# Lets talk desktop vs laptop for Lightroom and Photoshop



## JBrown

I recently started trying the "Brenizer Method" or "Bokeh Panoramas" and has brought my computer to its knees. I was looking at the upgrade path for both and it almost seems a new laptop might be cheaper.

Example:

Cost to upgrade current computer:

I7 3770k - $320
Mobo - 130
32 Gig ram - 200

Approximately $600 or so for upgrade. Of course I already have case/hds/vid card etc so that stays the same. In the end this obviously gets me the fastest and best photo editing platform. However compare it to a laptop.

Lenovo Y500 Series:
I7
8 Gig ram - Obviously less ram but could be upgraded
GTX 660m - Faster video card then my current

Cost approximately $900

Obviously the cost is not exactly equal, but there are lower speced laptops at around $700 that just have integrated video, but same processor and ram. My hesitation is that for a little bit extra I gain similar speed (desktop will be faster no matter what) along with portability of a laptop. My biggest concern is heat from the laptop and longevity of the system. Has anyone made the switch? Do people keep both? Thoughts in general?


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## Mike_E

The memory and CPU are not as important as through-put.  Otherwise called bus speed.

It's unlikely that any laptop will keep up with a desktop with quality motherboard with comparable CPU and memory.  Also a good GPU will speed things along too which is much easier to get on a desktop.


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## SCraig

Laptops are not the best platforms for editing.  Unless you place your laptop in exactly the same position, under exactly the same light, with the screen angled exactly the same way then the results will not be consistent.  If you go that route I'd strongly recommend using your desktop monitor.


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## nmoody

I think you should upgrade the desktop, but I wouldn't bother with 32gb of ram, stick with 16gb and put it toward a better video card if that's lacking


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## 49medic

Unless you need portability, stick with a desktop. If you put a load on the system, it warms up (a lot). Like everyone already said, bus speed is important, but for 2d desktop applications, a basic video card will work. I must disagree about the processor, though. For things like desktop apps like photoshop etc., the processor, bus speed, and memory are important. The only time you will see an improvement from a GPU is if you are rendering games or running a linux workstation and clustering the GPUs for engineering/math/physics computations using specialized software. Or if your card is just that old. 

Also, 32gb is overkill, like nmoody said. Make sure that its about 1600MHz, because if you throw slower memory in there, it will be quite pointless.

Also, being an avid computer geek, I kinndly insist that you take full advantage of your unlocked i7. An unlocked processor is a terrible thing to waste


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## 49medic

Sorry, I misread Mike_E. Disregard my disagreement.


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## Patriot

I say get a desktop so you can upgrade later on down the road. A laptop is very limited to upgrades. Heck I'm saving up to build my own computer one day.


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## JBrown

Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.


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## rexbobcat

JBrown said:


> Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.



Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.

I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM


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## manaheim

This is really very simple...

Laptops cost more for equivelent capabilities... WHEN you can get equivelents... and often you cannot.  Want a 24" IPS panel on your laptop?  Not going to happen.

If portability is critical, go laptop, else go desktop.


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## Garbz

Mike_E said:


> The memory and CPU are not as important as through-put.  Otherwise called bus speed.



I respectfully disagree. Once you run out of memory you are crippled. We're talking 3 orders of magnitude performance hit. No amount of throughput will help you recover from this. 
Your bus speed becomes important when there's a lot of memory read and writes. But ultimately a faster CPU will still beat in performance a faster bus with the same CPU.


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## Fox_Racing_Guy

49medic said:


> Also, being an avid computer geek, I kinndly insist that you take full advantage of your unlocked i7. An unlocked processor is a terrible thing to waste



^ This! 
If you have a Micro Center close by you can save $100 on a 3770K Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 Processor 407643 - Micro Center


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## Patriot

Is a i7 extreme chip over kill for multi media editing?


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## Mike_E

Garbz said:


> Mike_E said:
> 
> 
> 
> The memory and CPU are not as important as through-put.  Otherwise called bus speed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I respectfully disagree. Once you run out of memory you are crippled. We're talking 3 orders of magnitude performance hit. No amount of throughput will help you recover from this.
> Your bus speed becomes important when there's a lot of memory read and writes. But ultimately a faster CPU will still beat in performance a faster bus with the same CPU.
Click to expand...



  You forgot this part.. "motherboard with comparable CPU and memory".

Yes, 16 gigs of memory is far better than 2.  A 3ghz multi-core is better than a 4ghz single core- especially if you can overclock the multi a bit.

Apples to apples though a desktop's through put will far outperform a laptop- mid-range desktop to mid-range laptop, top end desktop to top end laptop.  Apples to apples.

