pc graphics card question

[Geordi69]

I wonder if using 2 NVIDIA graphics cards in SLi mode would make much difference to how photoshop performs?

Does anybody have any experiance with or use a set up like this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mrgubby]

I wouldn't think it'd make any difference at all. I don't think photoshop 'uses' the graphics card CPU. You'd be better spending the money on CPU & memory (unless you've maxxed out already )

 

[Helium_Junkie]

The CPU is used, not the GPU, SLI will have no effect on your performance. As mrgubby says - upgrade yer CPU and RAM instead

 

[kfridge]

I wouldn't think it'd make any difference at all. I don't think photoshop 'uses' the graphics card CPU. You'd be better spending the money on CPU & memory (unless you've maxxed out already )

The CPU is used, not the GPU, SLI will have no effect on your performance. As mrgubby says - upgrade yer CPU and RAM instead

what they said....

 

[barryj]

SLI was developed mainly for GPU power hungary games so no you wouldn't see any difference with another card in SLI for PS.

+ it only gives you .25 better performance! you'd think it would be double but no, in benchmark tests it was (at best) adding about a quarter better performance.

On another note I've just purchased another FX card to run in SLI with my exisitng setup . Can let you know how I get on if you want.

 

[Geordi69]

Cheerz for the answers guys.
It just came around as the system I ended up buying to replace my totaly fried one has the sli set up. I have not set my system up fully yet so I aint had a chance to play. I am just concentrating on recovering 600 odd gig of data and applications from my old one.

New one is quad core, 4gb ram 2x Geforce 8600 512mb graphics cards and with 1.37TB of storage -- OOHH and I got a viewsonic 20" screen thrown in!!

 

[EOS_JD]

Nice machine. I just upgraded mine to a quad core and it's certainly a lot faster in Ps and Lightroom. My graphics is just an old 6600GT! As stated above it won't make any difference to Ps though.

Gaming however is another matter

 

[Chappers]

EOS_JD

Just for my information, can you tell me what you upgraded from and to what Quad core option. Also can you give a rough indication of the speed gain in LR

I'm looking to upgrade my 3.2 GHz Dell and am trying to decide what options to go for at the moment

 

[whiteflyer]

I wouldn't think it'd make any difference at all. I don't think photoshop 'uses' the graphics card CPU. You'd be better spending the money on CPU & memory (unless you've maxxed out already )

The CPU is used, not the GPU, SLI will have no effect on your performance. As mrgubby says - upgrade yer CPU and RAM instead

what they said....

I thought this, but it's not true according to CS3 Preferences

 

[EOS_JD]

EOS_JD

Just for my information, can you tell me what you upgraded from and to what Quad core option. Also can you give a rough indication of the speed gain in LR

I'm looking to upgrade my 3.2 GHz Dell and am trying to decide what options to go for at the moment

I had an AMD64 3200+ with a 939pin Asus A8N SLI Mobo and 1Gb RAM

I now have Intel Q6600 (quad core), Asus P5K Premium Socket 775 Mobo and 2Gb Corsair XMS2.

I also have the old Nvidea 6600GT graphics card and an array of internal an external drives with over 2500Gb of storage space.

Just did some lightroom work last night. Imported 1000 files and exported them as JPGs.

Amazing difference - Not sure time wise as I didn't measure it but the speed increase was very significant. Less than half the time of my old PC.

Hope that helps

 

[EOS_JD]

A little search around the web found this.

"Using 3D layers in Photoshop CS3 Extended

Video Card support
Photoshop CS3 Extended defaults to using 3D acceleration on the video card. We recommend using a graphics card with 128 MB of video RAM or higher and Pixel Shader 2 or higher. We specifically recommend the following graphics cards:

ATI 1000 Series or higher
ATI Fire GL FireGL V3300 or higher
Nvidia GeForce 6000 series or higher
Nvidia Quadro 1000 series or higher

If your video card does not have sufficient memory, then 3D acceleration in Photoshop must be turned off. To do this, go to Preferences>Performance and uncheck the "Enable 3D Acceleration" box.

In addition, there are known problems with the NVidia 5200 card, including problems tiling. We do not recommend using 3D in Photoshop CS3 Extended with this card. "

I don't use 3D in Photoshop so it doesn't affect me too much.

JD

 

[EOS_JD]

I thought this, but it's not true according to CS3 Preferences

A little search around the web found this.

"Using 3D layers in Photoshop CS3 Extended

Video Card support
Photoshop CS3 Extended defaults to using 3D acceleration on the video card. We recommend using a graphics card with 128 MB of video RAM or higher and Pixel Shader 2 or higher. We specifically recommend the following graphics cards:

ATI 1000 Series or higher
ATI Fire GL FireGL V3300 or higher
Nvidia GeForce 6000 series or higher
Nvidia Quadro 1000 series or higher

If your video card does not have sufficient memory, then 3D acceleration in Photoshop must be turned off. To do this, go to Preferences>Performance and uncheck the "Enable 3D Acceleration" box.

In addition, there are known problems with the NVidia 5200 card, including problems tiling. We do not recommend using 3D in Photoshop CS3 Extended with this card. "

I don't use 3D in Photoshop so it doesn't affect me too much.

JD

 

[Bolerus]

cant see how using two cards in sli would help photoshop in the slightest. btu I find myself wondering if installing a PhyseX card would help speed up some of the trasnforming actions (like the test with the horse that got passed aroudn some of the forums to test your systems photoshop speed)

I would imagine that you would haveto work with some BIGGG files and a lot of unusual effects for it to make a difference.

 

[EOS_JD]

None of that is down to graphics really. It's pure processing speed and CPU will determine that. I have a quad core processor but an old graphics card and scored around 9 secs on that horse test.