GPU for CS5?

[duronboy]

I'm building a new system, and was wondering what's the deal with Photoshop and GPUs? Is there a site y'all like that's got a list of GPUs, and how well they perform on basic tasks in Photoshop CS5?

I've been eying the Radeon 6850, but I'm not sure it's compatible. I know the nVidia GTX 460 is compatible, but it's a tad pricier and a tad slower than the 6850, at least in the benchmarks I've seen. Of course none of the benchmarks I've seen talk about CS5 performance, just games I'm not likely to play...

The difference is only a few percentage points in price and performance, but I want no regrets. I don't want to over-spend, but I want to have this and not think about it for at least 3 years.

[Charles Putnam]

The short answer is yes. PS CS5 needs a video card that fully supports OpenGL 2.0, which both the Radeon and nVidia cards do. Either should serve you well.

[duronboy]

Excellent, thanks! I'll stick with the 6850!

[Rson]

Let me chime in,
PS does not use the GPU effectively yet, You can actually save some money and get a 5xxx series. I personally use a 4xxx series and I venture to say that my system will be comparable. Why you ask[prob not asking but I will tell you] the system has to be well rounded. Somewhere there will be a weak link and with a build you have to address the link.

[duronboy]

Hoping to have a somewhat well-rounded system.

i7 2600K
8GB DDR3
120GB SSD
2x 2TB RAID 1
HD 6850 1GB

[Stargazer77517]

Originally Posted by duronboy

Hoping to have a somewhat well-rounded system.

i7 2600K
8GB DDR3
120GB SSD
2x 2TB RAID 1
HD 6850 1GB

Robin I have the same vid card, once installed go to Sapphires site SAPPHIRE- HOME
and upgrade the drivers, I had to because CS 4 was running into hiccups with the GPU. I downloaded the new drivers and not a problem since.

[duronboy]

Yeah, I'll be downloading all the latest drivers for all the hardware tonight! UPS says they'll drop these parts tomorrow, so hopefully I can get this thing up and running before the wedding saturday. I do NOT want to have to edit all the wedding photos on this ancient dual-core AMD system.

[duronboy]

I can't download video card drivers until I've registered, and they want a serial number, so I can't until tomorrow. Poop.

[Rson]

I would let windows load the drivers......install the os and update the drivers until there is no more.

Try PS, if no issue then you are golden. CS4 was always a buggy program since that was the first era that they utilized the GPU.

[duronboy]

I was hoping to get stuff started updating tonight since my internet connection is sooo slow. I live out in the sticks, and I get about 1/3rd of a megabit. Sucks. I may have to just box up the whole kit once assembled and borrow my friend's u-verse connection for a bit!