Trying to Decide upgrade or NEW?

[ddown]

I have a OptiPlex I5 Quad core @ 3.2 ghz 16 meg RAM running SSD drive only lack is 512 meg Video Card. Wondering if best approach is to get 4 gig Video card and another 16 GIG of Ram? currently running Workspace and Photoshop Standalone. Workspace needs at least 2 gig video card. Have 2 Macs with insufficient specs to use IMHO. Could buy 2019 IMAC but a lot of money not sure how much better performance. Any suggestion on good not overpriced cards?

 

[barry]

Hi, what generation is your i5?
(Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, ...)

If it's recent, a newer CPU wouldn't make much difference.

There's lots of reasonably priced video cards, e.g. Nvidia 1060 or 1070, but I don't know which work best for your apps.
I only use the embedded GPU in my haswell CPU and it's good enough for me, but I haven't tried Workspace.

 

[Keeth101]

I had a Nvidea GT Force GT610 in my computer. It was good but....
I then bought a Nvidea GT Force GTX 1050 (very reasonably priced) and the difference was very noticeable. Everything worked so much more smoothly, even the internet.
I have 8GB of Ram with the Intel core I5 -2300CPU @ 2.80GHz running a Samsung Evo 1T drive.
It all works well for me using various photo programs.

I think you just need to change your video card.

Just my opinion of course, I'm no expert.

 

[ddown]

Found out my dell didn't have big enough Power supply to drive a good card. Bought new PC "Money can solve all problems" Thanks for advice

 

[ddown]

Dell only had 240 Volt Video Card I had three internal drives + other peripherals. It really would have been pushing it.

 

[wjiang]

Glad you got what you wanted but your figures made no sense.

I seriously doubt you have only 16 MB RAM (that won't even run Windows), I'm assuming you mean 16 GB. In which cases, I don't think you need more RAM unless you're doing truly huge panoramas.

As for power supply, the rating is in W, not V. 240 V is just your mains voltage. Do you mean 240 W (which is seriously underpowered) or is the actual power delivery a totally different figure?

I would get at least a GTX 1060/1660 or equivalent at this point, with at least 6 GB of VRAM. The latest Adobe ACR/LR actually uses the GPU quite well for acceleration of both RAW preview and certain processing operations. Not sure about Olympus Workspace.

 

[ddown]

It was 240 watt not enough to drive a card it was 16 GIG new machine is amazing Ryzen 7 3.2, 16 gig DDR 3200, Radeon RX 580 8 gig, 240 SSD, 2TB HDD ASUS Motherboard.

 

[davidzvi]

.......There's lots of reasonably priced video cards, e.g. Nvidia 1060 or 1070, but I don't know which work best for your apps.
I only use the embedded GPU in my haswell CPU and it's good enough for me, but I haven't tried Workspace.

.......
I would get at least a GTX 1060/1660 or equivalent at this point, with at least 6 GB of VRAM. The latest Adobe ACR/LR actually uses the GPU quite well for acceleration of both RAW preview and certain processing operations. Not sure about Olympus Workspace.

There are some parts of the Adobe line can take advantage of better GPUs, but you also need to consider if you are at all interested in 4K. If so than now would be the time to make sure you don't need to upgrade later.

 

[ddown]

Went with IMAC 27" had 2 PCs with component failure within 24 hrs.