Many photographers look for tips on how to optimize their hardware for productive image editing. We all want to be able to work as efficiently as possible, using the very best tools at the very lowest cost. But, alas, our budgets don’t always allow all the best tools, so we have to make trade-offs. Whether you’re buying a new computer, or upgrading a computer you already own, it’s good to know where bottlenecks in image editing workflows exist and what can be done about them. Use this two-part article to evaluate each area of your workflow, with an eye toward identifying areas that may benefit from improvement.
Part one will look at everything inside of your computer, while part two will be about everything outside of it (things that you plug into your computer). For those who don’t have an unlimited budget, this article will help you identify where you should spend your money for maximum impact and efficiency. Let’s get started.
A Quick Efficiency Check in Photoshop One of the quickest ways to know if you’re working at optimal efficiency is to check Photoshop’s efficiency indicator. In any image window in Photoshop, there will be a pop-up menu at the bottom left of the window. I usually keep mine set to show me the ICC color profile that’s being used by the current image. However, you can change this to show Efficiency.
How much ram for Photoshop CC? Have increased memory usage over Photoshop. You choose how much RAM to allow it to grab. Open the Photoshop CC in Mac; solved How much of a difference.
When you do, a percentage value will display, 100% or less. If the value is below 100%, Photoshop has used all available RAM on this image, and is using the scratch disk, retarding its performance. The lower the number, the less efficiently you’re working in Photoshop. Use this to monitor performance as you work for a while, and if the number is consistently below 90%, Photoshop needs you to either allocate more RAM to it, as discussed later in this post, or add more RAM if you need more to allocate. Both topics are discussed in this blog post. CPU; the Brains of the Computer Some people think that the most important part of their computer is the CPU (central processing unit), the main chip in the computer.
![Much Much](https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge_wm_blw/public/field/image/2016/10/macbook-pro-2016-hero.jpg?itok=kJHsaLLb)
We hear often of Moore’s law, a rule of thumb that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months, and by extension, the power/speed of the chip increases also. This has caused many people to think they must always be upgrading. However, many other parts of their workflow may be slow enough that upgrading this one component will have much less effect than desired. Much of a digital imaging workflow is about the speed of the input, throughput and output, not just the computational operations, so a good balance must be struck. In many ways, it’s much like a chess game, where you have to balance competing goals (defend your position, advance your advantage, and execute an overall plan) in order to make the best win for your needs.
I recommend finding the sweet spot, buying less than the very fastest CPU, and using the saved money to enhance other parts of the system. Let’s look at choices for one popular system as an example of how to decide.
While this is an Apple iMac, the process of reviewing a site’s multiple choices for a system configuration is valid for both platforms. Apple offers current iMacs with two different chips (Intel i5 and i7) with 2 to 4 cores, rated at various speeds. An i5 chip with 2 cores is not nearly as efficient as an i5 chip with quad cores (4) for image editing. So, go with the 4 cores if you are editing images in Photoshop or Lightroom; the entry-level iMac is not designed for image editing, and the cost difference between an i5 chip with 2 cores running at 1.6 gigahertz, and an i5 chip with four cores running at 2.8 gigahertz is $200. This is definitely money well spent, unless you like waiting, and waiting, and waiting Photoshop can take advantage of several cores, but more than 6 cores is a sharply diminishing return.
So, go for 4 minimum, and 6 if available. Chips with 6 cores are available in some Windows machines, but they are only offered on the top of the line Mac Pro, not the iMac. Speaking of the Mac Pro, two CPUs don’t offer much benefit over one CPU, as reported by various Photoshop testers. Purchasing more than 6 cores on one chip will be wasted money as well, since image editing apps don’t seem to be optimized to take advantage of more cores. While you’re shopping on the Apple iMac page, notice that the least expensive iMac and the next one up (one with 2 cores, one with 4 cores) have a standard display that will show you color in sRGB color space. You have to spend another $200 to get the new Retina Display, which displays in the P3 color space, very desirable when editing images.
![How much ram for photoshop How much ram for photoshop](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125424397/865152153.jpg)
With $200 here, $200 there, pretty soon you’re talking real money, but it’s worth it to know you’re going to have a very good image-editing machine. Next, look at an i5 vs. These are extra cost (currently another $200) options in iMacs, but they’re worth the investment for heavy duty editing, and will extend the useful life of the machine.
Same holds true for Windows systems. As with the i5 chips, the i7 chips are made to run at different rated speeds, with temporary bursts of speed (Turbo Boost) available when needed.
If you have options for multiple i7 chips at different speeds, should you pay that additional several hundred dollars so you can have bragging rights for the fastest chip in your new computer? Probably not, unless you have an unlimited budget, or, as on Apple’s site, you are allowed only one choice for an i7 chip. The speed of your computer’s image processing is tied to multiple other factors, and it’s smarter to invest more money in other areas than it is to have the very fastest CPU. Extra RAM, particularly! If you have a computer with interchangeable CPUs, meaning mostly Windows desktops, you can consider upgrading your CPU down the road, when prices will drop as even faster CPUs hit the market, pushing current models’ prices down. GPU (Video Card) Once upon a time, the only task that a GPU (graphics processing unit) had to do was to put images on the screen.
With the rise of certain applications, among them fast paced video games, the video card was asked to do more and more work to keep up with the speed of the action. Software engineers realized there is an incredible amount of processing power in these video cards, much of it untapped by non-gamers.