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I'm going to buy a new computer with a 4K display. System requirements recommend 4GB GPU memory on the graphics card for 4K. How is performance affected if there is only 2GB GPU?
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It wont work - Photoshop will not utilize your GPU acceleration and you will not be able to do some functionality that is graphics processing intensive in Photoshop. Don't chince on the GPU.
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Actually it does work. I have one machine with a 2GB Quadro P600, and another with a 5GB Quadro P2000. I haven't noticed any functional differences between them (otherwise they are almost identically configured). Every single GPU feature works with the P600.
That said, I am thinking about replacing the P600 card. It works well for now, but not sure for how long.
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Try liquifying a larger PSD and tell me you don't have lags.
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Just to have a baseline, I tried on the P2000 first. Don't know what you mean by large PSD, but I did it on a file from my Sony a7riii, at 7952x4912. 1000 pixel brush. Absolutely instant, real-time, no lag whatsoever.
On my way home now, so I can try the same on the P600. Hang on...
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Thanks! Appreciate the effort.
I've noticed in the past on a Mac with 2 GB vram on a smaller file size than that - 5100 x 3300 px.
Liquify, artistic brushes - anything that would require live results seemed to lag.
My current system has more so I can't replicate the same parameters as the OP - just speak to experience.
@iant9160952 here is a list of GPU dependent features in Photoshop:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
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Well, as it turns out, the 2GB P600 performs just as well as the 5GB P2000. Ther simply isn't any perceptible lag here, it updates in real time as I brush. Same file, same size brush.
Got the file size wrong btw, it's 7952 x 5304 (not 4912).
Aside from the video card, these two machines are identical except an i7-9700K in one and an i7-7700K in the other. Even the driver version is the same for the two video cards. So this should be very directly comparable.
I also just tried with 5 or 6 similar files open at the same time. Still instant.
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Liquify doesn't actually seem to hit VRAM very hard. Here I went crazy with the brush, the final smaller bump is when I hit OK:
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Thanks for your replies.
It certainly wouldn't do any harm to go with the 4GB GPU (Radeon Pro 560x with 4GB GDDR5 memory). The only thing is, the complete spec of the machine ( including core i5, 512GB SSD) is a build to order and will take 3-4 weeks. The other possibility, with i7 instead of i5 and Radeon Pro 555x 2GB GDDR5, is in stock.
Adobe minimum requirement is 2GB GPU, but recommends 4GB GPU for 4K displays. If it makes a difference it might be worth the wait.
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Thanks again for your replies and info. I've decided to put up with the wait and go for the 4GB GPU version.
Take care everyone.