CPU Choice - Cores or Speed

Photoshop is set up to make use of multicore CPUs. For that type of work, I would go for a greater core count. What it really comes down to is what kind of work you are doing. Some programs respond better to more cores, some respond better to core speed. The thing to do would be to do more research into the programs you use and see what others say.

Lautermilch said:

My main use for my PC is Photoshop for large batches of model images and using Dragondictate.

I am getting ready to build a new PC and want an AMD processor but should I go for more cores or more speed?

I'd probably go for more core's than speed, but things aren't so cut and dry here. There are too many variables to say whether more cores or more raw speed is beneficial to Photoshop. Are you multitasking? How are you processing your files? RAW/Jpeg? Layers? Size of files? Filters?, etc..

Given today's CPU's on the market I don't think there's enough of a performance difference between competing CPU's to worry about PS/LR performance. In the end I'd just make sure I get a good high level Intel i7 or equivalent AMD Processor with at least 16gig/32 gig of RAM.

As a photographer I use both Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Lightroom CC, and I run an Intel i7-6700K with 32gig of RAM and both photo editing programs run well for me. I shoot a Nikon D800E which produces 73meg nef (RAW) files. I do local edits in LR, then move to PS where I usually do layers resulting in 7-8 hundred meg tiff files, sometimes larger. Once I finalized an image I keep a jpeg copy for my website and net posting.

Anyway I don't have any performance issues where I wish I had a more powerful CPU or more RAM as nothing is slowed to make me wonder such things. Add to that, that I'm also a system builder and gamer so a high performing system is important to me. You can my system specs by clicking System specs.

I don't think a Octo-core (8-core) processor is going to be significantly faster than a quad-core processor in terms of just raw speed performance. It's more about multi-tasking. For me, I might listen to my media center (JRiver Media Center) while photo editing, perhaps have a webpage open but that's mainly it for me.

Hope this helps a little.

Vellinious said:

AMD Ryzen 1700, 1700X or 1800X for multicore applications. Any of the Haswell E / Broadwell E on the Intel side.

Why would you recommend Haswell or Broadwell over anything like Skylake or Kabylake? Im not calling you out, Im genuinely curious. Do they have some sort of advantage?

I see. Interesting that Sky and Kaby Lake dont have any extreme editions yet. Maybe with the fact that there are extremes of the haswell and broadwell they didnt need them.