Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

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jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi,

I use a PC with:
-CPU: intel core i7 7800X [clock freq. 3.5GHz/4GHz, 6 cores, socket 2066];
-RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 DIMM 16 GB - 2 x 8 GB 2666MHz [2.666MT/s];
-Solid state drive: Samsung 970 EVO 250GB NVMe M.2 [M.2 80mm, 3d v-nand (TLC), PCI-e 3.0 x4, 3.400MB/s read (seq), 1.500 write (seq)];

The memory is fully used and the SSD capacity is too small for Photoshop ‘stacking’ 70 RAW photos (91.300Kb per photo). The processor nor a graphics card don’t seem to be a bottleneck. Or I’m wrong?
(how) Do you know if a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB and a Corsair Vennegeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3600MHz are sufficient for Photoshop ‘stacking’ 300 RAW photos?

Indented upgrade components:
-RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 DIMM 32 GB - 2 x 16 GB 3600MHz [3.600MT/s];
-SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB [M.2 80mm, 3d v-nand (TLC), PCI-e 3.0 x4, 3.500MB/s read (seq), 3.300 write (seq)];

FYI: I'm using the latest (non subscription, free trial) Photoshop (Ps), Lightroom (Lr) and Lightroom Classic (LrC) versions.

Regards,
Jac B

Adalbert
Posts: 2426
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by Adalbert »

Hi Jac,
Do you have any problem with the performance of the stacking of the 300 shots a 10MB ?
BTW, PS is not the best software for the stacking!
BR, ADi

jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi ADi,
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:54 am
Do you have any problem with the performance of the stacking of the 300 shots a 10MB ?
I could't and didn't try 'stacking' 300 RAW photos, because the PC already failed Photoshop ‘stacking’ 70 RAW photos (91.300Kb per photo). Thats why I ask for upgrade help. Do you have (an) upgrade suggestion(s)?
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:54 am
BTW, PS is not the best software for the stacking!
Can You explain why, because I viewed a video (https://www.makro-treff.de/de/article/f ... ht-gemacht) where is told that PS stacks the most clean and only after PS doesn't give the wished result, try Zerene Stacker or Helicon Focus.

Regards,
Jac

Adalbert
Posts: 2426
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by Adalbert »

Hi Jac,
As far as I can see you don’t have any problem with your PC but with PS :-)
PS is really good for the retouching but not for the stacking.
You can download and test Zerene Stacker (or Helicon Focus) and check your PC.
BTW, I have already calculated with Zerene stacks based on more than 1500 single shots (TIFF – files a 184 MB )
BR, ADi

jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi ADi,
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:46 am
As far as I can see you don’t have any problem with your PC but with PS :-)
Thanks for clarifying. That is good news.
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:46 am
PS is really good for the retouching but not for the stacking.
You can download and test Zerene Stacker (or Helicon Focus) and check your PC.
Thanks. When you say Ps, do you mean Lr and LrC as well or not good for pre- and post- processing?
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:46 am
BTW, I have already calculated with Zerene stacks based on more than 1500 single shots (TIFF – files a 184 MB )
That are a lot of files and MB's.
Your TIFF example raises another question, about the photo pre-, stack- and post- processing workflow, namely: (how) is it possible to: 1) pre proces in (Nikon) RAW, 2) convert RAW to Zerene-format, 3) Stack processing, 4) convert Zerene-format to RAW, 5) post proces in RAW? Which tool(s) are best use for the conversion and what will be the resulting RAW-format?

Regards,
Jac

Adalbert
Posts: 2426
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by Adalbert »

Hi Jac,

I don’t recommend anything but I only can describe my workflow:
- taking of the photographs in RAW
- developing and conversion of the RAW-files into the TIFF 16 bit by LR
- calculation of the stack by Zerene
- final retouching by PS / Topaz
- resizing for the WEB by WebSharpener

BTW, your PC is good enough for the stacks based on 300 picts :-)
But for the future you will probably need a second SSD :-(

BR, ADi

jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi ADi,
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:49 am
I don’t recommend anything but I only can describe my workflow:
- taking of the photographs in RAW
- developing and conversion of the RAW-files into the TIFF 16 bit by LR
- calculation of the stack by Zerene
- final retouching by PS / Topaz
- resizing for the WEB by WebSharpener
Thanks
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:49 am
But for the future you will probably need a second SSD :-(
Why, a second SSD for processing or for final storage?

Regards,
Jac

Adalbert
Posts: 2426
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by Adalbert »

Hi Jac,
Both :-), because you have only a small 250GB SSD (probably with Windows).
BR, ADi

jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi ADi,
Adalbert wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:14 am
Both :-), because you have only a small 250GB SSD (probably with Windows).
Thanks for helping. Yes, indeed Windows.

Regards,
Jac

Bakwetu
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2020 6:32 pm

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by Bakwetu »

You have a 2066-system with i7-7800x and that system uses 4 channels of DDR4, instead of "normal" 2 channels. You do have 8 ram slots on the motherboard right?
The best thing would be to add 2 more identical DDR modules to the ones you already have, or buy 4 new modules if you want faster memory speed. The official ram speed support for the 2066 is DDR4 2666/2400 (only 2400 for the Intel 7800x cpu) so DDR4-3600 is not officially supported, but I have seen people using ram speeds of 3000 and over at least. You will need to go into the bios and select using XMP-profile for the ram to run at its full speed.

jac B
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:01 am

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by jac B »

Hi Bakwetu,

Thanks for your explanation, suggestion.
Bakwetu wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:56 am
You do have 8 ram slots on the motherboard right?
Correct.
Bakwetu wrote:
Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:56 am
The best thing would be to add 2 more identical DDR modules to the ones you already have, or buy 4 new modules if you want faster memory speed. The official ram speed support for the 2066 is DDR4 2666/2400 (only 2400 for the Intel 7800x cpu) so DDR4-3600 is not officially supported, but I have seen people using ram speeds of 3000 and over at least. You will need to go into the bios and select using XMP-profile for the ram to run at its full speed.
Where in Windows 10 can I check (not change) with which DDR4 ram speed the i7-7800X (2066 socket) is actually running?

Which intel motherboards/systems/sockets/processors officially support DDR4-3600?

Regards,
Jac

chris_ma
Posts: 570
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:23 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Q: RAM and SSD PC upgrade for Photoshop stacking

Post by chris_ma »

In my experience from other process intensive tasks, RAM speed (and matching RAM modules) is not that critical.
It‘s nice to have and you might gain a few percent speed increase, but it‘s not worth spending a lot of money on.

Having enough RAM can be really important and speed up things significantly (as can having a fast SSD and or course CPU), so this is where I would invest my money.

I never really tested speed on stacking software though, so others here will have more insight on that.
chris

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