[SOLVED] Graphics card for heavy photo editing machine w/ 4k monitor

[Vcize]

I recently picked up a 4k monitor (LG 27UD88W) and it has slowed my editing on my PC to a crawl. Making a simple change to a slider takes Lightroom several seconds to update and any major changes in Photoshop CC take minutes if not more. It is unmanageable.

Here are my PC specs:

Dell XPS 8700
i7-4790 (4th gen)
GeForce GT720 1gb
12GB DDR Ram
LR/PS installed on SSD Hard drive
Files stored on external 7200rpm HD

So is the gfx card the best upgrade here? I was looking at a GTX 1060 or RX480 (never had an AMD card before), or possibly a used GTX 970 from someone I know (would the other two be a big upgrade over this?).

Machine is basically 100% used for photo editing. No gaming of any kind.

Files are from A7r2 so 42mp, not counting stitched panoramas which I shoot fairly often and can sometimes get into the multiple GB size in Photoshop for the really big ones.

 

[kanewolf]

I think you have a few issues. 12GB RAM is not optimized for that CPU. That CPU is a dual channel CPU so 2 or 4 DIMMs. 12GB is too small an amount of RAM to edit 42Mp files. The external HD is limiting you. Especially if you don't have the settings optimized for performance.