[SOLVED] System Upgrade Options for Photographer

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ajcke

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May 16, 2015
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In 2015 I built a computer for my wife who's a photographer. Components listed below. What are some options for upgrading?

She's mainly a Lightroom and Photoshop user. She is in these applications for several hours a day. I reinstall the OS (Windows 10) once a year. The system is starting to show it's age and/or Lightroom requirements are getting steeper. I suppose there could also be some underlying issues in the OS. Windows explorer sometimes takes a while to display files.

CPU and Memory are not taxed but I am constantly hearing that Lightroom is slow and File Explorer is slow. It doesn't seem to matter if files are stored on the SSD or disc hard drives.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard REV 1.1
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866
OS Drive: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive 2x
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX
Monitor: Dell U2913WM 60Hz 29.0
 
Solution
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I disagree that AMD is the best approach for this workload. Photoshop and Lightroom benefit far more from faster single-core performance.

OP still should wait until the new CPUs are released to see how they fare, but with the currently available lines, Intel would probably be a bit better for this particular use case. If video editing was on the table, then AMD all the way.

One thing that could speed things up quite a bit that nobody else has mentioned is upgrading to a NVME ssd over a SATA one. Throw a 1TB 970 Evo in there and install Windows and applications on it. Programs will load more quickly and the system may overall be more responsive due to the swap file now existing on high speed NVME storage.

Edit: That motherboard may...
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Since we don't really have a plan yet we haven't discussed budget. I didn't know if a M.2 drive would help with storage read/write or if it would even be noticeable. If we switched to AMD we would have to upgrade the board which is fine. I typically try to stay away from the latest/greatest to be budget conscious, but am currently open to anything. Is there an Intel CPU out there that would show a noticeable speed difference that we could upgrade to? If we needed to upgrade the board what is recommended?
 
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ajcke said:
Since we don't really have a plan yet we haven't discussed budget. I didn't know if a M.2 drive would help with storage read/write or if it would even be noticeable. If we switched to AMD we would have to upgrade the board which is fine. I typically try to stay away from the latest/greatest to be budget conscious, but am currently open to anything. Is there an Intel CPU out there that would show a noticeable speed difference that we could upgrade to? If we needed to upgrade the board what is recommended?
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Any upgrade you do would be a motherboard/CPU/RAM combo. Both Intel and AMD no longer use the RAM you have.
 
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egda23 said:
I am a bit surprised that you state that memory is not taxed.
When reading this article, I had the impression that in a professional setting, 32 Gb of RAM would be good.
https://phototacopodcast.com/how-much-memory-ram-does-lightroom-need/#:~:text=Starting up Lightroom the program,up to 4GB of memory.
Click to expand...

It could be taxed at times, but when her or I have checked it hasn't been. Upgrading from 16GB to 32 GB would be a good place to start. Before I purchase memory sticks I'd like to know what other hardware upgrades are recommended.
 
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kanewolf said:
Any upgrade you do would be a motherboard/CPU/RAM combo. Both Intel and AMD no longer use the RAM you have.
Click to expand...
I looked around about a year ago at upgrading the CPU. I only looked at Intel though. From what I could tell it was going to be really pricy and yet not have much speed gain (at least enough that would be noticeable).
 
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ajcke said:
I looked around about a year ago at upgrading the CPU. I only looked at Intel though. From what I could tell it was going to be really pricy and yet not have much speed gain (at least enough that would be noticeable).
Click to expand...
There is a specialized site in Photoshop (that you know maybe)
www.pugetsystems.com

Photoshop CPU performance: Intel Core 10th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen

When AMD released their Ryzen 3rd Gen CPUs in 2019, they very slightly out-performed Intel's 9th Gen processors. Intel's new 10th Gen lineup should allow them to take back the Photoshop performance crown, but will it be by a noticeable amount, or just a few percent?
www.pugetsystems.com www.pugetsystems.com

they have comparisons between the latest Intel and AMD processors. It's worth a look
 
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I disagree that AMD is the best approach for this workload. Photoshop and Lightroom benefit far more from faster single-core performance.

OP still should wait until the new CPUs are released to see how they fare, but with the currently available lines, Intel would probably be a bit better for this particular use case. If video editing was on the table, then AMD all the way.

One thing that could speed things up quite a bit that nobody else has mentioned is upgrading to a NVME ssd over a SATA one. Throw a 1TB 970 Evo in there and install Windows and applications on it. Programs will load more quickly and the system may overall be more responsive due to the swap file now existing on high speed NVME storage.

Edit: That motherboard may require a bios update to boot from nvme. My 2015-era Asus motherboard did.
 
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Solution
pmjm said:
I disagree that AMD is the best approach for this workload. Photoshop and Lightroom benefit far more from faster single-core performance.

OP still should wait until the new CPUs are released to see how they fare, but with the currently available lines, Intel would probably be a bit better for this particular use case. If video editing was on the table, then AMD all the way.

One thing that could speed things up quite a bit that nobody else has mentioned is upgrading to a NVME ssd over a SATA one. Throw a 1TB 970 Evo in there and install Windows and applications on it. Programs will load more quickly and the system may overall be more responsive due to the swap file now existing on high speed NVME storage.

Edit: That motherboard may require a bios update to boot from nvme. My 2015-era Asus motherboard did.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion. That's a low priced option. We may upgrade to 32GB of memory and a NVME SSD. Maybe we'll revisit CPU's and board's in 2021.
 
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ajcke said:
Thank you for the suggestion. That's a low priced option. We may upgrade to 32GB of memory and a NVME SSD. Maybe we'll revisit CPU's and board's in 2021.
Click to expand...
Your motherboard does indeed support NVME SSDs.
But maybe should upgrade to at least Bios version F5 which is supposed to improve SSD performance. Note that by using a NVME SSD on the M2 connector, you will loose the SATA3 4/5 connectors (and maybe have to move the Sata connecting cables for your present HDD and SSD)
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK-rev-10/sp#sp
 
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To reach 32GB of memory should I keep what I have and just add/purchase two more Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB DDR3-1866 or are there better and/or faster options that are worth spending the extra $? The specs on these is first word latency 11.25 ns and CAS latency 9.
 
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ScrewySqrl said:
what sort of budget do you have?

the newest AMD chips are due to be announced this week, which will likely be your best bet for a new machine.
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Yes as the guru said above I can confirm. The 5000 series is right around the corner so this is a bad time for a AMD upgrade. Your going to feel not so good when you buy the current then in 2 months the 5000 series comes out. However from what I have read first on the list for new AMD CPU's is a 8 core processor. We have no info besides that. I don't even know if they will make a 16 core version as nothing is written in stone yet. Regardless if you can wait just a bit a month or so you will see the big picture and what not.🤷‍♀️🎗💯👀👽
 
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