How many CPU cores can PS use?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
December 15, 2013
2 replies
69882 views

How many CPU cores can Photoshop CC (version 14.1) use at a max running on Mac OS X Mavericks‎? I have even looked into the PS tech specs but it only states multicore. Many thanks.

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Chris Cox

Legend

Photoshop uses all the cores it can, when it would speed up the operation.

But some operations slow down with additional cores, and some operations can't benefit from threading at all.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I 'think' the answer is as many as you can throw at it, but only with particular processes like some of the filters. I can easily see 6 cores in use, but only rarely all 12 threads with Photoshop, and never even close to maxing out CPU and memory. This is with a 3930k @4.2Ghz and 32Gb RAM with Windows 7. The GPU makes a difference nowadays of course. My system is a couple of years old and uses a GTX570 running at standard clock speed.

Other Adobe apps like Premiere Pro and After Effects will definitely gobble up all the system resources it can get its hands on.

PIXELREMIXAuthor

Participating Frequently

Ok yes 3D rendering in PS can use all of your cores there is no limit. But what about the filters that are multicore capable? How many cores can they use?

PIXELREMIXAuthor

Participating Frequently

That's just the Task Manager in Windows 8.1.

I have managed to get the old Task Manager to run in Windows 8.1 as well (Microsoft supplies one in the recovery environment on the Windows disc), but I figured this one would look cool, since you'd already put up screen grabs from the other one.

-Noel

Many thanks for all your replies!

I did some more research to find out what filters and operations exactly would benefit from a multicore CPU. It seems like only a couple of blur and sharpen filters support multicore CPUs (and rendering 3D of course). All the major tasks you are doing in PS are only related to the single-core performance of your CPU. Regarding the new Mac Pro I found quite helpfull benchmarks from Geekbench: Estimating Mac Pro Performance

The GPU seems to be supported pretty good in PS CC. I found this Photoshop CC GPU FAQ going into detail.
Regarding the Dual AMD FirePro graphic cards for the new Mac Pro would it make sense to upgrade the standard D300 to the D500?
I guess for 3D animations, Premiere Pro or Mari (3D paint tool) it would definitely make sense but for PS CC I can't imagine a real performance gain as the D300 (tech specs here) is already very powerfull. The D300 has a dual GPU each with 2 GB of dedicated video RAM. Sounds like overkill for PS, not? Any thoughts on the upgrade to the D500 for Photoshop?

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