am sure that you are aware that GPU is designed for speeding up the sliders.  In fact, Eric warned that it might delay loading of the screen.  Therefore a test of switching is not a good test of the GPU enhancement.  If all you want to do is switch between images, go to Library mode.  Use Develop if you want to work the image.

Also, the GTX-870M is not a really fast GPU.  First, it has been slowed down to reduce heat in a laptop.  Second, the recommendations I referenced, recommended the 9-series....non-M, i.e. Desktop versions.

[AlterEgo]

In fact, Eric warned that it might delay loading of the screen.

loading, zooming in, zooming out, selecting WB, etc... code is not good (so far)...  that's it and note about testing the code with K5000 was just a beautiful piece  

 Therefore a test of switching is not a good test of the GPU enhancement.

and they managed to make the code worse with GPU switched off too... that all goes to interactive experience, a lot of people don't do batch and a lot of people do not use K5000 either

If all you want to do is switch between images, go to Library mode.  Use Develop if you want to work the image.

and as I noted it is painfully slow with the one also

Also, the GTX-870M is not a really fast GPU.  

it is not a desktop grade, yes - it is just faster than any macbook pro has so far - but it seems you are suggesting that C1 can do the job and ACR/LR can __NOT__ on a notebook   ...

First, it has been slowed down to reduce heat in a laptop.  Second, the recommendations I referenced, recommended the 9-series....non-M, i.e. Desktop versions.

right, right... everybody can do a good code with raws on that, except Adobe can't... again download fastrawviewer and educate yourself how the properly executed GPU code works...

[haring]

I am sorry for not being specific. I am viewing 18 and 24Megapixel raw images in LR, I hope this helps.

[haring]

WOW! This will be a more complicated PC upgrade than I thought....

[John Hue]

Haring,

There are a lot of good information in this post, and I think everyone can confirm that they are all valid. Maybe it could help to sythesize :

Your CPU is already a great piece of hardware, even if it's not the last generation. Changing it would mean changing the motherboard and re-installing everything which is likely to be a costly and tedious solution.

If you're working in Lightroom primarily, I don't think a RAM upgrade would be beneficial. IF you're doing a lot of stitching (panoramas & such) from your 24MP if might help a bit BUT it won't be night and day even with 32GB of RAM.

The graphic card... Well if you use the integrated GPU at the moment, any GPU would be beneficial. The higher the better. Just don't buy "professional" graphic cards since these are underpowered and overpriced (I'm working in mechanical engineering and have been using a lot of CAD softwares for which these pro cards have always been recommended, well... we saved thousands of $ and gained performances by using "gaming" cards for years). If choosing Nvidia, stay in the x70 / x80 (780, 980) range, lower tier offering (960, 860, etc.) are really underpowered.

What will really make you gain a lot... I mean, a LOT of speed when switching  between two RAWs and changing modules in LR, is an SSD drive. The main bottleneck in any PC is the hard drive (HDD). Even a cheap SSD is several times faster than the best HDD and will load your heavy 24MP files several times faster. It is also less (if at all) affected by simultaneous write/read operation, while a HDD slows down exponentially with an increased number of simultaneous operations. For the SSD to work however, you'll need to have both LR and your catalog and RAW files on it.

tl;dr : buy a bloody SSD drive for LR, your catalog and your raw files. In all cases its the cheapest update you could do after adding RAM, and it will bring you a much more enjoyable experience with your PC. If this is not enough, then a high-end graphic card will also help.

Also note that LR is badly optimized, just as every high-ressource piece of software out there, and I don't think that even the best hardware will allow you to have a real lag and latence-free experience.

[AlterEgo]

Just don't buy "professional" graphic cards since these are underpowered and overpriced (I'm working in mechanical engineering and have been using a lot of CAD softwares for which these pro cards have always been recommended, well... we saved thousands of $ and gained performances by using "gaming" cards for years). If choosing Nvidia, stay in the x70 / x80 (780, 980) range, lower tier offering (960, 860, etc.) are really underpowered.

that depends on a software too... and there is difference in FP64 vs FP32 performance between different lines in Nvidia cards and huge one w/ recent ones like GTX980...so if you software is using FP32 math it is one story, but if it is FP64 ...

[John Hue]

It does depend on the software of course, but we're not talking quantum computers or clusters dedicated to huge math calculations