I agree that 16 g of 1600 DDR3 memory is plenty and no you don't need a gamer quality video card, I would go for the best motherboard you can afford.  I've had very good luck with Asus and shopping with Tiger Direct if that helps.



BTW if you're only doing one thing with the computer a single core is OK,  Multi cores are mainly for multi tasking.


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## JBrown

rexbobcat said:


> JBrown said:
> 
> 
> 
> Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.
> 
> I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM
Click to expand...


Itll get the job done, but I get the error message system is out of ram and everything but photoshop crashes out. Of course im loading Raw files into the program, going to mess around with jpegs today and see if that fixes the issue.


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## JBrown

Fox_Racing_Guy said:


> 49medic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Also, being an avid computer geek, I kinndly insist that you take full advantage of your unlocked i7. An unlocked processor is a terrible thing to waste
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^ This!
> If you have a Micro Center close by you can save $100 on a 3770K Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz LGA 1155 Processor 407643 - Micro Center
Click to expand...


Ya I saw that deal. It amazes me how Microcenter can be $100 cheaper than everyone else. Unfortunately nowhere even close to me.


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## imagemaker46

I use both for all my photo editing, however I do 99% on the laptop.  I'm not a tech guy and for me whatever works to suit the job I have to do is all that matters. I do agree that a desktop is fair easier to  self-upgrade, but I do have a computer person that does mine when needed.


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## Garbz

rexbobcat said:


> JBrown said:
> 
> 
> 
> Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.
> 
> I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM
Click to expand...


It sounds like you simply haven't been enlightened. Autopano Giga uses any ram you throw at it. I thought I was doing fairly well with my small panoramas and 4GB of ram. It didn't take too long to render. When I upped it to 16GB it used all 16GB and got MUCH faster for those same small panoramas. 

Panorama programs and image stacking programs seem to love the memory.


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## rexbobcat

Garbz said:


> rexbobcat said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> JBrown said:
> 
> 
> 
> Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.
> 
> I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> It sounds like you simply haven't been enlightened. Autopano Giga uses any ram you throw at it. I thought I was doing fairly well with my small panoramas and 4GB of ram. It didn't take too long to render. When I upped it to 16GB it used all 16GB and got MUCH faster for those same small panoramas.
> 
> Panorama programs and image stacking programs seem to love the memory.
Click to expand...


I know. 

But it's weird that his computer is telling that he ran out of RAM. I've never had that problem before when I used PS to stitch large panoramas.

The only time I've found RAM to be a true bottleneck that can crash a program is when I'm rendering an HD file in After Effects.


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## Mike_E

JBrown said:


> rexbobcat said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> JBrown said:
> 
> 
> 
> Only reason I even consider 32 gigs is because im loading 40 photos at once for the panoramic.  I guess I can start with 16 and see how it does. My 8 gig computer crashes from running out of ram right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.
> 
> I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Itll get the job done, but I get the error message system is out of ram and everything but photoshop crashes out. Of course im loading Raw files into the program, going to mess around with jpegs today and see if that fixes the issue.
Click to expand...



Does it say RAM or memory?

If memory have you cleaned out the folder where PS puts it's temp files?


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## eltebe

Desktop anytime unless you have to use pc in other places then home. Even then you might use remote desktop if proper connection is available. More power for less $.


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## lonerunner

Mike_E said:


> JBrown said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> rexbobcat said:
> 
> 
> 
> Really? That sounds like an issue with that particular program or maybe drivers.
> 
> I've been loading (very slowly mind you) 50 photos into Autopano Giga with 4GB 800 MHz RAM
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Itll get the job done, but I get the error message system is out of ram and everything but photoshop crashes out. Of course im loading Raw files into the program, going to mess around with jpegs today and see if that fixes the issue.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> Does it say RAM or memory?
> 
> If memory have you cleaned out the folder where PS puts it's temp files?
Click to expand...


I was going to ask similar thing, are you sure it says you are going out of RAM, or maybe HDD space or maybe swap space photoshop use. When i use photoshop to load huge files and i have 4gb ram, it takes out all 4 gb ram and than start taking hdd space to fill out for missing ram. I had problems earlier when i had small hdd and small free space on it. It takes all space on hdd and everything freeze until i close photoshop. Now i have 2 250gb hdd's in raid and photoshop sometime can take up to 20gb on hdd and other things will work normal.


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## Garbz

32bit or 64bit version of Photoshop?

My biggest gripe with Deep Sky Stacker is that it is a 32bit program. Not a problem for most astronomy cameras, but the D800's 36mpxl files are too large to stack due to architecture limitations.


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