Laptop purchase decision: quad core w/ Intel 520/530 video or Dual core w/ dedicated nvidia graphics

[cbassett03]

I'm going to be in the market real soon for a replacement laptop, and my current computer is a quad core 2.7 GHz (Intel) with Quadro K2000M grahics.

I'm wondering which would give me the best performance in terms of Photoshop and Lightroom for moderated editing: a quad core with onboard graphics (Intel HD 520/530), or a Dual core (say a 2.6 GHz) but with a dedicated graphics card (like an Nvidia GeForce GTX 940M or something similar).

Which setup would be I better off with?  Budget is the problem or I would just get a quad core laptop with a nice Quadro video card.  I only have about $1000 to spend on this, so I'm looking for what will give me the best performance from photoshop CC and lightroom for photo editing.

(RAM and HDD is not a factor as I'd be getting at least 8GB--or possibly 16GB--of RAM and at least a 500GB SSD either way).

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi cbassett,

Please refer to this article Photoshop system requirements

Regards,

Sahil

[cbassett03]

Thanks.  I was aware of that page, but wanted to know if getting a better graphics card would help PS and LR perform better versus getting a quad core processor, but slower video card.  Isn't the newer versions of PS and LR more GPU-intensive (meaning they can utilize the GPU more)?

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't want to use Photoshop on a dual core system, but a lot of features simply won't work without a minimum standard GPU, and I don't know if Intel onboard HD520/530 meets that minimum spec.  I would also be concerned about onboard graphics using system RAM, so would want to know how much memory these laptops have?   8Gb RAM is a reasonable minimum spec nowadays, and if the onboard graphics is using 2Gb your spec is starting to be compromised.

Dedicated GPUs use faster memory.  Hmmm  I just checked and the GTX940M uses the same DDR3 as you are likely to find on the notebook, so no advantage there.

I'd be inclined to have a good read of the relative specs, but from a quick look myself, I am not terribly impressed with HD530

Intel HD Graphics 530 - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Intel HD Graphics 530 Review - Performance

NVIDIA GeForce 940M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

The bottom line here is that you have put yourself between a rock and a hard place, and there is no good answer either way.

[cbassett03]

I did read somewhere that my Quadro K2000M is about the same as an Intel HD 520 /530 chip recently, so maybe they've made some advancements, but I could see when you start using some advanced features like Refine Edge, that those may take more processing power (and thus more time on a slower computer and/or one with integrated graphics).

I think Lenovo had some general laptops in the ThinkPad line with Geforce GTX basic graphics cards, which should be fine.  Maybe I'll look at one of those....

My laptop hasn't died yet, and I have a spare laptop with the Intel HD 4600 and a dual core I could use in  pinch, although it would be slow, so I still have some time.  I just don't think my current PS/LR laptop is going to last much longer as it's already 4 years old and has had a lot of use and abuse).

[Trevor.Dennis]

NVIDIA  put out a lot of driver updates, and I found that the GTX970 on my desktop would sometimes not allow me the use all the GPU settings in Preferences > Performance.  The upshot of that was some Photoshop features would come and go.  As I remember it, Perspective Warp was the first to go, and would only work with Drawing Mode set to Advanced, but I think that changed with later Photoshop updates.  I'd be inclined to set your bar at what will actually work or not work, even if a bit slower than is ideal.  So You'd need to research specific models of notebook. 

Amazon is a good place to find a large user-base of of people who own a particular notebook.  This 14 inch HP has 564 customer reviews, and 383 answered questions.  That's a lot of people, and I bet a good few of them have Photoshop installed.

[Chuck Uebele]

I would avoid Intel cards. I've had a lot of issues with them. Best to go with AMD or Nvidia. Avoid integrated card Intel with AMD, for example. The drivers are updates by the computer company and not the card maker. Sometimes you can't get an update.