CPU for photoshop

[dcp5082]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to build my girlfriend a PC for Christmas. I have lots of experience building rigs in the past but am somewhat unfamiliar with graphic design programs. She is a graphic design major and I want to build her a PC which she can use for gaming and using graphic design programs. My budget is around 150-180 for the CPU, which eliminates an i7. I could maybe push my budget for an i5, but is a more budget oriented AMD CPU good for these programs? I've also read that nvidia GPU's are better for graphic design programs instead of AMD GPU. is there any truth to this? Anyone commenting who has significant experience in photoshop / graphic design is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ImperialistMillitant]

I wont comment about the GPU's but if the software she uses takes advantage of multiple threads then the FX 8350 might be the way to go since an i7 is out of budget. Also what currency are you working with? I assume US dollars?

 

[whyso]

Photoshop has some filters that are well threaded and some that are not. For instance panning around (or rotating complex models in programs such as maya) tends to depend highly on the performance of a single core. Rendering will use all available resources however.

The 8350 offers a good bit more brute force than the i5 intel models.

 

[dcp5082]

I do live in the U.S. so USD is right. Like I said, I'm a little ignorant of the programs she uses, but she's in photoshop all the time.

 

[ImperialistMillitant]

I do live in the U.S. so USD is right. Like I said, I'm a little ignorant of the programs she uses, but she's in photoshop all the time.

Well 8 threads (FX 8350) would be very beneficial for multi threaded programs and programs that are not multi threaded will only be slightly slower on FX compared to i5. Besides these are high end CPU's and should not be a problem. I know that some programs like Blender can use a GPU MUCH more proficiently then CPU.

My Vote: FX 8350

 

[dcp5082]

Thanks so much! Sounds like an AMD CPU will be the path I'm going to take. Still need to decide on a GPU though.

 

[PCDave]

For a GPU, I'd recommend a CUDA enabled graphics card, as if she is using the Adobe suite of products (Photoshop, After Effects, etc.) She should get a NVIDIA graphics card, which has CUDA acceleration, and as stated above.. is better for Adobe products.

I'd recommend maybe the 780 depending on her budget, as the price has recently dropped to around 500 dollars.

Anyway, the FX 8350 is a great choice, but if she really wants to go all the way hardcore photoshop, she can pick up a 4930k, but I doubt it, as photoshop isn't a very intensive application, its mostly RAM/GPU based, so I'd recommend maybe picking up 16GB of RAM as a way to future proof the system.