mmend Graphics Card and Rig for Photoshop CS4

[elmobarney]

1. I need some advice on graphics card that will be able to be used for Photoshop CS4 (i.e. GPU use only), absolutely no gaming. Would prefer Nvidia. Have read posts on this but is it really true 9800 is more than enough? Want confirmation and any reference review / post is appreciated.
The set-up would probably be
- Samsung 23” P2370 2ms/Full HD
- MSI X58 PRO-E X-Fire Ready Heatpipe w/FW/GBE/S
- Team Elite PC3-1333MHz CL9 (3 x 2GB)
- Intel x25-m G2 80GB
- WD 1TB (or 500GB; Green or Black)
- CM CM690 3x12cm Fan + Side Window
- CORSAIR HX620W EPS
- Sony 870S 24x DvD+-RW (SATA)

2. Comments on rig setup for PS CS4 also welcome.

3. Which shop (Fuwell, Bell, etc) do you recommend I buy from and assemble for me. Also need shop to install dual boot OS as in (4) below.

4. Presently I have 2 existing XP licences that I intend to port over to this new rig. One of them will be upgraded to Windows 7.

5. Of course aware the XP OS will only utilise partial 6GB RAM (any problem technically?), but this is for my old DLINK wireless cameras (DCS-2120 and DCS5220) which I assume cannot run on Win7 (have not tried before as did not have Win7 presently). Anyone who knows otherwise is appreciated to share.

I figure there are many gurus, talented and sharp people in this forum, hence making this post. Feel free to share. Many thanks in advance.:angel:

 

[mynameisgreg]

yeah a 9800 should be well good enough. i suggest getting an Asus mobo instead though. and an antec casing. more for aesthetics haha.. recommend pcthemes for cheaper prices generally. if you want really good deals youll have to shop around and build the com by yourself. oh and you could get a 2433bw monitor too.

 

[Rashkae]

Bro, there are already a couple "recommend me a rig" threads.... Try searching a bit.

1. I wouldn't get the Samsung monitor. The fast response time is mainly good for gaming. You'll want a monitor with a better and more accurate color gamut, and Viewsonic and Benq are better here. You don't need a high-end gaming motherboard. The Intel SSD will give a nice performance boost. You don't need a 620W PSU.

What CPU are you going to buy? I don't see it listed there.

 

[marios_pittas]

Bro, there are already a couple "recommend me a rig" threads.... Try searching a bit.

1. I wouldn't get the Samsung monitor. The fast response time is mainly good for gaming. You'll want a monitor with a better and more accurate color gamut, and Viewsonic and Benq are better here. You don't need a high-end gaming motherboard. The Intel SSD will give a nice performance boost. You don't need a 620W PSU.

What CPU are you going to buy? I don't see it listed there.

Hi Rashkae

Related to the TS i feel: What parts of the system bring CS4 to its knees (assuming a base system of course)?

- Memory speed? Assuming no less than 4GB of course - DDR2 vs DDR3 any benefit?
- CPU power vs CPU speed - Quad vs Duo?
- top end graphics card vs mid-range graphics card - assuming similar amount of card memory?

better said.. where should the top dollar go for the best boost in performance (for PS CS4 use of course)?

-- Marios

 

[elmobarney]

Bro, there are already a couple "recommend me a rig" threads.... Try searching a bit.

1. I wouldn't get the Samsung monitor. The fast response time is mainly good for gaming. You'll want a monitor with a better and more accurate color gamut, and Viewsonic and Benq are better here. You don't need a high-end gaming motherboard. The Intel SSD will give a nice performance boost. You don't need a 620W PSU.

What CPU are you going to buy? I don't see it listed there.

Thanks.
Considering Dell U2410.
CPU probably i7 920.
I've 2-3 HDD that I'll be porting over to the new rig + graphic card thinking of Palit GTX260 Sonic 216SP 896MB DDR3 which could provide for dual LCD.

 

[eosandy]

Thanks.
Considering Dell U2410.
CPU probably i7 920.
I've 2-3 HDD that I'll be porting over to the new rig + graphic card thinking of Palit GTX260 Sonic 216SP 896MB DDR3 which could provide for dual LCD.

With the setup you describe, its good to go with the 600W+ PSU you have specc'd. Good to have head-room rather than having a PSU that just cuts it.

Never know, you may want to play the occasional game which the rig would be more than capable.

 

[ExplorerZ]

you probably wun see much gain over slower GPU and DDR2 RAM. the $ probably can be used to get a faster CPU or a IPS panel which imho would serve you better for photoshop. a mirror raid might be good as a backup unless you using external hdd option.

 

[Omega23]

I would get:

Dell 2209WA - IPS panel
Intel Q8400 + mobo setup
4GB DDR 800 ram
nvidia 250 GTS

 

[marios_pittas]

you probably wun see much gain over slower GPU and DDR2 RAM. the $ probably can be used to get a faster CPU or a IPS panel which imho would serve you better for photoshop. a mirror raid might be good as a backup unless you using external hdd option.

Thank you. To help further those who are considering their options: http://photoshopnews.com/2005/04/04/photoshop-cs2-how-much-ram-fact/

For PC notebooks I guess at the moment we are stuck with Core 2 Duos but for desktop machines if CS4 is using multiprocessors effectively to "multi-task" I guess the Quad should provide us with speed increase? But does it really scale up (i.e. does it make use of the 4 CPUs?)?

-- Marios

 

[Rashkae]

Thanks.
Considering Dell U2410.
CPU probably i7 920.
I've 2-3 HDD that I'll be porting over to the new rig + graphic card thinking of Palit GTX260 Sonic 216SP 896MB DDR3 which could provide for dual LCD.

The 250/260 cards won't help you in Photoshop really. You could get a simple, cheap ATI card with dual DVI outputs.

 

[EiRiK]

Like to share the config of my new rig:

core i7 920
Asus p6t se
Kingston 12gb 1333
asus nvidia 250
fsp 600w
2 hdd, but no raid
LG DVD
coolermaster casing
Dell 22in ips

had it for 4days now, no prob yet

 

[Zohan]

Hi!

FYI, I have been on core i7 920 (4ghz oc), 12gb ram, xp64, photoshop 64bit. Photoshop has been allocated 10gb ram. Machine has no lag with big burn/dodge on multiple 24mp files. This is the 1st machine in 10+ years that ran with little or no lag and no hdd scratch disk access.

Z