You don’t necessarily need one, since most low-to-mid range CPUs come with an integrated graphics processor that can power your monitor. The Graphics Processing Unit is a bit of a luxury compared to the CPU and RAM. 32 GB or even 64 GB is probably overkill for most users, unless you’re using PhaseOne’s latest 100-megapixel camera, creating large panoramas, or doing a lot of HDR and focus stacking. More is better, though, so if you can spring for 16 GB, it will definitely help. 8 GB is a very reasonable amount, and if you’re working with 24-megapixel raw files and not stacking dozens of images, it may be all you need. Even though Adobe says that 2 GB is the minimum, they acknowledge that 8 GB is recommended. Ideally, you’ll want to push that up a little. Modern laptops typically start at 4 GB, whereas decent desktops start with 8 GB. However, unlike hard drives where 256 GB to even several terabytes is routine, your RAM is likely 4-32 GB. RAM is typically measured in GBs, just like other digital storage devices. As you can probably imagine, Photoshop uses this quite a bit as you adjust your images. It’s much faster than the storage space on hard drives or even SSDs, so it allows you to make changes very quickly without having to save and reload every time you do anything.
RAM (or Random Access Memory) is the storage space that files are loaded into when you’re working on them. If the CPU is the brain of your computer, the RAM is the short-term memory. So don’t worry about grabbing an 18-core monster machine – aim for four and you’ll be fine. I ran some tests in Photoshop with a massive 96-megapixel image (1.2 GB), and with my quad-core iMac with hyper-threading to eight cores, the four virtual cores were very rarely used, and the four physical cores were never even pushed to their max. Photoshop doesn’t actually make use of hyper-threading much, but if you only have two physical cores, it will make a difference. This effectively makes your processor act like it has twice as many cores though they’re virtual rather than physical. One thing to look for is “hyper-threading” if you go for dual cores. This is pretty standard for desktops, though for laptops, you might have to make due with a dual core machine. I think for 99% of Photoshop users, your best bet is to get a quad-core machine with a good clock speed. Four to six cores is the sweet spot, past that, you really see diminishing returns. Luckily for us, Photoshop makes this decision easy by failing to use multiple cores very effectively. Unfortunately, the number of cores is inversely proportional to the clock speed, so you’re going to have to make some sacrifices in your specs. The other aspect of CPUs, the number of cores, is a little less straightforward. However, the 3.5 GHz processor in my iMac has yet to meet its match. I found 2.6 GHz in a Macbook to be great for most things, but it slowed down when applying complex filters and using large brushes. Photoshop uses the CPU for the majority of its tasks, so aim for 3 GHz or higher for best results.
Adobe recommends that you use a 2 GHz or faster CPU, but if you can afford better, it’s worth it.
The number of cores is how many independent computation devices there are – so the more cores there are, the better a computer is at multitasking (or breaking up complex operations). Clock speed, measured in GHz, is how many computations a core in the CPU can perform every second. There are two specs to a CPU that you need to know – the clock speed, and the number of cores. It’s also one of the more expensive components in a machine, but these days they really are a bargain.
It’s the little chip at the heart of everything that does the heavy lifting for almost every application you use, and Photoshop is no exception. The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the brain of your computer.
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