AMD Processors and LR3 or Corel PSP X3?

agallia

Considering a PC tower upgrade to a new i5 processor, 8 GB Ram, 1+TB HD to run Adobe Lightroom 3.2 and Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3. But wondering if AMD (Phenom) processors might work as well...with plug-ins like Topaz too. Graphics card suggestions? Will appreciate any feedback or recommendations. Thanks.

basflt

i have always used AMD
you must use 64bit if you want to use 8GB Ram

Toshido

I am using a mildly overclocked AMD 1090T processor. It is OC'd to 3.5 ghz using stock cooling and still runs cool. I did OC to 3.8 and was relatively stable and have read of people OC'ing it to above 4 ghz, but with some serious watercooling.

For RAM I am only running 4GB for now, and viceo I have two GTX 470's in SLI. I also have that running two monitors.

For HD I have a RAID 0 array consisting of two WD Caviar black 640 GB which has my photos and programs on, I also have a 1TB WD Caviar black mostly just for movies.

I am loving this machine... Runs PS CS5 smooth and flawlessly. Have not had to wait for anything on it, but have not stressed it badly yet.

LR3.2 also runs amazing. I find the tablet is a little wonky with lightroom when moving between monitors though.

When doing research on CPU's I found that, in my opinion, AMD was better at that specific price point. TO get a significant upgrade in performance it was a much more significant increase in price. Also depending on application depends if going to 6 cores is worthwhile. As far as I know basically nothing is using more then 4 cores at the moment, so the extra two cores seem to only really come in play with multi tasking. For instance running a tutorial video on my second monitor while playing along in PS on the main monitor.

If budget is a consideration I personally feel that AMD is the processor of choice.

agallia

Thanks much for the feedback. Good info.