Graphic design and gaming

Blue_Seas

Hey all, need any help I can get, want to spec a desktop that will allow for moderate gaming but will be suited well to Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. I have a MBP with i5 2.3Ghz quad-core processor and 16GB RAM, 650M 2GB, but it started to stutter a bit when working on larger file sizes.

1. What is your budget? [€800]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming: Overwatch, Sims 4; Graphic Design: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, some video editing with After Effects. Files can get pretty large.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Can use a 250GB hard drive from brother's computer, it's WD and 7200rpm (was going to use as scratch disk for PS)

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 19"-24", anything under is too small, anything over is probably well out of my price range.


6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless card

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer, Paypal, credit card, debit card,

9. When are you purchasing? Within the next 2 months

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Brother can help

I was mulling around having a 120GB SSD for OS and Adobe Apps, 1TB 7200RPM for everything else and for storage, 250GB 7200RPM for scratch disk as 32GB RAM seems to be quite expensive, I could use 16GB for now with scratch disk and then upgrade later? Case I honestly don't care about. Just fit it all in. No need for CD/DVD drive, just USB ports. Monitor just needs area for a HDMI switcher as I want to plug in two consoles but won't play them when also using the PC.

Any other questions just ask; ideally I just want something around 800 that is better than my MBP (late 2013 retina, 2.3Ghz intel with 16GB RAM if anyone wants to look up other specs). Monitor needs to be decent but I'll sacrifice size for quality. I would buy things like a case, monitor etc. second hand but not computer parts.

super quick edit: for anyone who isn't familar with photoshop, it can use up to four CPU cores, but from what I've read it doesn't utilise anything beyond that. Video card helps some photoshop actions but my current mobile one handles PS filters etc. fine, I just want a beefier one for gaming to be honest (I like my games looking pretty)

lewis

I'm also on the hunt for a Photoshop/gaming PC, my budget should be around yours.

This is what I've had on PC Part Picker for a while..... https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/RVgmRG

The only problem with my build that I'm having trouble with, is the graphics card. It's hard to find and I'm not sure of an equal/similar card.

Trying to keep the price down ain't easy.

Lu Tze

lewis wrote: »

I'm also on the hunt for a Photoshop/gaming PC, my budget should be around yours.

This is what I've had on PC Part Picker for a while..... https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/RVgmRG

The only problem with my build that I'm having trouble with, is the graphics card. It's hard to find and I'm not sure of an equal/similar card.

Trying to keep the price down ain't easy.

Any particular reason you picked that graphics card? Its a generation or two old, which might be why it is hard to find new. If there is a particular feature you need in a graphics card let us know and we will try and recommend something similar.

lewis

Lu Tze wrote: »

Any particular reason you picked that graphics card? Its a generation or two old, which might be why it is hard to find new. If there is a particular feature you need in a graphics card let us know and we will try and recommend something similar.

At the time it was the recommended one and just figured the price would go down, it didn't.

I couldn't find a similar one.

The main use for this build is for medium level Photoshop use, something that'll be future proof, I'd like it to last.

Lu Tze

lewis wrote: »

At the time it was the recommended one and just figured the price would go down, it didn't.

I couldn't find a similar one.

The main use for this build is for medium level Photoshop use, something that'll be future proof, I'd like it to last.

AMD's RX460/RX560 would be of a similar performance, but it would be worth searching to see whether there is much in photoshop which benefits from GPU acceleration (assuming this is the reason for getting a graphics card and not for gaming). You could also go for a 1050 or 1050tu from Nvidia.

If there isnt much benefit, you could drop it completely, the intel chips have integrate graphics which should be fine just for output for your monitor and save the money, or put it into something else another SSD for a scratch disk or something.

lewis

Lu Tze wrote: »

AMD's RX460/RX560 would be of a similar performance, but it would be worth searching to see whether there is much in photoshop which benefits from GPU acceleration (assuming this is the reason for getting a graphics card and not for gaming). You could also go for a 1050 or 1050tu from Nvidia.

If there isnt much benefit, you could drop it completely, the intel chips have integrate graphics which should be fine just for output for your monitor and save the money, or put it into something else another SSD for a scratch disk or something.

I'm not sure how much the I7 can handle on PS.

I'll do some Googling on those two cards you mentioned.

Lu Tze

lewis wrote: »

I'm not sure how much the I7 can handle on PS.

I'll do some Googling on those two cards you mentioned.

Sorry i meant how much benefit the graphics cards would provide in Photoshop. Have a look into that - it may not be worth getting any dedicated graphics card if there isnt much benefit.

lewis

Lu Tze wrote: »

Sorry i meant how much benefit the graphics cards would provide in Photoshop. Have a look into that - it may not be worth getting any dedicated graphics card if there isnt much benefit.

Just some quotes from my build thread..

" A cheap, 256-bit and 1000+ cores GPU is a good choice to boost it's GPU acceleration features", it's the 256-bit bandwidth that I'm after, not to mention "a
dedicated GPU is faster" .

My PS use and level will only grow, so I'm thinking I'll end up buying a graphics card down the line, so why not get it now?

Blue_Seas

lewis wrote: »

I'm also on the hunt for a Photoshop/gaming PC, my budget should be around yours.

This is what I've had on PC Part Picker for a while..... https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/RVgmRG

The only problem with my build that I'm having trouble with, is the graphics card. It's hard to find and I'm not sure of an equal/similar card.

Trying to keep the price down ain't easy.

Thanks for showing me your sample build! The i5 doesn't seem to be as good as the CPU in my macbook though, ideally since I'm spending a lot on a desktop I'd like it to be better than the laptop I have already (it's the i7 4850HQ). When I bump that up and then change the MB and whatnot, the price goes way up... I can't figure out where to cut or downgrade

Blue_Seas

This is what I've done up, but it's about 200 over what I wanted to pay. I'd like to shave about 100 off the CPU and 100 off the GPU without either being much worse than my 650M or i7 4850HQ (the video card is easier to beat out, but the processor less so).

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/JtM6gL

And are there any major problems here that I'm missing?

TerrorFirmer

Well the i7's base clock is 2.3Ghz, it can boost but it really depends on how good the cooling is in the laptop as to whether or not it can run for any length of time on it's boost clock, or else throttle down to it's base clock.

Whereas something like the 6700K/7700K run at a base clock of 4Ghz/4.2Ghz respectively and also boost to even higher clocks. Overall, it would be a massive improvement on your laptop (even if it can hold a boost clock indefinitely).

Depending on whether or not your laptop can hold the CPU's boost clock indefinitely, switching to a desktop i5-7500 or similar may or may not be much of an upgrade.

Someone above mentioned a card with 1000+ Cuda Cores which isn't a cheap ask, as you'd be looking at a 3GB GTX1060 at around €200-220.

That said something like a GTX1050 has double the cores of your old GT650M at around €120, as in other tasks like gaming it would be probably five to six times faster.

Blue_Seas

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Well the i7's base clock is 2.3Ghz, it can boost but it really depends on how good the cooling is in the laptop as to whether or not it can run for any length of time on it's boost clock, or else throttle down to it's base clock.

Whereas something like the 6700K/7700K run at a base clock of 4Ghz/4.2Ghz respectively and also boost to even higher clocks. Overall, it would be a massive improvement on your laptop (even if it can hold a boost clock indefinitely).

Depending on whether or not your laptop can hold the CPU's boost clock indefinitely, switching to a desktop i5-7500 or similar may or may not be much of an upgrade.

Someone above mentioned a card with 1000+ Cuda Cores which isn't a cheap ask, as you'd be looking at a 3GB GTX1060 at around €200-220.

That said something like a GTX1050 has double the cores of your old GT650M at around €120, as in other tasks like gaming it would be probably five to six times faster.

I believe my video card really only gets used when gaming, I'm not a video editor nor do I use CAD or anything right now. From what I know, it's the processor that I should be looking at for improving photoshop performance; the laptop ran super hot and I could hear and see it struggling to work with some of my large files. But I can't seem to find anything that's the equivalent of my current mobile CPU under 300 euro. I can see that the i7 6700k is much better, and what you're saying makes sense, but I was hoping to find something a little less expensive. Is that possible?

TerrorFirmer

Again it depends on how your laptop handles the load/heat.

Mobile processors have base clocks and boost clocks - in your case it is 2.3Ghz with boost up to 3.5Ghz. In theory, when the machine is under load, the boost clock will kick in to give extra performance.

However, in some machines it will run indefinitely at the boosted rate - in others, it will run briefly at the higher speed before clocking back down to the base clock or alternating in between as the cooling system can't cope with the extra heat.

So a desktop i5 could be a significant improvement, or little to none, depending on which way your laptop sits.

Broadly speaking, if you're a fairly heavy user, the only logical upgrade is to a desktop i7 processor in any case.

The other option is 2nd hand. Get a cheap S1155 based PC from Ebay for €80, drop in an i7-3770 for around €150, bring the ram to 16GB, add a 240GB SSD and for about €400 you've got a fairly killer video editing PC - not much more than the cost of an i7-7700 on its own.

Cuddlesworth

Lu Tze wrote: »

Sorry i meant how much benefit the graphics cards would provide in Photoshop. Have a look into that - it may not be worth getting any dedicated graphics card if there isnt much benefit.

Pretty much nothing, its only used in a handful of effects and the time savings vs the cost don't seem worth it. At the very best, pick up a 1050 or RX450, basically anything with openGL.

Modern I-gpu's are better then most people think.

Photoshop is mostly single threaded, likes high frequency and depending on the workload, likes Ram. So basically a 7700K and up to whatever ram needed is the most important thing to look for.

Blue_Seas

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/PGzdPs

How is this looking? I was able to step down a CPU and GPU while it still being better than what I have now, and still being powerful enough, I think? Eventually upgrading to 32GB. It's more within my budget (excluding shipping...)

edit: my brother pointed out some issues with the previous build. I then looked at a Ryzen build, would this work for me? As the CPU is cheaper, equivalent speed, and I don't need more than four cores (Photoshop doesn't utilise anything beyond that) https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Blue_seas/saved/GLkQ7P

Blue_Seas

Bump, anyone able to help with this?

lewis

I'd like people's thoughts on this build, mainly the GPU, as I'm not 100% sure...
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/mloc/saved/WxyJ7P#partlist_edit

It's for Photoshop use.

Billy86

Would Ryzen not be better suited for the graphics design work than an i7?

As far as graphics cards I've been playing on a 1050 TI for the last week on a budget build present for someone as a gift and I was very pleasantly surprised. Probably won't do ultra too well on the most demanding titles, but I was able to clear 48+ fps quite easily on a far inferior CPU (G4560) with it and the difference from high to ultra is often extremely negligible in my opinion.

Blackstar767

Stick with i7. Gaming is more demanding than Adobe.

BloodBath

TBH if I was buying new and I'd go for a Ryzen 1600 over the 7700 any day unless 144Hz+ gaming was the target. You will not notice any difference in frame rate unless you are trying to achieve near 144fps which you aren't. It's cheaper, has more cores and more threads and is simply a better processor than the 7700 in most cases.