How necessary is Catalyst for Photoshop?

[MikeSp]

Recently I purchased a branded AMD 6950 graphics card and rarely do any gaming but do a lot of work with Photoshop on a calibrated monitor that has its own 10 bit LUT.

Since Catalyst must take up some of the computer resources, is it really necessary for me to even load and run Catalyst in the background -- is it possible to just download the video driver and uninstall Catalyst?

(I have nothing against Catalyst but am wondering if I really need it in order for my monitor to be used with Photoshop if this computer is not used for gaming?)

Thanks,

MikeSp

 

[GotNoRice]

You could run with just the bare driver, similar to how it would be if you just installed the Microsoft driver for your card.

But I think you are really overestimating the amount of resources it's going to use in the background. It's not even worth giving it a second thought.

 

[QuiteSufficient]

Unless your video card literature specifically says otherwise, I do not believe the 6950 supports 10 bit output. Unless 10 bit LUT is an emulated standard?


I have been doing photoshop work on and off professionally for 8 years, and I have not been able to tell a significant performance difference between video cards ranging from intel integrated to high-end cards. I dont think catalyst is going to hurt your performance in any way.

 

[Snowknight26]

Unless your video card literature specifically says otherwise, I do not believe the 6950 supports 10 bit output.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...6950/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6950-overview.aspx#2

It supports 'deep color' (which is 10-bit) but unless you have a 10-bit display, you won't notice the difference.

 

[apehangers]

I dont even think printers support that. Might wind up with some interesting looking prints depending on how it converts I have 2 6950's but I run photoshop and game on the same PC.

 

[Dunan]

Op, why not just get a workstation card?

The difference will be night and day in performance in PS but don't try gaming with it.
If you rarely game and are always working in photoshop then there's no reason to get a gaming card. Gaming cards are for gaming, workstation cards are for for desktop graphics and rendering.

 

[Pitbull]

I dont even think printers support that. Might wind up with some interesting looking prints depending on how it converts I have 2 6950's but I run photoshop and game on the same PC.

There are printers that will do 16bit.

 

[Brent_Justice]

CCC Does not take up that many resources to have to not run it