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Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended White Paper
Data drive
The speed of your data drive will affect how long it takes to open and save files—faster drives will increase
read and write performance in Photoshop. For this reason, many professionals also employ a RAID drive
system to store their photos and project files. But keep in mind that with data, it is also important to ensure
that the files are secure and regularly backed up. Select a different RAID mode such as level 1, which mirrors
the files over the disks, or level 5, which combines performance and security measures. For the best
performance, avoid network or external drives due to their relatively slow access times.
Recommendations
For maximum performance, use separate, dedicated physical drives for startup, data, and scratch drives. All drives should
be fast and regularly defragmented. Also, when possible, multiple drives set up in a RAID 0 array should be used for your
scratch disks and data drives, and an SSD should be used for startup.
Processor (CPU)
CPU chips are the engine of your computer and, as such, determine
how quickly many of the features in Photoshop will function. For many
years, processor performance was categorized in terms of clock speed.
The higher the value, the more powerful the chip, and the better the
image-processing performance. But processor speed alone no longer
tells the whole story. Some of the best chips for intensive image-editing
tasks (filtering in particular) are not those with the highest clock
speeds, but rather those with multiple cores and 64-bit architecture
support. This is especially true for specific Photoshop processes, like
Radial Blur, that have been optimized for multicore hardware. Other functions, such as file opening and closing,
are processed with a single core only, so you will not see a performance improvement in these areas. Note also
that the greatest performance gain will be experienced by users changing from a single-core setup to a
multicore machine. Users migrating from a multicore system to one with even more cores will see an
improvement, but not of the same magnitude.
Recommendations
If you regularly process large files; build complex, multilayered Photoshop documents; or work with multiple images at a
time, then a multicore 64-bit processor will reduce the time to complete complex enhancement steps.
Video or graphics card
The video card is the essential link between computer and monitor. At
the most basic level, this component determines the number of colors
and the resolution the screen will display as well as the speed at which
images will be refreshed. Increasingly though, Photoshop is taking
advantage of the powerful processor contained on these cards (called
the graphics processing unit or GPU) to help speed up performance
and activate a set of special GPU-accelerated features such as canvas
rotation, panning and zooming, Adobe Repoussé, and Adobe Pixel
Bender® filters (available for download from labs.adobe.com).
Photoshop CS5 uses the GPU when the installed video card supports
the OpenGL standard and has a least 256MB of VRAM (512MB or more
is better for 3D work). Most basic models sold by leading computer
manufacturers today meet these minimum requirements, but the
simplest way to verify is to check the GPU Settings area of the
Performance panel. If Photoshop CS5 detects a compatible video card,
it will be displayed, and the Enable OpenGL option will be activated. You can view the amount of VRAM
present on your video card by referring to the Video Card Memory information displayed in the System Info
dialog box (choose Help > System Info in Photoshop). For details about optimizing GPU acceleration in
Photoshop CS5, refer to the “Key steps to optimize Photoshop CS5 performance” section.
GPU-accelerated
features in
Photoshop CS5
Photoshop CS5 harnesses
increasing hardware
powerandspeedby
introducing new features,
likeAdobeRepoussé
that take advantage
of modern video card
technology.
OtherGPUfeatures
added in Photoshop CS5
include:
•ScrubbyZoom
•Heads-updisplay(HUD)
color picker
•Colorsamplingring
•Brushdynamicsizeand
brushhardnesscontrol
•BristleBrushpreview
•Ruleofirdscropgrid
overlay
•3Doverlays(including
ground plane, light
guides,andbounding
boxesformeshand
materials)
GPU-accelerated
features in Bridge CS5
include
•Previewpanel
•Full-screenpreview
•Reviewmode
Compatiblevideocardswillberecognizedand
displayed in the Detected Video Card section of
the Performance section of the Preferences dialog
box.
Photoshopusesmultiplecores,orCPUs,tosplit
theprocessingworkload.