graphic card for PS and LR

[sergioagrelo]

Hi, all. I am about to buy a new PC and I would like to know what kind of graphic card I need for Photoshop and lightroom photo processing. I am a photographer and I do not need a PC for games....I do not use PS for animation or video processing, I use PS and LR just for RAW Pictures processing. I have read that LR and PS don't use Graphic card for Picture because Picture and 2D. Also that I need to be focus on a good processor and good memory RAM...Bu I still do not in what I have to be focus on...
is Intel (R) 4500MHD Graphic card good enough for PS and LR?

Thanks a lot in advance...!

[jerryb]

hi,
nothing work in isolations... one has to look at all components to get a nice balance of performance... ..... now...

are you looking at a desktop or laptop for a pc?
oh what version of PS? if older are you going to buy newer version soon? back ground info is always usefull ....

now I tried to find some info on the 4500 but couldn't really find what i was looking for so you may need to find out for sure... if it come with any video ram at all or it fully shared ram entirely( use part of your regular ram)...
example... if it uses 256 megs of regular ram , on a 32 bit system... 4 gigs is max with appx 3.1 gigs avail but substract 250 megs or more.. now your down to about apx 2.7 gigs of ram.. out of the 4 yo put in...!!

i am going to more or less just give you a general direction to go with..

1. graphics.... your stand alone graphic card are generaly faster than most integrated graphics(built into the MB) such as the 4500 ..

a. I think the minimum should be at least a 256 meg graphic card although i would go with 512 megs of video ram .... and your integrated graphics... should be able to utilize at least 256 megs of ram if not more ...
b. keep in mind that with most integrated graphic chips they use your regular ram so you need to make sure you really put in a lot of regular ram in....

2. cpu chip... my self i prefer intell's dual cores or quad cores... amd are fine but the intells are better and faster I hink.... and i would go with at least 2.8 gig cpu chip .... and if it in the budget go with the hi end intell I7 chips....

3. OS... you might as well get the vista 64 bit .... most PS versions will run faster on themm ..... but don't get the cheap basic vista go toward the up end...

note: ms and manufacturees will be comming out with windows7 installed.... so if you can wait untill the end of october (oct 22) ... your new pc will come with it and you don't have to worry about doing the free up grade to it.... also it appears windows 7 is faster ...

4. ram!!! this is always important.... 32 bit OS your limited to a max of 4gig but only 3 gigs will be usable... this is why going to 64 bit OS is nice... you can easily put in 6, 8, 10 gigs of ram.....!! and when processing large image files... you like to have all of that image in the ram and not part of it in the swap file...

5. this doesn't directly effect your primary question.. but if you use a external hard drive... see if you can put in the ports for a esata external HD .... esata's are a heck of alot faster than your usb 2.0 or firewire external hard drives

now I am just hobbyiest... deal with a lot of general graphics (but not a heavy user of PS) and video and audio.. but the desktop system i am planning to upgrad next year to

intell quad core and likely a upper end I7 about 3.0 gig or above....

64 bit windows 7 .. home premium or ultamate...

6 gigs of ram...

at least a 512 meg graphi card probably a nvdea ... and if it in my budget i go with 1 gig of video ram ....

usb 3.0 with at least 6 ports with 2 ports in the front...

sata 3 fast hard drive...

a member on another board upgraded from his p4... to a vista with similar stats i plan.... and he see's about at least a 30% per cent improvement in performance..

well those are my thoughts....