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Help Configure Graphics Intensive Workstation
Hello All,
My wife is in the photography business and she has outgrown her current workstation (which only about a year old!). We are looking to get a new workstation but are not sure which hardware will help the most with her type of work. She does a LOT of (image) photograph processing using Phtotoshop. She often has over 20-30 images open at any given time and are running image conversion functions within Phtotoshop. The obvious improvements are definitely memory and CPU speed, but what about the following other factors: 1. Dual-processor - depending on the specific processor, this may add $1K to the price tag. How much gain will we get out of it? 2. Processor speed and cache. Intel Xeon can come with either 1MB or 2MB L3 cache, is it worth it? How much difference would we see between a 2.8 GHz and a 3.2 GHz processor? 3. How much improvement would we get from a higher-end graphics card? While it's true that we're working with many images, but we're not talking about 3-D animations or video, so would a higher-end graphics card help at all? Anyone want to take a shot at coming up with a configuration recommendation for us? Thanks in advance. Frank |
#2
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"Frank Chen" wrote in message news Hello All, My wife is in the photography business and she has outgrown her current workstation (which only about a year old!). We are looking to get a new workstation but are not sure which hardware will help the most with her type of work. She does a LOT of (image) photograph processing using Phtotoshop. She often has over 20-30 images open at any given time and are running image conversion functions within Phtotoshop. The obvious improvements are definitely memory and CPU speed, but what about the following other factors: 1. Dual-processor - depending on the specific processor, this may add $1K to the price tag. How much gain will we get out of it? 2. Processor speed and cache. Intel Xeon can come with either 1MB or 2MB L3 cache, is it worth it? How much difference would we see between a 2.8 GHz and a 3.2 GHz processor? 3. How much improvement would we get from a higher-end graphics card? While it's true that we're working with many images, but we're not talking about 3-D animations or video, so would a higher-end graphics card help at all? Anyone want to take a shot at coming up with a configuration recommendation for us? Thanks in advance. Frank Question 1.) If she is using a program such as photoshop then the dual processor will show a huge leap in performance. If not then it is kind of iffy, both the OS and the program have to support dual processors to get the gain. Question 2.)If you can get the lesser processor with the higher cache I would do it. There is not a ground shaking difference between a 2.8 and 3.2, cache is going to be the big difference in that case. Question 3.) No I do not believe so, since you aren't doing anything 3d I do not believe the computer uses the video card for any rendering at all. |
#3
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Question 1.) If she is using a program such as photoshop then the dual
processor will show a huge leap in performance. If not then it is kind of iffy, both the OS and the program have to support dual processors to get the gain. If the OP is using 2k/Xp Pro, then it already supports 2 processors. Definitely upgrade to 2Gig ram. Question 2.)If you can get the lesser processor with the higher cache I would do it. There is not a ground shaking difference between a 2.8 and 3.2, cache is going to be the big difference in that case. A dual 2.8Ghz P4 system will be faster than a single 3.2Ghz HT P4 Xeon. Some benchmarking software allows you to compare your current system with other peoples on their websites. Then you'll get a better feel for comparable performance. Question 3.) No I do not believe so, since you aren't doing anything 3d I do not believe the computer uses the video card for any rendering at all. Cant imagine a super duper red hot graphics card will be beneficial. Spend your money on a huge monitor instead. |
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