What is most important for LARGE photo files in new pc build?

[andrewwest275]

Hi
So my current PC (2020 pc specialist build) runs Linux Mint beatifully and here is the basic spec:
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S NANO GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO Wi-Fi AC (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)

Change to: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 550 - HDMI, DVI - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW)

The PC now has 16Gb Ram as one stick failed.

So as well as a new PC, I'm also in the market for a new camera which will be something special and may have between 60 and 100 Mpx sensor so huge images. I therefore downloaded some JPG's (doubt I will shoot Raw as I want to keep post processing down to a minimum) from the new Fujifilm GFX100RF. The images are about 65Mb each. When I processed the images my PC was throttling like mad and Darktable would just dissapear! after a reboot things would be ok but the PC still struggles with the files.
What do I need to make sure the PC can handle large files? Lots of fast Ram, Fast M.2, CPU, Graphics card?

Many thanks

 

[TonyCarter]

For photo processing then it normally depends on the processing/editing software. Some are single-core and want the CPU with the fastest sustained single core boost frequency...others want multi-cores to spread the load, so then it's a balancing act of more slower cores over fewer faster cores.

GPU only affects things where software has requirements/functions that can be offloaded to take advantage of the encoders/acceleration/specialist nodes that a GPU can provide (some filters, effects, rendering, AI/ML processing, etc.).

For the storage then you'll want a small, fast drive for Windows/apps and a separate fast drive for the processing cache. Keeping the separate offers more security and allows both SSDs/controllers to work in parallel, as having everything on one drive, with one controller means everything is fighting for the same resources.

Depending on your budget, something like a AMD 7700 CPU or 9700X CPU would be the most efficient / fastest single-core option...and at the other end the 9950X would be the multi-core champion (although some Intel 13/14th Gen CPUs can be 10% faster in specific scenarios...but use 2-3x the power doing so, and risk damaging the CPU and/or motherboard).

Single core Photoshop:

Adobe Photoshop: AMD Ryzen 9000 Series vs Intel Core 14th Gen

AMD's new Ryzen 9000 processors are here, but how do they compare to the previous generation Ryzen 7000 or Intel's Core 14th Gen processors in Photoshop?

www.pugetsystems.com

Multi-core Lightroom:

Adobe Lightroom Classic: Intel Core 14th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 7000

Intel and AMD have recently performend nearly on par in Adobe Lightroom Classic, but are the new 14th Gen Intel processors enough for Intel to take a solid lead?

www.pugetsystems.com

Other content creation:

AMD Ryzen 9000: Performance vs Previous Generations

AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series of processors offer moderate performance improvements over Ryzen 7000. But how do they compare to Ryzen 5000 and 3000?

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[andrewwest275]

Thank you so much for your help and advice. I'm interested but confused about the following paragraph and wondered if you could explain a bit more. I have built a few PC's in my time but would rather leave it to the experts these days.

Quote: For the storage then you'll want a small, fast drive for Windows/apps and a separate fast drive for the processing cache. Keeping the separate offers more security and allows both SSDs/controllers to work in parallel, as having everything on one drive, with one controller means everything is fighting for the same resources.

What I don't understand is the processing of the cache seperately on a different drive. How is that done?

BTW, I use DXO Photolab 7 and the Nik Collection. I am also probably going to get Affinity Photo. I don't use the Adobe software as I don't like paying monthly.

Many thanks

 

[TonyCarter]

In most creative apps there's a preference for the location of your working cache. Keeping it off the main drive means it can use a dedicated memory / SSD path for its own purposes and won't be waiting for the OS drive to complete whatever it's always doing in the background...which could also be the normal things it does when running whichever app you're using, or could be a background backup process, or a background AV scan, etc.

Depending on the size of the images, history cache, rendering cache, etc. it can affect the overall performance. How much is debatable a sit depends entirely on how heavy your cache usage is.

For the security/safety concerns...it's to keep your valuable work documents away from the boot drive so that if Windows becomes corrupt, just needs a reinstall to fix an issue, or the boot drive fails, then you won't lose your working document/projects. Just a case of not keeping 'all your eggs in one basket'.

It was a lot more important in the days when small, fast SSDs were very expensive and filled up quickly, but it's still good practice now...as is a good backup workflow.

Here's a bit more discussion on the matter...

Why more than one storage drive?

I've been meaning to put something like this together for a while. In recent weeks I've found myself writing this more and more so thought I would just post my thoughts in a thread that I could link to. So the reason for this thread is to try and give insight as to the reasoning behind having...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[andrewwest275]

That is most helpfull thank you. The article was very informative too.

So if I get a pc with 2x M.2 drives I would obviously put Windows on the main one but would I install DXO on the 2nd or just keep the 2nd drive for images, music files and documents etc?

Thanks very much

 

[TonyCarter]

You'd have Windows plus any apps on your primary drive, and then any projects, files, documents on the second.

If you have any special preferences/settings for your apps that you don't want to lose, then I'd even go so far as putting you whole User folder on the second drive, so you don't lose any of that either (all of this is on top of your external and/or cloud backups).

 

[andrewwest275]

Most helpful

Thank you very much.