I5 vs i7 - gaming with a little Photoshop, etc.

[jtomsh]

Hello,

I'm going to be upgrading my computer shortly, and am trying to decide between an i5 (2500k or Ivy Bridge equivalent) or an i7 (2600k or Ivy Bridge equivalent). I definitely want to use this as a gaming rig, but it's also going to be used as our primary computer (i.e. MS Office use, etc.). My wife also does a little photo editing and desktop publishing with Photoshop and QuarkXPress, respectively, but no hardcore video editing or anything like that.

I know that for gaming the i5 is more than sufficient, and that for hardcore video editing the i7 is preferable. But given my circumstances do you think that performance will suffer much in the Photoshop/QuarkXPress side if I go with the i5 here? I'd like to save the extra $$$ but if it's going to be a big drop in performance then I'm willing to pay the extra.

 

[sk1939]

The i5 should be fine if you have no plans on video editing HD video. Photoshop is not all that demanding of an application to run as far as CPU power, so long as you are not rendering 3D, it does want lots of RAM with large images however.

 

[jtomsh]

Yeah I'm not planning on editing much (if any) HD video or 3D stuff, so I'll probably go with an i5 processor then. However, I was planning on getting 8gb of RAM but maybe I should go to 12 or 16gb to help feed the Photoshop beast?

 

[sk1939]

If your wife edits photos with more than 8 MP then more RAM would be best, although it only matters if she's running CS4 or CS5 Photoshop, rather than Photoshop Elements, since those versions come with a 64 Bit version.

 

[jtomsh]

Yeah we're using CS4, and we might get Lightroom at some point as well. Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[jtomsh]

Best answer selected by jtomsh.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Like the others have said the real break comes with video editing. Once you move up to that then the extra threads of support help. The Intel® Core™ i5-2500K or Intel Core i5-3570K in the near future would be about the perfect processors for you.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey