i5 processor vs i7 processor

[Bob Cornish]

Hello Brian,

I have been struggling with my current pc which is i7 with gtx 1070 about 5 years old my guess.  My wife has heard me complaining and stuglling with this, as it seems terribly slow and freezes etc. so she secretly bought me a new pc.  I was looking at them one day and she was with me and i mentioned this "particlluar one" i was looking at would be better.  She picked up the GTX 30.... something part, returned what she bought and got me an i5 with an RTX 3060.  I think the 3060 will be ok for a while (just my guess), but I am concerned over the i5.  What do you think?  I think i read somewhere you recommend at minimum i7 with 3070.  I havent opened the box yet and can still return until  Jan 14th I think.

 

Thanks Brian,

Bob

[Brian]

22 hours ago, Bob Cornish said:

I think i read somewhere you recommend at minimum i7 with 3070.

YEP.

You want at least a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or even a RTX 3080. 8GB Video RAM at a minimum. Skip the 3090, PS won't take advantage of it and you'll just be wasting money.

I'm seeing a lot of 3060 cards in devices these days. It's because there are cheap so manufactures love them. Though it will "work," the 3070 is MUCH better, I've read it's about a 20% performance boost. Since ACR and Photoshop's fancy tools use the Video GPU in order to function, you won't want to skimp on the video card, it needs to be "Beefy."

The current i7 Chips are fine, but you will need at least an 850 Watt Power Supply to drive the newer video cards. You can get away with something like a 650 Watt, but the cost difference between the two is minor, so just get a 850 Watt Power Supply. Oh, skip anything that's i5 based. Not worth it with today's modern Photoshop. An i9 is nice to have, but unnecessary. I'd rather you take the savings with a i7 over a i9 and put that towards the video card. Oh, I'd also recommend 32GB of RAM in 2023. Or more. The more MP your camera is, the more RAM you need. If you are like me and have a stupid Nikon D850 and a 45.7MP Sensor, I'd recommend at least 64GB. Or more.