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Sandra_Student
Known Participant
September 16, 2019
Question

2019 September - Do I need a dedicated graphics card for Lightroom and Photoshop photo editing?

  • September 16, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 1931 views

I get mixed results when I ask whether I need a dedicated graphics card for Lightroom and photoshop.  It makes a big difference in the new laptop I buy.  I rarely do video.

 

Please let me know what you think...

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    1 reply

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 16, 2019

    What you certainly don't want is dual graphics - e.g. integrated Intel + separate NVidia or AMD card. Photoshop has a lot of problems with that. This isn't a passive one-way pipeline, on the contrary, Photoshop uses the GPU for a lot of active processing. So it has to know which card to pass the math to, and from where it will come back.

     

    On the other hand, the GPU doesn't need to be very powerful. It basically has to work. By all accounts, an integrated Intel GPU alone should support all the necessary functions.

      J
      julieb02
      Participating Frequently
      September 17, 2019

      I am no hardware expert and searching for advice for a new configuration as well. But I have different experience to the above mentioned answer: I have been running a Thinkpad with dedicated Nvidia Graphicscard plus integrated Intel. I never had problems with that until the Nvidia died probably due to overheating! And it must have been overheated while using Photoshop, Lightroom or 3D Software, which I think means, that it was in use extensively. As that graphics card is dead now, I am running on the integrated Intel and it is not working! I cannot use open GL anymore, I cannot plug in a wacom screen, I have shading issues in 3D and also get warnings that the software requirements are not matched. As I cannot plug in the Wacom, I have to say though, that I am not really testing lightroom and photoshop anymore. I also have a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 which seems to have only integrated Intel Iris Graphics 6100 and it is terrible to work in lighroom with that. The work is really, really slow even if the memory and CPU are not overly hard working. It is getting substantially hot as well. I was told by an IT guy that its the graphics card that is limiting me...

      Who can help identifying a good graphics card for Photoshop and Lightroom and determine which components in current notebookls are the most important ones to get Photoshop and Lightroom running smoothly without overheating the Graphics card? There are so many Nvidia cards on the market and I have no clue how to compare... Thanks a lot!

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