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This has been discussed to death. No one processor is the best at everything, but from what I’ve seen the AMD X2s have the most to offer the user of Photoshop, so that leaves Dell out. I just ordered my new AMD beast from Monarch.
I am about to purchase a new PC. I want Photoshop to operate as fast as possible. I am considering the new Dell XPS 600. Any comments?
Does a dual core processor make a significant difference? Does a processor with HT technology make a significant difference? Is it worth paying an additional $1000 for a dual processor with HT technology? Thanks!
Chris
power mac G5 with minimum 1G RAM & 2 internal HD’s. AFAIK photoshop won’t use HT. in fact, the recommendation used to be that HT be disabled.
Thanks for that second link. I’ve been wondering, myself, about how much difference a dual core AMD chip would make with PS CS2. I presently have a single core AMD64 3800+, and from my timing of that test (75 seconds), it looks like I might see a significant improvement with dual core.
you’ll see many more results from PCs and Macs. Looks like the G5’s day has come and gone.
Well, I’m not so concerned about the PC vs. Mac thingy. What was enlightening for me was the major speed difference in my (relatively) fast AMD64 3800+ and the AMD X2 chips. Previously, I was under the impression that dual CPUs didn’t offer so much in the way of speed as they did in smoothness and "power." As in, you could pull a trailer behind your car at 60 mph, but you could do the same thing easier with a truck that was designed to pull a trailer. Anyway, it looks like PS CS2 does put the dualies to good use.
And, from your score on the test image with your present machine, I can only imagine how much you’re looking forward to your new system. Very cool!
Ho, there is more in Photoshop than a single filter…
I’m sure that you could cherry pick some filters, and have an Intel processor win, on others an Amd processor win, and on some others, have a G5 squash the competition, especially if your website is called www.apple.com
But, the word on the street is that THIS is the filter Jobs likes to use in his "demos" to really drive home the point that Macs are superior to the Intel…
….oops. Macs now use Intel. Hmmm. Ok, now there will be some new test to show how superior the Mactel box is when compared to the Wintel machine.
The idea behind most PS benchmarks is to keep the file size small enough that CPU speed and memory bandwidth are the key players. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story.
I’ve never seen much point in a benchmark that doesn’t give the scratch file a good workout. I mean, are we talking real world or not? I developed my own action set to measure my computer’s performance, one that lets me evaluate the benefit of hard drive upgrades as well as CPU and RAM embellishments. This is not an original idea. See here: <http://www.getdpi.com/benchmark.html>
Ho, actions are cross platform, aren’t they? why does this site claim the opposite?
Using RB is a synthetic benchmark, I call this benchmarketing, to paraphrase the Inquirer…
I’d prefer a real world benchmark, with batch operations on RAW files, web gallery, slicing of a pic, creation of a vector image, and some filters used in everyday’s work…
Once I’ll have taken my procrastinations pills, and came back from my mini trip, why not discuss this (real world benchmark) in another thread?
I am about to purchase a new PC. I want Photoshop to operate as fast as possible. I am considering the new Dell XPS 600. Any comments?
Does a dual core processor make a significant difference? Does a processor with HT technology make a significant difference? Is it worth paying an additional $1000 for a dual processor with HT technology? Thanks!
Chris
Any reasonably fast PC will run Photoshop fine. Performance is more likely to be influenced greatly by RAM (you need a lot), and you will need a lot of hard disk space for all those images. Photoshop files can get very large.
Before spending an extra $1000 for the dual processor, make sure you have at least 2 GB of memory, a large fast hard drive, and one or two $500 GB USB drives for backing up your image files.
Chris, I guess the "word on the street" isn’t alway accurate. OTOH, if the filter isn’t optimized, it shouldn’t favor one platform over another and so might be valid for comparison.
Pierre, maybe the guy is just Mac illiterate. 🙂 Once you’re ready, maybe we can collaborate on a Forum Bench Suite.
This whole issue of ‘the best’ CPU has been worked over to the point of death. About two years ago, the best set of stats that I saw were ones that pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of all processors and the end point was ‘all CPUs are not created equal’. Some were better at some things than other things and it almost seemed that they had a ‘niche’ of greatness.
Having said that, I will repeat what I have said on several occasions, I run a dual PIII 1Ghz rig with 2GB of PC 133 RAM on an Abit VP6 board, it still kicks some decent ass after 4 years. Overall, I am very happy with it and it still serves my purposes (4 colour presswork / web design and photo-retouching) very well.
The machine is showing some signs of breakdown recently, nothing serious, but being that is my 24/7 machine, I can feel the differences, as minor as they are. I am preparing to get a new machine early next year to replace it. I will do a lot of homework, build my own machine again with the residual results of all those sites that have claim to ‘know’. None of them really ‘know best’, but when you take the time to think through all the information, you can design a pretty damn good machine, not ‘the best’, but pretty damn good.
As an aside to CC (not an anti-Mac rant), I have been saying for a long time that this machine has been kicking G4 butt for the whole time. The only competition was the duall 1.25 with the additional L3 cache, but knowing hardware, I wasn’t surprised or envious.
I am just happy my machine performs very well and dependably since I’ve had it. I always think I’m hung like …………. (THH)
I feel the same way about my trusty Abit BM6 and its 1.2 Tualatin Celeron (aka a PIII with a 100Mhz bus). It is slow by today’s standards, but since it’s all I ever use, it doesn’t seem all that slow to me (*most* of the time :)).
When I spec’d my new box, I really agonized over the Athlon X2/Opteron decision. The reason for this agony was RAM capacity (with an eye toward the coming 64bit migration). I tend to use my computers for several years, and I am fairly certain that I will make the move to 64bit whenever Photoshop does. That may well come sooner rather than later and when it does, I think the 4G limit imposed by current Athlon motherboards will be a hindrance. Since Opterons can currently utilize up to 8G per processor, I think this is a safer, long term solution.
Having said all that, I went for the X2 because I just couldn’t stretch my budget around the Opteron system of my choice. Hope I don’t regret it in the coming years.
I think it’s a great idea and maybe even one the manufacturer’s may keep an eye on as well.
Of course there are drawback – the sniping about superiority and having to take all results at face value. In that sense the emotives seem to get in the way which IMHO is a shame.
I know that such a record if accurate, well maintained and professional would influence my purchasing options
"Ho" <hpowen@*nospam*operamail.com> wrote in message
The idea behind most PS benchmarks is to keep the file size small enough that CPU speed and memory bandwidth are the key players. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story. I’ve never seen much point in a benchmark that doesn’t give the scratch file a good workout. I mean, are we talking real world or not? I developed my own action set to measure my computer’s performance, one that lets me evaluate the benefit of hard drive upgrades as well as CPU and RAM embellishments. This is not an original idea. See here: <http://www.getdpi.com/benchmark.html>
Ho-are you crazy?What is the point of all of this benchmarking? Too much time on your hands with nothing else to do? It should be obvious that you get a fast processor,then a decent video card and all of the ram the motherboard will accept.Then you pray that it will run Photoshop! William kazak http://www.williamkazak.com
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