Upgrade my old rig for my wife to run Lightroom

ssb1551

Technomancer
Hello All,

My wife is a photographer. She wants to edit pics using Adobe Lightroom. I went through Adobe's official website to check for System Hardware. Based on that I want to upgrade my "Rig 2" in my signature. It has an old processor - AMD Athlon II X4 635 - and GPU - XFX Radeon HD 4650. I understand I should upgrade the GPU to something newer & more powerful (thinking of AMD RX 470). Also I gotta save & get a Professional Monitor.

What I am confused about is - Should I upgrade the CPU to Ryzen (in which case I have to buy new MoBo & DDR4 RAM) or just upgrade the CPU to AMD FX 8300 (8 cores & I get to keep the MoBo & DDR3 RAM)? Can anyone please help me in the confusion?

Thanks in advance to read and reply!
 

nac

Aspiring Novelist
If you have lightroom, install and see. I think LR can run even with iGPU.
 

ico

Super Moderator
Staff member
If you want a budget upgrade, even the Intel Pentium G4560 with built-in GPU that retails for ₹5K is a substantial upgrade over both your CPU and GPU.

ssb1551 said:
What I am confused about is - Should I upgrade the CPU to Ryzen (in which case I have to buy new MoBo & DDR4 RAM) or just upgrade the CPU to AMD FX 8300 (8 cores & I get to keep the MoBo & DDR3 RAM)? Can anyone please help me in the confusion?

For an expensive upgrade, get Ryzen. No question here.

Which motherboard you have anyway? Asking because FX-8300 is a power hog. Ryzen on the other hand is even more power efficient than Intel.
 
OP
ssb1551

ssb1551

Technomancer
Which motherboard you have anyway? Asking because FX-8300 is a power hog. Ryzen on the other hand is even more power efficient than Intel.

I have MSI 970A-G43 Motherboard. Present CPU is AMD Athlon II X4 635. Everything is mentioned in my signature.
 

ico

Super Moderator
Staff member
I have MSI 970A-G43 Motherboard. Present CPU is AMD Athlon II X4 635. Everything is mentioned in my signature.
That motherboard won't be able to handle 8 core Piledriver. FX-8300 is too power hungry.
 

ZTR

Cyborg Agent
That motherboard won't be able to handle 8 core Piledriver. FX-8300 is too power hungry.
It might be able to handle it as long as he doesn't OC
Also 8300 is a 95W TDP chip unlike 8350
Also I have the same MoBo and it runs Phenom II X4 955 BE without any issues and that is a 125W TDP CPU

Sent from my Redmi Note 3
 

ico

Super Moderator
Staff member
It might be able to handle it as long as he doesn't OC
Also 8300 is a 95W TDP chip unlike 8350
Also I have the same MoBo and it runs Phenom II X4 955 BE without any issues and that is a 125W TDP CPU
Might have worked well for you, but MSI 970A-G43 was one hated motherboard because of its VRMs.

You can just google '970A-G43 VRMs' to see. But yea, Piledriver CPUs were not as power hungry as Phenom II, that's true.
 

bssunilreddy

Chosen of the Omnissiah
Hello All,

My wife is a photographer. She wants to edit pics using Adobe Lightroom. I went through Adobe's official website to check for System Hardware. Based on that I want to upgrade my "Rig 2" in my signature. It has an old processor - AMD Athlon II X4 635 - and GPU - XFX Radeon HD 4650. I understand I should upgrade the GPU to something newer & more powerful (thinking of AMD RX 470). Also I gotta save & get a Professional Monitor.

What I am confused about is - Should I upgrade the CPU to Ryzen (in which case I have to buy new MoBo & DDR4 RAM) or just upgrade the CPU to AMD FX 8300 (8 cores & I get to keep the MoBo & DDR3 RAM)? Can anyone please help me in the confusion?

Thanks in advance to read and reply!
If your wife wants to edit pics via Lightroom then even Intel Pentium G4560 is enough. I don't think you need more horse power.

Upgrade your 2nd Rig with this:
Intel Pentium G4560 -4500,
Gigabyte GA-H110M-D3H -4500,
Corsair Value Select 8GB 2133Mhz -4000.
Total -13,000.

You don't need the GPU also. The iGPU is more than sufficient.

Sent from my Lenovo K33a42 using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
OP
ssb1551

ssb1551

Technomancer
It might be able to handle it as long as he doesn't OC
Also 8300 is a 95W TDP chip unlike 8350
Also I have the same MoBo and it runs Phenom II X4 955 BE without any issues and that is a 125W TDP CPU

Sent from my Redmi Note 3

I checked online too - 8300 is a 95W & 8350 is 125W. [MENTION=26711]ico[/MENTION] is right about the VRM of this Motherboard. I googled & found so many posts and threads on tomshardware & anandtech about that. That is why I chose a 95W TDP CPU.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks bssunilreddy, ico & ZTR for your valuable suggestions. I forgot to mention that she will also do a little bit of video editing (snip video parts, add some effects & so on) - gotta ask her what softwares will she use for that. I guess for video editing I'll have to get a discrete GPU. I guess Ryzen seems to be the way now that video editing has come to picture, am I right?
 

bssunilreddy

Chosen of the Omnissiah
I checked online too - 8300 is a 95W & 8350 is 125W. [MENTION=26711]ico[/MENTION] is right about the VRM of this Motherboard. I googled & found so many posts and threads on tomshardware & anandtech about that. That is why I chose a 95W TDP CPU.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks bssunilreddy, ico & ZTR for your valuable suggestions. I forgot to mention that she will also do a little bit of video editing (snip video parts, add some effects & so on) - gotta ask her what softwares will she use for that. I guess for video editing I'll have to get a discrete GPU. I guess Ryzen seems to be the way now that video editing has come to picture, am I right?
If you intend to go the Ryzen way, then wait for R5 series.

AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs Arriving on 11th April in Flagship Ryzen 5 1600X and 1500X Flavor

Sent from my Lenovo K33a42 using Tapatalk
 
OP
ssb1551

ssb1551

Technomancer
I was just about to post that :D hehe. Should I wait for Ryzen 5 or not? But you beat me to that :p. But bssunilreddy - my question remains - now that video editing has come into picture should I stick to your suggestion of Pentium G processor or go the Ryzen 7/5 way (based on my budget)?
 

ico

Super Moderator
Staff member
^ 4/6-core Ryzen would be cost effective. Wait for a month and see.
 
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