Buying a PC for Photoshop in 2022

[mcboatner]

I’m buying a new PC, but the Photoshop system requirements on the Adobe site and the specs on the manufacturer site seem like apples and oranges. For instance, for a Graphics Card, the Adobe site says, 'Minimum: GPU with DirectX 12 support and 1.5 GB of GPU memory' or 'Recommended: GPU with DirectX 12 support and 4 GB of GPU memory for 4k displays and greater;' while the manufacturer offers two options: 'Intel Graphics 630' or 'NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, 4 GB GDDR6.' Same problem with the Processor descriptions.  How do I translate the inconsistent descriptions to make a purchase?

[OzPhotoMan]

Very useful discussion, as my PC died last week. Currently in for a repair assessment, but  I think I will need a new box. It is an old box, 12 years old. It is running sata drives with 16Gb of ram. It ran PS OK, but a bit slow on some operations, incredibly so with LR when retouching to the point of being unusable, so I don't use LR. Mid last year I upgraded the video card to a GTX 1650 super, according to this thread it is a good card for PS, so I will most likely put that card in the new box. I am not using PS professionaly any more so speed was not terribly important. 

I was looking at a new PC about a year ago and Adobe then were much more specific about specifications, quoting specific graphics cards and CPU's. The latest info from Adobe is much more generic which is very annoying.

So, to confirm what others have said, would the GTX 1650 be adequate?

Now to decide on a CPU. Puget recommend the I9 12900 K, but that might be out of my budget. So I will probably settle for an I7 12700K.

None of my current files  files are over 2gb and I don't anticipate going over 2gb imoving forward, so 32Gb RAM is probably OK, I am in Australia.

Thoughts please?

[D Fosse]

Sounds good. There is no reason to think the GTX 1650 shouldn't perform well, aside from any driver bugs (which do happen).

i9 is probably overkill for Photoshop, which is largely not CPU-limited. i7 is plenty good enough.

The main bottleneck is I/O bandwidth, which translates to disk configuration, with RAM to cache and speed it up. 32 GB RAM will work well.

[OzPhotoMan]

Thanks,

I'm thinkng SSD's, either sata or M2, one 1Tb for the OS and one smaller one for scratch.

[D Fosse]

Go for PCIe M.2 (aka NVMe) if you can, not SATA. The speed difference is dramatic.

For the OS and applications, 500GB is fine. A normal configuration of OS and applications will fill up approximately 90 - 120 GB, and then some extra for the user account, caches, pagefile and. so on. I have 120 GB used on my system drive here, the rest is free.

I'd reserve a 1TB drive for the Photoshop scratch disk. You will not normally need that much, but better too much than too little.

All your image files can be on a large capacity spinning drive. That doesn't affect performance to any significant degree. Back that drive up if you want to avoid unpleasant surprises 😉

[OzPhotoMan]

Hi,

On the old box, the system drive was a 1Tb and used just under half at 498gb and that was without MSFS2020 which is installed on a separate sata SSD. That might seem a lot, but I do have a lot of programs as I also do some video editing as well as sound engineering. I refuse to call programs on PC's applications! I plan on using that SSD as the scratch disk. My data is currently on a 1Tb spinning disk and backed up automatically every few hours to two separate external disks. Unfortunately I do not have an easy way of having offsite storage and cannot afford to store that much data in the cloud. 

What about M2 on the mobo?

[OzPhotoMan]

Another question, is there enough of a difference between 11th and 12 gen cpus to warrant spending the extra money?

[OzPhotoMan]

OK, here is my proposed build for a Photshop PC. Thoughts please?

Gigabyet Z590 Auros Elite MOBO

Intel core I7 11700K processor

Kingston Fury Renegade 32Gb (2x16) DDR4

CM MWE 850W fully modular 80 plus Gold PSU

Samsung 980 1tb M.2 NVMe SSd

Corsair Carbide Tower no PSU

CPU Cooler – Coolermaster Hyper 212 Black

TIA

Steve

[Lumigraphics]

I'm speaking as a Mac user (but also a VERY experienced computer tech) and I would probably not build my own PC even if I wanted to use Windows. Drivers and firmware are still a major problem, and I hate sorting things like that out. Going with a brand name might cost more but at least you have a supported configuration that has supported drivers.

[D Fosse]

This is a bit out of proportion. Drivers have never been a problem except for buggy video drivers - and here in the forum we've seen just as much problems with this on the Mac side. But there you can't do anything about it! You just have to sit and wait for the next MacOS update.

I've built my own machines for twenty years, ten or twelve in all. I've never had a single issue with compatibility and these machines have always been rock solid.

There's just one trick: stay away from the bleeding edge next generation. Stick with the current generation. Pick components that have been on the market six months or so, and you'll be fine.

[Lumigraphics]

I know that gamers and geeks love to build their own machines, but most people aren't tinkerers who want to upgrade frequently.

[OzPhotoMan]

I admit to being a geek and spent 13 years of my corporate life in the 80's and 90's servicing computers that were designated as super minis for a company called Wang. 

I don't build PC's myself, but do upgrades such as memory and extra storage as needed. For example, when I bought my Nikon D800 I had to upgrade memory as it was not enough that the large files needed. I do provide specs for local companies to custom build for me, they come with full warranties and are tested before delivery.

Good point re not using the latest tech, same goes for cameras. I never buy a camera unless it has been on the market for six months. I used to work for a high tech camera company, this is where I developed that habit.

[jane-e]

---

@D Fosse wrote:

Drivers have never been a problem except for buggy video drivers - and here in the forum we've seen just as much problems with this on the Mac side. But there you can't do anything about it! You just have to sit and wait for the next MacOS update.

---

Here's what actually goes on: Apple knows exactly which video cards are available for each model. When something goes wrong, the Apple engineers fix it and seamlessly put the fix into a Safari update, at which point the fix goes out to all who are affected. All a Mac user has to do is apply the updates when they get an alert.

You are not sitting and waiting for an automatic update from Apple for any longer than you are sitting and waiting for a manual update from NVIDIA!

I am 85% Mac and 15% Windows, so I live in both worlds. I listen intently and ask questions when friends are building their own PCs. I agree with you that people who have the expertise to build their own computers usually have top of the line computers. Plus they have the expertise to sort out and fix hardware issues when needed. But not everyone has that knowledge and expertise or the inclination and without it, most of us need to buy the best we can off the shelf. 

Jane

[D Fosse]

OK, fair enough, but just for the record: I am not a geek or a tinkerer, nor do I need to be. I don't build to "save money", nor to get anything special. I just want a reliable workhorse machine that I don't have to open up again. That's why I do this for my work machines too.

Just trying to clear up a couple of common misconceptions.

[jane-e]

If I thought I could build my own computer, I would!

[D Fosse]

No pressure, Jane 😉 We all have our own preferences and make our own choices. But in fairness, the thread is about specifying a machine yourself.

The actual putting together isn't important; someone else can do that (just like a Mac, right?) But it's not like you're soldering the capacitors yourself, you just have to fit the boards into slots. It's quite fun for an afternoon's work, even for a notorious safety-seeker and chance-avoider like myself.

The important bit is that you get to pick the components to your needs. With a sensible choice of parts, you get a dead reliable system that just works. And even more importantly, you get to decide what to not put in there. That's the bit I love. So you can configure the OS as you want without "custom modifications" getting in the way.

OK. I think I made my point by now, so I'll go away... 😉

[OzPhotoMan]

One thing to be aware of if you are putting boards into slots is use correct anti static proceduers. Static electricity build up on your body can destroy components.