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The dear old outlaws bought us new PC last weekend, an AcerX3812 Pentium Dual, the card inside is an Intel GMAX4500. We want to use Photoshop but have been warned that the card is not good enough. Can any one recommend a good not too expensive card......over to Dave!

S

Quite the contrary. Photoshop itself is NOT a graphics-intensive program, as much as it uses the RAM/Processor.

Have you loaded Photoshop yet?

Give it a try with the onboard graphics that you have.

pointless wasting money on a new card if Photoshop is the most you want to do with it.

Have a look at the system requirements of Photoshop, and there is very little mention of graphics:

For Photoshop CS4:
* 1.8GHz or faster processor
* Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista)
* 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended) Or more.
* 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
* 1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
* Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0 (Your card supports Shader Model 4.0)
* DVD-ROM drive
* QuickTime 7.2 software required for multimedia features
* Broadband Internet connection required for online services*

Thanks Dave,
I will load it, the bumpf that came with the computer says that the card is not good for photo/video editing and gaming.

S

Simon,
It is at the low end of gaming graphics but picture editing needs more memory than graphics.

If Photoshop seems a bit slow, try disalbing some runninmg programs that are using memory. Disconnect from the web and turn off your AV and other security if need be.

But a new computer should have enough RAM for editing.

dave

Thanks for your help Dave!

S