[FrankC]

Just wondering what type of computer are those who process files from the 645D/Z are using?
I'm currently running an LGA775 Asus mobo with a Q6600 2.4GHz, 6GB of RAM, a GTX570 graphics card, and a Samsung 840PRO SSD as my scratch. While many things are acceptably fast now that I've upgraded from XP to Win7 64-bit and added the SSD, other tasks are painfully slow. So I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card, and I'm not sure if the Z97 motherboard with an i7-4790K is plenty good, or if the performance increase with an X99 and a i7-5930K along with the DDR4 vs DDR3 memory is going to be significant enough to make it worth the extra dollars of investment.

What are you guys/gals using? And if you've upgraded, then from what to what, and what has been your experiences?

Thanks

[vonBaloney]

You need to double your RAM at least

[FrankC]

Yes, I completely agree that 6 gigs of RAM isn't enough. I'm going to get 16GB to start unless anyone knows that going with more will be a benefit. My files often exceed 1GB in Photoshop. I don't do any video editing.

[photolady95]

Swap the SSD to be your main drive, and upgrade memory to at least 16gb. SSD process faster than SATA 7200rpm drives do.

[FrankC]

Swap the SSD to be your main drive, and upgrade memory to at least 16gb. SSD process faster than SATA 7200rpm drives do.

The SSD is already my main drive and I also use it as my scratch disk too. I have my programs on a separate WD HDD which is a 10,000RPM VelociRaptor.

[btnapa]

Just wondering what type of computer are those who process files from the 645D/Z are using?
I'm currently running an LGA775 Asus mobo with a Q6600 2.4GHz, 6GB of RAM, a GTX570 graphics card, and a Samsung 840PRO SSD as my scratch. While many things are acceptably fast now that I've upgraded from XP to Win7 64-bit and added the SSD, other tasks are painfully slow. So I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card, and I'm not sure if the Z97 motherboard with an i7-4790K is plenty good, or if the performance increase with an X99 and a i7-5930K along with the DDR4 vs DDR3 memory is going to be significant enough to make it worth the extra dollars of investment.

What are you guys/gals using? And if you've upgraded, then from what to what, and what has been your experiences?

Thanks

First thing I would do is to max out the RAM.

My custom built tower has 32GB and a RAID 10 drive system with 6-Core i7 processor and a high-end 4GB graphics card. It has been a while since I built it so I do not remember all the detailed specs. However, my rig processes K3 RAW files much faster than a MacBook Pro with i5 and even i7 processor.

Also remember that Photoshop is gradually passing on a lot of the intensive processing work to the GPU. They started with the Liquify function first. I tried it when it was introduced a few years ago. GPU was blazing fast vs. the CPU. I don't know what other capabilities have been GPU enabled in recent PS or LR software. Depending on how fast your card it is, that may be the next upgrade in addition to the RAM.

[filoxophy]

The new Lr 6 is said to offer significant speed improvements due to using the graphics card more, so hopefully Adobe is moving in that direction.

Regarding RAM, it's the cheapest option to explore, of course. But looking at the Task Manager, are you often over 1/2 or 2/3 full? May not see a benefit otherwise.

I know your proc isn't the latest and greatest anymore, but I'm surprised to hear that some "other tasks are painfully slow". Which tasks?

[stingx]

4th gen Core i7
32GB RAM
nVidia GTX 600 series - nice speed bump GPU for LR 6
512 SSD for OS
2x2TB Segate hybrid drives
Synology NAS

[Kolor-Pikker]

2011 iMac with some 2.93Ghz i7 in it, 8GB RAM, and mobile Radeon 5770 I think. Woefully underpowered for the 645Z, but it was nice back in the day for 5Dmk2 files when 21mp was a lot. I have an NEC PA272W hooked up to it as the primary display.

Now I'm thinking of building a kickass PC once Windows 10 hits, probably in ITX form factor using the NCASE M1 and ASRock X99 board as the base, but Phanteks just came out with the Evolv ATX, so I'm not as sure anymore if I want to go small or mid-size.

