Question PC for Photoshop and Accountant

[Corbek]

Looking for recommendations for a build as I have no real world experience working with Adobe products.

My sister is currently running her own Accounting business and is looking to upgrade to Windows 11 but her current Motherboard is not compatible.

She currently uses Adobe photoshop for some light photo editing, as well as a suite of tools for her accounting business. She often uses a remote access software to access her desktop while out of office as well. Nothing crazy taxing, but the mobo isn't compatible with win 11...

She currently has:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6 core 3.2Ghz
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT710 2Gb
Memory: 16 Gbs of RAM
PSU: Not sure, but I have a couple extra so isn't an issue.
Drives: 2 1TB SSD's

She says it runs a little slow, but I haven't ran through and optimized her system/Defrag etc. So I wasn't sure if I should just upgrade the motherboard and do a fresh install for her, or if it would be worth it to upgrade while in there.

Initially I was thinking about upgrading the GPU but after reading a bit more about Photoshop it sounds like the Min GPU spec at 2Gb should be enough if the CPU/RAM can handle it. Does anyone have real world experience with photoshop that can shed some insight on where my money should be placed? GPU, More RAM, or new CPU?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Why_Me]

What country are you located and what is your budget?

 

[USAFRet]

She says it runs a little slow,

Define "a little slow".

Maybe up the RAM to 32GB and a better GPU.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the rest of it.

 

[Corbek]

A little slow: The same complaints all end users have of their workstation, takes long to open applications as well as clocking during use. I do believe the main issue they are running into is having too many applications running at once as well as no general system maintenance, so more RAM is definitely on the list. I guess I was just more curious on the GPU vs CPU demand of photoshop.

There isn't really a budget, but going overkill isn't going to solve anything. Country is USA, not sure why that matters.

 

[Lafong]

Ryzen 5 1600; 6 cores; introduced early 2017;

Passmark score over 12315; single thread score 2074. That's quite close to an Intel i5-10400, also 6 core.

Required tasks: "light" Photoshop and an accounting suite.

16 GB RAM; all SSD.

Complaints: "a little slow".

My first reaction to the complaint is "compared to what"?

Compared to performance a month ago?....

Slow since day one?

Or just a generic complaint possibly born out of familiarity breeding some contempt?

That CPU and RAM combination is still pretty strong.

"Light" Photoshop covers a lot of ground and might mean anything.

Without more info, I'd be reluctant to draw conclusions and buy anything. I'd first want to get my hands on it for some basic maintenance, further discussion with the owner, and possible hardware tests/evaluation....rather than judge from a distance.

Unless budget or inconvenience is not an issue.....in which case, go as hog wild as you care to on upgrades.