Choosing the right laptop for Photoshop performance: CPU/ GPU/ RAM?

[julieb02]

Hello community,

I have to look for a new high performing Windows notebook to use mainly Photoshop and Lightroom on it, but also 3D software. I have had a Thinkpad with a Nvidia Quadro 2000M which died (overheating?!) and is now not usable anymore and I have a Cintiq Companion 2 (which is impossible slow to work with: in photoshop you can watch soft brushes draw a stroke a long time after my hand has finished it and in lightroom I spend a lot of time waiting for changes to become visible).

First the questions:

What do I have to buy to be able to run Photoshop and Lightroom fast and reliable on an additional Wacom screen?

What is speeding up the above mentioned lag? What helps most to improve performance? Is it the CPU or the Graphics card?

And last but not least which Nvidia graphics card does make sense? GeForce or Quadro? And how can I prevent it from dying too early again?

Any recommendations concerning usefull notebooks welcome!

Thank you all a lot!

My current dissatisfying setup:

Wacom Cintiq Companion 2

Windows 8.1 Pro

Intel Core i7 5557U (3.1 GHz / 3.1 GHz) Quadcore

256 GB Toshiba THNSNJ256G8NU (ist glaube ich SSD)

8 GB RAM

Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Lenovo Thinkpad

Windows 7 Pro

Intel Core i7 2760QM (2,4 GHz / 2,4 GHz) 8 cores

160 GB SSD

16 GB DDR3-SDRAM

(Nvidia Quadro 2000M) Intel HD Graphics

[Guest]

Hi

You should consider looking at gaming Laptops, they tend to have a good GPU, also consider getting one with a large capacity SSD, a lot of Laptops come with both an SSD and a traditional hard drive. 16GB of RAM should be OK but if you can go for 32GB

The problem with Laptops is they tend to get very hot with heavy duty workloads

This is worth a read

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Photoshop-CC-139/Hardware-Rec...

[julieb02]

Thanks a lot! Very useful link!

I am having SSD drives on both machines, but I am still not having a good performance. I am going to go for an SSD again, but that does not seem to be the problem...

[davescm]

For Photoshop avoid dual GPUs they often lead to issues. If you intend to run two screens make sure both will be run from the same GPU.   Also look for dedicated Video RAM. Photoshop needs that for 3D functions.

That said, Photoshop does not require a particularly powerful GPU but you mention other 3D software. Many 3D applications use the GPU cores and VRAM for rendering. In those, a more powerful GPU with higher VRAM will be a benefit.

Dave

[julieb02]

Thank you Dave! The Nvidia Quadro 2000M was a very high perfomant graphics card at that time. It still broke after just maybe 2 years. If it broke due to overheating it must have been used heavily though, am I right? Or is it the other components that are generating too much heat and that led to its destruction? I dont think I ever found a notebook with just one graphics card. I have been looking at HP Z Books today and they all have Intel UHD Graphics PLUS an extra Graphics card that you can choose... The Wacom Cintiq however has just the Intel Graphics and I wonder if that is the reason for the performance problem as I cannot find any other... What do you think?

[Chuck Uebele]

I bought an ASUS gaming laptop, because it has great cooling fans. It's big and heavy, but I've had several graphic cards die due to over heating.

[davescm]

Hi

I can't comment on why the GPU did not last - but you are right in that heat is the enemy of processors. A notebook will always be compromised there so it will be a matter of finding the compromise between power and cooling. That is why many of us build our own desktops with large power supplies, multiple fans, and even water cooling for the processor. I can't carry it around though 🙂

Dave