: PC configuration for smooth performance in Photoshop and Illustrator? How to organise Moderate configuration to setup a PC for smooth performance with Photoshop and Illustrator? I would like to

@Turnbaugh909

Good RAM, and lots of it, for Photoshop is the most important thing. By lots, I mean 32GB. This is relatively cheap and lets you use symbols and smart objects freely, without concern for slowdowns.

Next up, a very fast SSD, with plenty of space for caching/virtual memory, and be lean with it. Don't let it get more than 50% full. And be sure it's compatible with TRIM on your favourite Operating System. By which I mean Windows 7 ;)

CPU should be an i7, quad core. Don't even look at AMD or bother with the i5 range. The hyper threading will make a difference.

GPU is a the tricky point. You can spend anywhere from 0 to 00 USD and not see much difference in Illustrator and Photoshop, so it depends on what your gaming habits are. Get Nvidia, don't bother with AMD/ATI, Adobe seems to have decided to favour CUDA, for a very long time.

You don't need a huge GPU unless you're doing a lot of touchup stuff on print resolution stuff, wherein you can need the best pan and zoom.

OR... if you're doing 10bit colour work, you need a pro card.

Power supply seems like the most boring thing in your computer, but a good one will protect you from a lot of niggling crashes and lockups that are otherwise a mystery.

And then push/cram it all into an old Silver/BlueTone Mac Tower case, to be that guy ;)

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