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Which computer upgrade will speed up Lightroom the most? Memory or graphics card?


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I run Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud on a Windows machine with an i5 processor running at 3.4 gigahertz.

I currently have a 512mb graphics card and 8 gigabytes memory. Which upgrade will help Lightroom run the best? Should I upgrade to a 2 gigabyte graphics card or double my memory space up to 16 gigs? Planning to do both upgrades just wondering which one I should do first

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thebestcpu

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Hi Shutteringfocus

My inputs are very similar to Gedstar

Overall, if you system is over 3 years old, it is good to review the cost of upgrading your present system vs purchasing a new system. Couild end up being a better investment.

Assuming you are keeping your present system, your graphics card does not meet the minimum requirements so surprised it works at all with LR. I would upgrade to a minimum 2G graphics card. This is not a performance issue yet rather will it even work issue.

From a performance basis, the 16G will give you a big boost especially if you are pushing memory limits with the number of apps running and data size used by your applications. Made a big difference for me.

Using an SSD vs HD made the biggest difference after that with 512G minimum and 1TB preferred (though they are not cheap).

Note that with the i5 processor at 3.4 GHz would be your next limiter which is best addressed with a better processor in a new system.

Have fun with the increased performance no matter what direction you take.

John Wheeler
 

Van_Photo

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I agree with the two above. If you have enough $$$, upgrade your system. If you have a tight budget, I would suggest 1)SSD-256G or up for system drive; 2) 2GB graphics card; 3) upgrade to 16GB RAM.
 
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Already running 256 SSD which I really like. I run my lightroom catalogs on there.

The upgrade to 16 gb of ram (my boards max) is only $45 so I'm going to do that.

On the graphics card am I better off going more memory or a faster clock speed?

I'm comparing

GTX GT 730 4gb @ 700MHz

And

GTX 750 Ti 2 gb @ 1150 MHz.

Both DDR3.

On the brink of a whole system upgrade but going to try to stretch this one another wedding season.

Thanks!

Thanks

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Chucktin

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One thing to consider - will you're new super card fit.
I'm stuck with the one I have because the layout of my motherboard put the slot available for the graphics card (no on-board chip either) up against other components. There's not enough room for a higher end card with a pancake fan on it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
 
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One thing to consider - will you're new super card fit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Good point. I am pretty sure that I have room. There is certainly space on the MoBo, I've got a double slot open. I did take some measurements to check clearance around my heat sink though. I have a hyper 212 and it takes up a lot of room.

I made the memory upgrade first and that has improved things quite a bit.

Thank you for your time.
 

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