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Need veteran advice on CPU and RAM requirements for Adobe cc


E

ED-E

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Hello,

I've just started a Multimedia and Design education, where I will be working with Adobe cc - mostly Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. I'm looking for a portable laptop to use while in school, and I have found one with a good IPS display and SSD.

My question is, if I should I go with an dual core i5-4210M (2,6Ghz) or a quad core i7-4712MQ (2,3GHz) - and If I should go for 8GB of RAM or 16GB.

I have googled for hours now and people seem to have very different opinions on what these programs need in order to run good. I realize that more is better, but I want to know if it's necessary.

At home I have a stationary PC with a 4790K, 16GB RAM, GTX 980, SSD +HHD which I will be using for all my work when at home. So the laptop I'm looking to buy is "just" my placeholder while in school - but of course I want to run said programs without going insane in the process.

I'm really hoping some of you could shed some light on what I should be going for here.

Thanks.
 
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My advice would be, if you can afford to go with the top end range go for it, Photoshop loves RAM so the more memory you have the better, SSD's are the way to go, you don't mention what type of graphics card the laptop has, although 1GB and above dedicated VRam should be fine.
Not sure if it's possible with the laptop that you are buying, but with some makes you can remove the DVD drive bay and install an additional hard drive to use as a Scratch Disk, that's what I done with my HP!
 
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I run a Dell N5050 with 8gb of ram (max it will take) as my main computer. I have a couple of desktops too but I prefer the Dell. Intel 2.3 Ghz processor on a Windows 7 64bit OS. I also have a Toshiba 465GB usb connected auxiliary hard drive. Not to say it doesn't happen, but I rarely have a memory issue. The graphics processor is a Intel HD 3000. Being able to manage your color properly is a concern as laptop screens aren't that good in that department. I have a calibrated auxiliary monitor for my system.
 
Honestly as someone who works with computers all day if you are only going graphical route then the i5 will be a faster laptop with an ssd windows 7 and windows 8 ram sweet spot is 8gbs it will always run best with fast 8gb of ram any more and it will slow it down but only fractions of a second as to 16 gbs of ram. However if you are using large PSDs then 16 gb of ram will be faster. I know that sounds wrong but it is true.

easy way to say it is if you have spare ram which isnt being used in photoshop or (open applications) the more spare the slower it will be however if you are crawling into 12 gbs of ram for a psd (or any application) then it will benefit with more ram.

SO in turn if your never using more than 6 gbs of ram at any time then you are better of with 8 gbs if you think you will be using more then go for 16 gbs.

as for ssd i5 vs i7, you will not really notice much performance difference as they are underclocked cpus, if you benchmark a desktop i7 against this cpu then you will notice huge differences.

my i5 laptop with an ssd and only 8gbs of ram is actually faster booting than my pc which is i7 however on heavy tasks the pc can not be beaten.

If you are using applications that will use the i7 and all the cores then by all means go for it ie video rendering, 3d rendering etc but as your going with an ssd you will not see that much boot time or application launch difference.

yes more is better but sometimes you can't justify the budget.

If there is minimal price difference then go for the i7 as you may find you will evolve into programs such as zbrush, cinema 4d and after effects which then you will definately appreciate the i7.
 
Thank you all for the advice.

ALB68 said:
Intel 2.3 Ghz processor on a Windows 7 64bit OS.
Click to expand...

Is it a dual or quad core?

Hoogle said:
yes more is better but sometimes you can't justify the budget. If there is minimal price difference then go for the i7
Click to expand...

The thing is, that I can afford the i7/16GB version, but want to keep it as reasonable as possible, seeing as my desktop at home is the machine I have/and will continue to spend money on upgrading.

I really just want a good laptop that I can use in school to learn Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. Not 8 hours a day as a job, but as a learning tool that will be sufficient and get the job done when I'm not at home.
 
ED-E said:
Thank you all for the advice.



Is it a dual or quad core?



The thing is, that I can afford the i7/16GB version, but want to keep it as reasonable as possible, seeing as my desktop at home is the machine I have/and will continue to spend money on upgrading.

I really just want a good laptop that I can use in school to learn Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. Not 8 hours a day as a job, but as a learning tool that will be sufficient and get the job done when I'm not at home.
Click to expand...

Dual core.
 
Any other takers? i5 dual core/8GB or i7 quad core/16GB?

Any advice would we greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
 
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