Hardware to runs well Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign

[Geraldo Mangela]

Hi, everyone!
At my work, our computers are currently equipped with an Intel i5 7400 processor, 16 Gb of 2400 MHz RAM, and an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. Most of the time, we need to run three software applications simultaneously - Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign - and over the past few years, these computers have been struggling to handle that. So, I'm working on getting an upgrade for our PCs.

For now, I'm considering an Intel i5 14400F processor, 32 Gb of 3200 MHz RAM, while keeping the current graphics card. My question is: Is the graphics card relevant for running these programs, or is the GTX 1050 Ti with its 4 GB of VRAM still good enough?

[ExUSA]

Since you are upgrading, go to 48 or 64GB of RAM and a 4000 or 5000 series Nvidia card. Also make sure you have SSDs across the board.

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

The 1050 will still work, but it won't work well.  I'd strongly recommend upgrading to RTX 4060 or the newer 5060.

A lot of Photoshop functions are now AI-based and primarily run in the GPU. The newer RTX-series GPUs have "Tensor" cores optimized for these algorithms. For these functions, an older GTX will be painfully slow and take a minute or more on a command that an RTX executes in seconds. The difference is dramatic.

I'd say upgrading the GPU should be the first priority. 

While 16 GB RAM is at the minimum these days, Photoshop will still run as long as you have enough fast scratch disk space. There is no such thing as enough RAM with Photoshop, the total memory need will very quickly exceed RAM no matter how much you have, so that's why Photoshop needs disk space for the scratch disk. Think of RAM as a fast access cache for the scratch disk's main memory.

With fast NVMe storage, such as gen 4 M.2 drives, the scratch disk is no longer the bottleneck it used to be, and so the amount of RAM is a lot less critical. Still, a certain minimum will be taken by Photoshop, so the current recommendation is 32 or 64. More than that is not really needed. 

[frazzlesnap]

Upgrade the GPU first, then system RAM, then get two gen4/5 PCI-E ssds. I have a 2018ish i7 9700k at my day job with 64GB 3200MHz DDR4, 6GB 1060 and 1TB 970 Pro. The CPU is acceptable. The RAM is good. The GPU is underpowered for some things, and the ssd is still pretty good, but not great for a scratch disk, especially since this system only has the one ssd. I always have at least 460GB free. I was given a budget of $2000 in late 2018/early 2019 to build this machine.

My home system, with a dedicated 8 drive PCI-E 4 RAID10 scratch disk, is light years ahead for scratch disk performance. Same thing with my now-old RTX3090 Ti and 256GB of 3200MHz DDR4. The CPU is less important for most things. InDesign and, to a lesser extent, Illustrator need single-core speed, so most any new CPUs would be better than my Threadripper Pro 5965wx for that. It's still a champ for multithreaded things, though!

[Kapture benoit]

It also depend of the motherboard (what component it can take or not)

Your Intel i5 14400F is a good option because it doesn't have a integrated GPU.  IF it can (motherboard) go for DDR5 4800 MT/s and 64Gb RAM.

again If the motherboard permit and also the COMPUTER CASE size, go for the Nvidia RTX 40 series.  but it's a big GPU so it need a PC case with enough space to fit it in it.

Also if it's an option do at least fo Intel i9-13  series Like i9-13900KF (does not have integrated GPU)  Photoshop is not a fan of integrated GPU when you have another GPU install.

As you know it will all depnd of the motherboard and latest BIOS instalation.

It all depend of how much $$$ you want to spent