Upgrade GPU for photography editing (batch) and video editing (minor)
Upgrade GPU for photography editing (batch) and video editing (minor)
I'm considering whether it's beneficial to upgrade my current GPU or build, given my usage patterns. I rarely play games—perhaps just a couple times a year. My main activity is sports action photography, which means I handle around 3,000 images per game. This requires a lot of batch processing using tools like DX0, Topaz, and LightRoom Classic. Currently, processing 3,000 images takes roughly 6 to 8 hours. This is my existing setup from September 2020. My system is a cyberpower build, upgraded to 64GB memory recently, and I have switched from HDDs to M.2 SSDs.
With this configuration, should I continue using it and simply upgrade the GPU, or would it be better to start fresh with a new build? I prefer sticking with Intel and RTX GPUs.
This is my first setup. It's a cyberpower configuration from September 2020.
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POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts - Corsair CX750M CX Series Modular 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power
Your power supply is nearly ten years old. You might want to swap it out while considering a GPU upgrade, especially if you're planning to use something from Nvidia's RTX 5000 line. Regarding the GPU, check this out:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...
9rh3osFPEDTHq_WFJhpS4UXyKKMMN6jhP00LPAnbIbw2R
I've changed the RAM to 64GB, though I don't know the exact speed (likely similar).
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MEMORY: 32GB (8GBx4) DDR4/3000MHz Quad Channel RAM (ADATA XPG Z1)
Capture images of the labels on your RAM modules, upload them to a platform like Imgur, and share the link with us for review.
I enhanced my 7950X setup from a 12GB RTX3060 to a 12GB RTX 4070, which improved rendering performance in Photoshop using the Topaz Photo AI plugin. The speed dropped from 20 seconds to 12 seconds for 31Mpixel RAW files, as I recall. Photoshop and Lightroom don’t require as much CPU or GPU power compared to Premiere Pro and Topaz Video AI, making it hard to judge whether a full system upgrade would be worthwhile, particularly on a tight budget.
The decision hinges on the volume of files in Lightroom. A large database could benefit from a significantly faster Gen 4 or Gen 5 NVMe storage.
For business users selling work, an upgrade is strongly recommended. If you're working creatively and have at least $5,000 available, it’s a solid choice. Otherwise, consider optimizing your current setup.
I rely on the graphs from Puget Systems to evaluate the strengths of various CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/p...photoshop/
If you have only two drives, that could be a good starting point.
I use three 1TB M.2 NVMe drives: one for Windows and Adobe/Topaz software, another for Adobe and Topaz scratch disks, and a third for ongoing photo or video projects. I also keep five spinning hard drives in the PC for completed tasks.
It makes sense to distribute processing across multiple fast drives rather than relying on a single one. A modest but noticeable speed boost is worth considering.
If your motherboard lacks three M.2 slots, you’d need a PCIe adapter. Alternatively, you might try 1TB Samsung 2.5in SATA SSDs with DRAM cache instead of M.2 NVMe.
As @Lutfij mentioned, I’d replace the CX750 PSU. I switched from a 2021 vintage Corsair TX850M to an MSI A1000G to resolve voltage spikes with my RTX 4070. The same issue occurred when the 3060 was installed.