Inspiring

Question

Best CPU for InDesign ?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 12, 2023
4 replies
4465 views

Hi

I'm looking for the best CPU for InDesign , my work in Indesign includes very heavy books (~5000 footnotes for a 600-page book) for example, I'm trying to decide between AMD 7900x and Intel i9 13900K, I work on Photoshop, Illustrator, AE, and PP, but mostly on InDesign.

Performance

This topic has been closed for replies.

Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

And the truth is, that still InDesign does not use multicore CPU's. So from the new fancy 12 core M2 to the 32 core Intel Xeon chips... InDesign uses just one. One!
Multicore GPU then? Nope!

So the fastest single core score is the only thing that matters in the CPU area. Any M1 or i7 will do, will do perfectly.

Now: what does matter is RAM and SSD speed. Go for as much RAM as you can and get a fast big SSD 😉

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Also, it is a common error to try and solve performance problems without looking to see what is slow. Did you use Task Manager to see if InDesign is using 100% CPU? If it uses 100% CPU, new hardware might help. But maybe your slowest part is RAM, or disk storage, or something else. Check before spending money...

A

AK09MAuthor

Inspiring

I know InDesign isn't using even 20% of my CPU but may be a better single-core CPU will make things faster.

Here's what my Task Manager looks like when I'm waiting for the app to do something and the mouse pointer looks like a blue circle.

I guess it's mostly adobe's fault for not taking advantage of new hardware.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

As others said - don't sweat on CPU - rather go for more RAM and fast/multiple SSD(s) - InDesign is single thread app so not the number of cores is important but rather MHz per core.

Another suggestion - not sure what do you mean when you use "book" word - but if you keep everything in one file and God forbid - single thread - split your document into small files and use Book feature.

Not sure how you work - so no offence if you know that already - but do Save As with new name at least once a day - DON'T do only Ctrl+S.

A

AK09MAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks.

I'm aware of the book future but I don't use it much, because there are lots of changes during the work so it's easier to change one file instead of 5, as for the save I use the regular ctrl+s and I have a backup app called "autover" it will back up a file every time I press ctrl+s.

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Then you are doing it wrong 😞

When you do just Ctrl+S - InDesign preserves in the file Undo history - you can access it ONLY during current session - but when you close your document and open next time - you can't access it, but it is still in the document - making it bigger and slower 😞

YOU HAVE TO do Save As with new name every now and then to let InDesign do "housekeeping" - to make file smaller, reorganize it and fix potential gremlins.

Backup is great - but won't fix internal structure of the INDD file.

You also need to read about IDMLing.

And it's better / safer to do something on 5 files - rather than losing everything and restoring few days work... Depends on what you want to change - Book have Synchronisation option.

TᴀW

Legend

With a lot of footnotes, and perhaps (though you don't mention it) span and split columns, a strong, fast processor is important. (As is RAM and a fast SSD.)

I've got an Intel i7-12700 with 32GB RAM and the performance is pretty good.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Well, that can't really be argued, just as it never has been arguable era after era... but I'd posit that any new i5 or up is unlikely to have any limitations ID is likely to notice. (If the discussion includes the possibility of using older systems, there might be CPUs that were once dominant but would labor under ID 2023 etc. But a new system? Other than avoiding the very low-end models, i3s and Celerons and such... nah.)

And it's always a mistake to spend 1.5-2-3X too much for a CPU when the money can be put into better areas for workstation performance, like RAM, SSDs, the next tier of video card, etc.

Gamers, bitcoin miners, FPS junkies and Hollywood NLE operators excepted. 🙂

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

InDesign is not, in general, a platform-straining app, especially not for text documents. It can use extra horsepower if you get into complex graphics, multiple layers, transparency and other purely graphic aspects of layout, but in general, a "peak of the wave" CPU (not necessarily the 3X more costly stuff over at the leading edge) will do fine. If you do any kind of large or heavy work in Photoshop or AfterEffects, that would be far more demanding of CPU horsepower. Use them to choose your chip.

What you do want, for ID and almost everything else, is RAM. 16GB is not enough for these apps any more, past fairly light usage. 32GB is comfortable, especially for all-text work in ID. But excess CPU money put into 64GB would probably be your best investment. That, and a fast SSD for your boot, app and local data storage.

A fairly muscular video card will help, too, not for ID (Windows doesn't use GPU acceleration) but for the others. An Nvidia 3xxx series is ample unless you're going to recut Avatar.

A

AK09MAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you.

What is the right app for books if not InDesign?
It almost does everything I need but my biggest complaint is the performance on large books.

It's frustrating that Adobe still won't benefit much from a more powerful PC.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

There isn't really any alternative. And pretty much all apps have reduced performance, not always easily overcome-able with more CPU power, when dealing with large files.

RAM alone will speed up most ID projects, as will working from a decently fast SSD. (Avoid all but fast local networks as well — no cloud or slow-access NAS'es.) The bottleneck on the CPU is (IMVHO) largely irrelevant to real-world work and a point of complaint only to those who spend too much time looking at benchmark and system numbers.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded