Sometime in the next 6 months, I expect to buy a new iMac. I am currently using PhotoLab version 3, although I don’t use the DAM features at all. When I purchase the new computer, I will need to decide whether or not to upgrade to a more powerful GPU.
Financial considerations aside, will I see any benefit from a more powerful GPU when using PhotoLab? If so, which operations are likely to result in noticeable improvement?
Thanks in advance for everyone’s input!
What hardware are you using now?
Late 2015 iMac with 27” 5K Retina monitor.
Intel Core i5 at 3.3 GHz. 24 GB RAM.
Mac OS 10.13.6.
Not too shabby, but I’m ready to move on…
If cost is of no concern, go for a maxed-out configuration. Otherwise, I’d skip investing in a gpu and make it an all ssd machine with lots of ram.
Note: On my 8-core 2019 iMac, I hear the fans quite often, basically every time on exporting images from DPL…
Today PL uses Metal for GPU operations for the local adjustments. No doubt that DxO will continue developing the use of GPU whenever it is possible. But today I do not see the necessity of buying an high end GPU. On the other side, I would not stay with the entry level model but go for something in between.
I second the hint from Platypus: enough RAM (32 Gb ?) and SSD only (no Fusion Drive) is the way to go. Then if you can get a bigger CPU.
I will update my iMac 5K late 2014 next week to SSD only using this precious help. I can’t wait to see the results.
I didn’t think PL used the GPU on a mac. Has that changed?
That could be my reason to upgrade from 2-3…
I can confirm that PL3 uses GPU for local adjustments. I don’t know about PL2 since I upgraded from PL1.
Having several local adjustments and repair tool usage could make my PL1 nearly unusable. That hasn’t happened for me with PL3. Even on my old MacBook Pro from 2012 which has no dedicated GPU (only Intel HD4000 graphics) the performance has improved a lot from PL1 to PL3 and the GPU load is displayed by MacOS.
Yes PL3 local adjustments was updated to better benefit from your GPU to display the masks, however this is not very computational intensive, so any GPU should do the job.
More interestingly, please note that the next versions of PL are very likely to benefit from powerful GPUs, and in a very significant way. I can’t spoil more though.
According to the GPUs available in current iMacs, you can choose between (performance value from videocardbenchmark.net between parentheses):
I would not recommend anything below score 6000, and higher choices is more a matter of cost. Radeon Pro 580X is already performing very well in our tests.