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Choosing Graphics Card - Help Please


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timcee

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Hi, I'm posting to the photoshop forum as the reason I am replacing my existing 512MB GeForce 9800 GTX+ is because Photoshops Graphics accelerated features are really unstable with it. They either stop working or worse make Photoshop crash. So I'm wondering what graphics card people would advise me getting? Processing photos is the main use, I don't use it for gaming or anything. This is my speccy of my computer

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
Yorkfield 45nm Technology
RAM
8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5Q (LGA 775)
Graphics
QHD DVI (2560x1440@59Hz)
Panasonic-TV (1920x1080@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 9800 GTX+ (Undefined)

Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
I wouldn't go overkill on the GPU, but I'd certainly look at maybe an AMD Radeon HD 5 series card, they are fairly cheap and will run nicely with Photoshop. that's my humble opinion my HD 4550 is running Photoshop CS5 like a boss here, mind you windows has used system RAM to give it a happy boost.
 
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Thanks for your reply Is that a 1GB you're running? I'm running CS6 and it seems to be the newer features like the blur and oil paint that make it crash. I'm very much a novice with computer hardware do you recommend AMD over nvidia for Photoshop? I would upgrade the RAM but only have 4 slots etc. Thanks
 
My GPU was a 512mb card but the extra system RAM has been allocated to graphics and taken it up to 1.75gb (it's still fast @512mb) my RAM is 3GB

I would recommend AMD if you do not do any gaming, there are a lot of features on Nvidia cards that will not be used unless you use a game SDK or want to play games. with AMD if you are solely using it for photoshop then you are paying for features you will actually use. I would look at the 1 gig cards, it'll allow the program to run quicker.
 
It's likely that you don't need to upgrade if all you're experiencing are crashes. How is the performance of Ps generally? If it's satisfactory go into your Performance settings - Advanced, switch it to basic mode and untick use GPU for additional computation.

Hopefully this will resolve your problem.

timcee as for which is better nvidia or amd/ati it's really personal choice. You tend to get higher performance out of nvidia cards but they are more expensive and use more power than amd/ati cards. I personally run with a good nvidia card so I have no issues what so ever. It's also important to make sure your drivers are always up to date, they tend to have performance tweaks every so often.
 
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I don't know where this false PS graphics memory legend come from....
Photographer who regularly processes high-resolution images will greatly benefit from increasing the amount of system RAM available to Photoshop, whereas the designer who works with 3D models will obtain far better performance by installing a faster video card containing more video RAM..
So...
First o fall your CPU is way outdated and it's cash is funny even for win7 x64 to run
second your motherboard's bus speeds is in big struggle between ram and HDD i gues...
 
I don't know where this false PS graphics memory legend come from....
Click to expand...
If that was aimed at me smoke, windows allocated the RAM to the video card for reasons I don't know, I know it was like that before I installed any programs, so i'd be happy for a little more lenience, thanks. ;) and extra graphics memory in photoshop will always help, yes it's CPU intensive, but the GPU takes a load off the CPU, that's why it's there, essentially.

I would say that RAM's speed is low, lower than mine XD
 
no offense meant to be Zeelex. Original idea was that 9800 GTX's capacity and performance wont be used even half way with PS cs9 in 2017 if 3D operations is not used(gaming, 3D MAX, ect..) .
main point is to redirect OP for right direction.
P.S. Windows could be main crash issue if its sys files is misleading swap file.
 
Smoke is maybe right about crashes but you do need a good graphic card indeed even if you're not using PS and no gaming at all :)
 
Thanks for all for your replies. I should say that I'm a photographer so I’m using large files & not using 3D so I'm guessing I won't get a big performance boost with new card? I'm not actually worried about speed too much it's the stability - I want to use the graphics accelerated features so turning them off isn't a long term solution.
Thanks Zeealex I will look at AMD then I think.
Thanks Smoke – I inherited this computer so didn’t choose the specs. To be honest what you said about my CPU etc was far too advanced for me ;-) In a year or so I will be replacing this comp so I’m only looking for a quick fix for now. Is the CPU stuff you said a big problem then??
 
Thanks for all for your replies. I should say that I'm a photographer so I’m using large files & not using 3D so I'm guessing I won't get a big performance boost with new card? I'm not actually worried about speed too much it's the stability - I want to use the graphics accelerated features so turning them off isn't a long term solution.
Thanks Zeealex I will look at AMD then I think.
Thanks Smoke – I inherited this computer so didn’t choose the specs. To be honest what you said about my CPU etc was far too advanced for me ;-) In a year or so I will be replacing this comp so I’m only looking for a quick fix for now. Is the CPU stuff you said a big problem then??
 
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