Skip to content

Main Navigation

Puget Systems Logo
  • Solutions
    • Recommended Systems For:
    • Content Creation
      • Photo Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe Lightroom Classic
        • Adobe Photoshop
      • Video Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe After Effects
        • Adobe Premiere Pro
        • DaVinci Resolve
        • Foundry Nuke
      • 3D Design and Animation
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk 3ds Max
        • Autodesk Maya
        • Blender
        • Cinema 4D
        • Houdini
        • ZBrush
      • Real-Time Engines
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Game Development
        • Unity
        • Unreal Engine
        • Virtual Production
      • Rendering
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • OctaneRender
        • Redshift
        • V-Ray
      • Digital Audio
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Ableton Live
        • FL Studio
        • Pro Tools
    • Engineering
      • CAD
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk AutoCAD
        • Autodesk Inventor
        • Autodesk Revit
        • SOLIDWORKS
      • Photogrammetry
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • ArcGIS Pro
        • Agisoft Metashape
        • Pix4D
        • RealityCapture
    • Scientific Computing
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Data Science
      • Machine Learning / AI
      • Scientific Computing
    • More
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Compact Size
      • Live Streaming
      • NVIDIA RTX Studio
      • Quiet Operation
      • Virtual Reality
  • Products
    • Intel Core i7 & i9
      Workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 & i9 processors on Z690 and Z790 chipsets
    • AMD Ryzen 7 & 9
      Workstations with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors on B650 and X670 chipsets
    • AMD Threadripper PRO
      Workstations with AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX processors on the WRX80 chipset
    • Intel Xeon W
      Workstations with Intel Xeon W 3300 processors on the C621E chipset
    • Rackmount & Server
      Servers and workstations in rackmount chassis
    • Custom Computers
      Customize a desktop workstation from scratch
    • Custom Servers
      Customize a rackmount server from scratch
    • QNAP Network Attached Storage
      Check out our external storage options as an authorized reseller for QNAP
    • Recommended Third Party Peripherals
      View our list of recommended peripherals to use with your new PC
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • HPC Blog
    • Blog Posts
    • Case Studies
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Support Articles
    • Warranty Details
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Press Kit
    • Testimonials
    • Careers
  • Talk to an Expert
  • My Account
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Hardware Articles
  4. /
  5. Photoshop CC 2019: NVIDIA GeForce RTX Performance

Photoshop CC 2019: NVIDIA GeForce RTX Performance

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Matt Bach
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on October 31, 2018. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup & Methodology
  • Benchmark Results
  • Benchmark Analysis
  • Are the RTX video cards good for Photoshop CC 2019?

Introduction

Photoshop CC 2019 adds a bunch of new features, but there is very little mentioned in the update notes about there being any significant performance improvements. At the same time, NVIDIA's new RTX GPUs are now available, but as we saw in our previous Photoshop CC 2018: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 & 2080 Ti Performance article, Photoshop currently doesn't really need all the power that these cards have.

So why are we publishing another round of tests looking at the RTX cards in Photoshop? Well, there are three things that have changed since our previous article came out:

  1. Photoshop CC 2019 has launched
  2. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GPU is now available
  3. The Intel Core i9 9900K 8 Core CPU is now available which is 16% faster than the i7 8700K in Photoshop

To be honest, we don't expect any of these to really change our conclusions, but the more things change, the more likely we are to be surprised by something we didn't expect. So, it is time to update our Photoshop CC GPU testing with the latest hardware and software.

If you would like to skip over our test setup and benchmark result/analysis sections, feel free to jump right to the Conclusion section.

Test Setup & Methodology

Listed below is the test platform we will be using in our testing:

Test Hardware
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi 
CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K 8 Core
3.6GHz (5.0GHz Turbo)
RAM: 4x DDR4-2666 16GB (64GB total)
Hard Drive: Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 PCI-E x4 NVMe SSD
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Software: Photoshop CC 2019 (ver. 20.0.0)

To see how the new RTX cards perform in Photoshop, we tested it against a selection of cards from NVIDIA and AMD as well as the integrated Intel UHD 630 graphics that is built into the Core i9 9900K.

Test Video Cards  
Intel UHD 630 1024MB Gigabyte Radeon RX VEGA 64 GAMING OC 8G
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB NVIDA Titan XP 12GB
NVIDIA Titan V 12GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB

For the testing itself, we will be using version 18.10 of our Puget Systems Photoshop CC 2019 Benchmark which is currently available for public download. This benchmark tests a range of general tasks (open/save, resize, content aware fill, etc.), filters, as well as panorama photomerge. Not all of these tasks are GPU accelerated, however, so in this article we will primarily be looking at just the tasks that are as well as the combined "GPU Score" from these tasks. Full details on the benchmark are available on the benchmark download page.