Synology San

I sure do hope you meant NAS? Having your own personal SAN would be awesome, even if horribly expensive and overkill.

Planning on getting a NAS myself, along with the new system, as it seems to be the only practical way to expand storage beyond 4TB.

[kenspo]

I have a Mac mini with i7 processor and 16gb RAM. Same with an 13" MBP. And i have the 27" Thunderbolt screen from Apple. Will change to SSD in both soon

[stingx]

I sure do hope you meant NAS? Having your own personal SAN would be awesome, even if horribly expensive and overkill.

Good catch! Fixed.

[virusn3t]

I have a i5 3570k, 16GB Ram, 2x128GB SSD [Raid], HD7970 3GB AMD gpu, its very fast on my K30 raws

[SininStyle]

I dont know that camera but I do know computers so thought I would toss my hat in.
DONT waste money on intels extreme cpus. your throwing money away for no reason.
look at the 4790k or hold out for Skylake that should be here in a couples of months. I would wait in either case because it will drop the price of the current socket motherboards saving money. Will also effect ram pricing, as it already has. Ram prices have steadily dropped a couple bucks a week, but has not come even close to the DRR3 pricing of 2 yrs ago with 16gb being $65 compared to todays $95.

Speaking of ram, when it comes to photoshop and rendering it will use whatever you offer. It will simply gobble it up. So if you do it all then get a lot. Personally I find 16gb is more then sufficient for the normal user. 32gb is pretty extensive even for the professional.

Hope this helps. Its not written in stone and is mostly opinion but its based off of hard numbers.

Also ignore AMD for the most part. AMD is struggling to keep up and they arnt pricing like they use to in an attempt to compete that way. You get more performance for the same money with intel when compared to AMD. Talking CPUs not graphic cards.

[FrankC]

Thanks, SininStyle


Yeah, I had read somewhere that Skylake is just around the corner. The extra $30 for DDR4 ($95) vs DDR3 ($65) does not matter much to me. It's the cost of the X99 MoBo+CPU which can be around $800 - $1,000 alone vs going with an Z97 board and chip for around $500. Either system will blow the doors off (or should) my LGA775 system.


For those who don't know, the Pentax 645D that I use produces files that are between 225-250MB when opened. So, after stitching a few frames and then copying those in separate layers in Photoshop, things get huge fast.


Benchmarks for Photoshop are often synthetic and not using real-world files. Most show no advantage of using more RAM, but then again, what's the size of the file that they're coming to this conclusion. Obviously if comparing the speed of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB of RAM on a 40MB file should show no speed improvement, but using a 6GB file should show something - or at least I'd like to think so.

[SininStyle]

Thanks, SininStyle


Yeah, I had read somewhere that Skylake is just around the corner. The extra $30 for DDR4 ($95) vs DDR3 ($65) does not matter much to me. It's the cost of the X99 MoBo+CPU which can be around $800 - $1,000 alone vs going with an Z97 board and chip for around $500. Either system will blow the doors off (or should) my LGA775 system.


For those who don't know, the Pentax 645D that I use produces files that are between 225-250MB when opened. So, after stitching a few frames and then copying those in separate layers in Photoshop, things get huge fast.


Benchmarks for Photoshop are often synthetic and not using real-world files. Most show no advantage of using more RAM, but then again, what's the size of the file that they're coming to this conclusion. Obviously if comparing the speed of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB of RAM on a 40MB file should show no speed improvement, but using a 6GB file should show something - or at least I'd like to think so.

if you google photoshop total ram benchmark you can get some nice results that pretty much echo what I said. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-Memory-Optimization-182/page4
The more you have, the more it will use =P
Photoshop is a huge ram hog. If your going to work a 1gig photo , according to this, buckle up...its going to be a minute lol.

http://www.gavtrain.com/?p=1569
http://realmacsoftware.com/blog/optimize-photoshop-performance
Skim to the middle titled photoshop performance window.