Bare minimum to run Adobe Photoshop CS4?

Hey guys, I'm helping my friend pick out an HP laptops for his mom. She's a beginner Photoshop CS4 user. I don't use Photoshop very often but when I do, it's on my own laptop, which is pretty decent in terms of specifications. The HP laptop's we are looking at are 13.3 inch (dm3t,dm3z), and they use low voltage processors.

The HP dm3t will have the Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.3GHz,3M Cache) with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

The HP dm3z will have the AMD Turion Neo X2 Dual-Core L625 (1.6GHz, 1MB) with ATI Radeon HD 3200

Will either one be able to sufficiently run Photoshop CS4? And if so, which one would be better suited for the job? The dm3t (which uses Intel CULV processors) is the more expensive of the two.

Thanks!

 

Well both are dual core and will run PS CS4. The Intel is the better processor. CS4 makes some use of the graphic card but only for some transformations I think.

In short. Both will run CS4 and only when you are handling large images or transformations will you run into some waiting time. Make sure you have at least 2GB RAM and a fast hard disk will help too (7200rpm).

Look at other criteria also. I think the Intel should have better battery life for example.

 

They can both run it.

photoshop likes ram for doing most things but you didnt post ram stats. More ram = better.

When rendering and doing filters and stuff cpu comes into play, the 1.3ghz intel is probably faster than the 1.6ghz AMD even though its a lower clock speed, but the HD3200 is better than the 4500 but that does not really matter as photoshop doesnt make much use of a gpu at all.

Infact CS4 is the first and only photoshop to use gpu acceleration so far, and this could easily fool people into thinking now its important to have a good dedicated card but with research you will find its only a couple of new features that support the gpu acceleration. Canvas Rotate, Zooming, and thats really about it.

So the first choice is the better one probably, but I think there are many much better laptop choices to be had still in the same price range. Also photoshop at the very base level should have one thing.

A big screen, with a high resolution, and as accurate as possible colors. A 13.3" laptop is far from ideal for photoshoping. Small screen and low resolution on that screen.

Im a semi-pro photoshoper even a 1920x1200 screen makes me want more I love my tri-monitor setup at home now. BTW wave is using one of the images I photoshoped that nbr apple logo is one I made almost a year ago.

 

I ran CS4 fine with my T5470 and 2GB ram. Believe it or not, the SU7300 is actually faster than my T5470, even being a low-voltage CPU.

That being said, I'll be enjoying it much more when my new laptop arrives, but those specs (assuming 2GB+ of RAM) should be more than sufficient to run CS4 at a decent level.

 

I ran CS3/CS4 for 4 years on a Single Core AMD 2.2GHz CPU and 1GB of ram. It was slow to load but other than that worked fine for me.

 

Just go to the Adobe web site and look for the requirement in order for CS4 to run 'adequately'. If you fulfill this minimum requirement then it's only a matter of affordability. A laptop can run the program but some faster than others. Speed is sometimes an issue but a few secs to millisecs won't dent your workflow.

 

True but the speed loss is exponential when you start working on larger files and running more advanced filters.

Again the screen resolution and size would be the major downfall in my opinion between those two laptops. Working in photoshop on a small low res screen is like driving a car with one eye closed, you can only see half as much at one time. And while you may know that would be a huge handicap in your driving ability I can assure you it is in photoshop too.

 

thanks guys, for the information! we might go for the AMD processor, since it's a good amount cheaper than the Intel. But the intel does have better battery life and better performance. either way, I think both will come with 3GB of RAM, and if need be, we will self upgrade them to 4GB.

as i have said before, she's a beginner Photoshopper, so a huge screen resolution and color accuracy don't rate very high on her list

what's important is that she can run photoshop on these laptops, then carry that lightweight and compact laptop to her photoshop class.

thanks for the help again

 

Viciousxusmc, what other laptops in the 13.3-14.1 inch category would you recommend at this price range (being 600-700 bucks)?

 

If you can afford it, try going for a notebook with a better processor than the ones listed. Photoshop doesn't require a good GPU at all, but it likes RAM and CPU. Optimally, Photoshop wants 3GB RAM, and a good dual core, preferably 2.53Ghz or higher.

 

The op is talking about budget and being an amateur. You're describing a system meant for advanced amateurs and power users. Todays LED screens are vibrant compared to CCFL LCD's. I do know that CS4 loves to have lots of pagefile space. Even if you have 8gb of RAM you'll still get a low memory warning if you stiffle the pagefile settings. Office Depot sells the dm3 models with 4gb RAM with AMD Neo processors.