GPU for photo editing?

Gorilla

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So I've been tasked with putting together a desktop for a family member that is getting serious about professional photography. I'm told that Lightroom and Photoshop are the primary software used. I believe that Lightroom can make use of a GPU and maybe Photoshop to some lesser extent, but have no experience with either.

So how important is the performance of a dedicated GPU? What models should I be looking at? Photo editing will be the only thing the GPU is used for (no gaming).

My first thought had been a 1660 ti or 2060 or something along those lines. Overkill or underkill? Not that it matters since nothing is in stock anywhere.
 
A dedicated GPU will definitely make a huge difference, but it doesn't need to be a super high-end GPU. I'd recommend an Nvidia board simply due to the fact that CUDA seems to be the most favored by Adobe, has very solid drivers, and would provide plenty of GPU acceleration/zip for both Lightroom and Photoshop. Any of these would be a very solid choice, which you should be able to pick up used from someone upgrading to a newer GPU either on the For Sale sub-forum here or off eBay for around $350-500:
  • Nvidia GTX 1080 TI
  • Nvidia RTX 2060 Super
  • Nvidia RTX 2070
  • Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
Yup, only real choice is used for these. A used 1660 Ti would also work as a budget/alternate choice if you are cash strapped, but the above GPU choices would be best.

Edit: The newly released RTX 3060 Ti would also be a really great option...that is if you can find one.
 
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A dedicated GPU will definitely make a huge difference, but it doesn't need to be a super high-end GPU. I'd recommend an Nvidia board simply due to the fact that CUDA seems to be the most favored by Adobe, has very solid drivers, and would provide plenty of GPU acceleration/zip for both Lightroom and Photoshop. Any of these would be a very solid choice, which you should be able to pick up used from someone upgrading to a newer GPU either on the For Sale sub-forum here or off eBay for around $350-500:
  • Nvidia GTX 1080 TI
  • Nvidia RTX 2060 Super
  • Nvidia RTX 2070
  • Nvidia RTX 2070 Super
Yup, only real choice is used for these. A used 1660 Ti would also work as a budget/alternate choice if you are cash strapped, but the above GPU choices would be best.
Or if you wait a while, then Nvidia will be announcing their 3060 Real Soon Now.
 
I build my own desktops, and photo processing, not gaming, is definitely the use case which drives my choices. For my use case, Puget Systems is a better 'review site' than all the gamer-oriented sites. And so far, Puget Systems is saying that for Lightroom and Photoshop, there is no reason to spend extra $$$ for a higher-performing GPU card. That's why I'm holding out for the 3060. If there is going to be a 3050 available about the same time as the 3060, I might even go for that model.
 
H
So I've been tasked with putting together a desktop for a family member that is getting serious about professional photography. I'm told that Lightroom and Photoshop are the primary software used. I believe that Lightroom can make use of a GPU and maybe Photoshop to some lesser extent, but have no experience with either.

So how important is the performance of a dedicated GPU? What models should I be looking at? Photo editing will be the only thing the GPU is used for (no gaming).

My first thought had been a 1660 ti or 2060 or something along those lines. Overkill or underkill? Not that it matters since nothing is in stock anywhere.
hi,

I think you can safely avoid the top tier cards and spend your money on ram, storage NVME, Cpu which will all give you more value for money

if you have already exhausted those and have spare cash by all means get a RTX X060 and above

good luck

Henrik
 
So how important is the performance of a dedicated GPU? What models should I be looking at? Photo editing will be the only thing the GPU is used for (no gaming).
I thing it is important versus no GPU at all (and a modern one that have the , but it can quickly be a lot of money for any performance gain the moment you go above the entry offering, this website proposed is a nice ressource:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-10GB-Review-Roundup-1879/

pic_disp.jpg

pic_disp.jpg

Anything above a xx60 could be entering margin of error for some workloads, still an interesting question if turin/ampere bring anything useful over a 1060 type of card too, if they do a 2060 or a 3050 would probably the go to choice.
 
I thing it is important versus no GPU at all (and a modern one that have the , but it can quickly be a lot of money for any performance gain the moment you go above the entry offering, this website proposed is a nice ressource:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-10GB-Review-Roundup-1879/

View attachment 306246

View attachment 306247

Anything above a xx60 could be entering margin of error for some workloads, still an interesting question if turin/ampere bring anything useful over a 1060 type of card too, if they do a 2060 or a 3050 would probably the go to choice.


What I really want to know is how big of an improvement is having a gpu like a 2060 vs CPU only. Like, there is a very small gain from a 2060 to a 2080ti, but what if there was no GPU used for acceleration.
 
What I really want to know is how big of an improvement is having a gpu like a 2060 vs CPU only. Like, there is a very small gain from a 2060 to a 2080ti, but what if there was no GPU used for acceleration.
You will always have some GPU, would it be an integrated intel graphic one modern one are not completely useless, but to see what happen in software mode to see a worstcase scenario:


Some filter/3d effect option become grayed out and the performance is less smooth.

NVidia is probably showing a worst case for the CPU scenario in lightroom but still:


Little resume to what (in 2015) lightroom did with the GPU:


If you could find a recent intel integrated gpu vs discrete GPU video or testimony comparison that would be nice.

Since my 1060 stopped to work and went back to a 10 year old Radeon (not able to find anything anywhere at a good price), I was surprised to how much things seem to use a modern GPU if you have one, at first even youtube/browsing felt different.
 
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I had to put together something like this last year for my sister who does very heavy photoshop - ended up using an old RX570... and it works just fine for her
 
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I used a 680Gtx up to recently and never felt like I lacked anything

my 2070 super isn’t much of an improvement over it, despite going up in size on the monitors

I think when you move into moving images and 3D then you will start to see a difference

good luck - spend your money elsewhere

henrik
 
Honestly just look for a low profile 1650, the boost it’s going to give you is like 90% anything bigger would give you. But it doesn’t need external power, so it is going to keep things cleaner and free up some power draw and air flow if you wanted to use a smaller more stylish case.
 
you'll be fine with an old Quadro or 750ti.


Yeah I love picking up cheap Quadros on Ebay! Most people forget about them. I've built a couple of video/photo rigs for students/dabblers with Quadro K4000 cards.
 
I wouldn't get anything too powerful.
I have been editing thousands of images on Lightroom (cloud) from a 61mpix camera (~120mb/pic) on an integrated Intel card.
 
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