Benchmark Results

While our benchmark presents various scores based on the performance of each task, we also wanted to provide the individual result for each task in case there is a specific task someone may be interested in. Tests that are directly utilizing the GPU are marked in blue, but feel free to skip to the next section for our analysis of these results.

Benchmark Analysis

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 2080 2070 Photoshop CC 2019 8-bit benchmark

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 2080 2070 Photoshop CC 2019 16-bit benchmark

Our Photoshop Benchmark includes a large number of tasks that don't utilize the GPU, but there are five tasks in our benchmark that should show a benefit to having a more powerful GPU. Along with all the other tasks, these are run in both 8 Bits/Channel and 16 Bits/Channel mode and make up the two GPU scores of our benchmark.

If you like big, drastic performance differences, you will be disappointed. Almost any dedicated GPU is going to be way faster than the integrated graphics on the Intel Core i9 9900K, but once you get to a mid-range card, there really isn't much to gain from using a more powerful GPU. Technically, the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti are the fastest GPUs we have ever tested for Photoshop and the RTX 2070 is only 2% slower than them… but even the GTX 1070 kept up with them. To be fair, this isn't the fault of these cards at all, it is simply the fact that Photoshop is typically much more CPU-limited even when we are using the Core i9 9900K which is the fastest CPU for Photoshop currently available.

Are the RTX video cards good for Photoshop CC 2019?

Since Photoshop is relatively light in the way of GPU acceleration, the RTX 2070, 2080 and 2080 Ti probably aren't worth purchasing simply for their raw performance. They are technically among the fastest GPUs we have ever tested for Photoshop, but they are only 8% faster than a humble GTX 1060.

Something to keep in mind is that while the RTX GPUs are not necessary for Photoshop today, there is a chance that they will be better in the future. These cards have new types of cores (RT and Tensor cores) that could potentially have significant performance advantages for some tasks. Or, they might never be used in Photoshop at all. It really comes down to whether or not the Photoshop developers are willing or able to make effectively use of these new features. With how much Adobe is investing in Machine Learning with their Adobe Sensei program, our guess is that at least the Tensor cores will eventually be leveraged in some way, but whether it will happen in Photoshop CC 2020 or Photoshop CC 2030 is unknown at the moment.

Overall, the RTX cards are likely more powerful than you would ever need for Photoshop, but if you already need a high-end GPU for other applications (Premiere Pro, GPU-based rendering, etc.) we would highly recommend using one of these RTX cards over the older GTX series if possible. Exactly which GPU to choose, however, it going to be largely decided by those other applications rather than Photoshop.

If you are interested in how the RTX cards perform in other applications, be sure to check out our recent Video Card articles as we have a number of other articles for the RTX series GPUs.

CTA Image
Photoshop Workstations

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Related Content

  • Intel Xeon W-3400 Content Creation Preview
  • NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada vs RTX A6000 for Content Creation
  • GPU Rendering: NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Performance
  • Unreal Engine: NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Performance
View All Related Content

Latest Content

  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
  • Samsung 990 Pro Critical Firmware Update
View All
Tags: 1060, 1070, 1070 Ti, 1080, 1080Ti, 2070, 2080, 2080 Ti, GeForce, Intel UHD 630, Photoshop, Radeon, RTX, Vega

Who is Puget Systems?

Puget Systems builds custom PCs tailored for your workflow

Extensive in-house testing
making you more productive and giving you more performance for your dollar

Reliable workstations
with fewer crashes and blue screens means more time working, less time waiting on your computer

Support that understands
your complex workflows and can get you back up and running ASAP

Proven track record
check out our customer testimonials and Reseller Ratings

Get Started

Browse Our Workstations

Fractal Design Define 7 Chassis with Puget Systems Logo

Select your workflow:

Content Creation
Engineering
Scientific Computing
More

Latest Articles

  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
  • Samsung 990 Pro Critical Firmware Update
  • How To Use Linux Kernel Boot Options
View All

Post navigation

 Does DaVinci Resolve Studio 15.1.2 support NVLink?After Effects CC 2019: NVIDIA GeForce RTX Performance 
Puget Systems Logo
Build Your Own PC Site Map FAQ
facebook instagram linkedin rss twitter youtube

Optimized Solutions

  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Solidworks
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Machine Learning

Workstations

  • Content Creation
  • Engineering
  • Scientific PCs
  • More

Support

  • Online Guides
  • Request Support
  • Remote Help

Publications

  • All News
  • Puget Blog
  • HPC Blog
  • Hardware Articles
  • Case Studies

Policies

  • Warranty & Return
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Accessibility

About Us

  • Testimonials
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

© Copyright 2023 - Puget Systems, All Rights Reserved.