Graphics impact on Photoshop 13.01
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-GPU-Acceleration-161/
As you can tell, beyond a certain GPU, there is diminishing returns unless OpenCL acceleration is used on an AMD card.
"Adobe Photoshop users no longer have to miss out on the GPU Compute Acceleration benefits previously available only to Adobe's video editing applications thanks to heavy inclusion of OpenCL support across their software and especially, enhancements made to
OpenCL performance in the recent
14.2 patch to Photoshop."
Now look what happens with OpenCL acceleration on AMD cards:
Smart Sharpen:
WIth OpenCL: 0.7s according to Photoshop's timer
Without OpenCL: 11.1.s according to Photoshop's timer (!)
Video with the steps as proof
RAM impact on Photoshop
Recommended RAM
109MB Image = 8GB
250MB Image = 16GB
500MB Image = 16GB
750MB Image = 24GB
1024MB Image = 32GB
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-Memory-Optimization-182/page4
CPU impact on Photoshop
"Most actions in Photoshop are either single threaded or lightly threaded. This means that you will get the exact same performance whether your system has two CPU cores or twenty CPU cores. For these actions, a CPU with a high operating frequency is key.
Multi-threaded actions hit a point of diminishing returns after around 6 CPU cores, and most completely stop improving after 8 CPU cores. This includes effects like color mode conversion, many blurs, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, and shadow/highlight. The best multi-threaded effect (converting to Lab Color mode) had a decent multi-threading efficiency of about 94%, but most of these effects had an efficiency closer to 80% which isn't so great.
One thing we want to point out is that the raw number of cores different Photoshop effects can utilize is only a starting point when choosing a CPU for Photoshop. Even though Photoshop may at times be able to use eight or even ten physical CPU cores, our testing has shown that it doesn't typically do so very effectively. Because higher core CPUs also tend to have lower operating frequencies, this means that the best CPU for Photoshop will be one with a moderate core count but a high operating frequency.
After examining the results of our testing, we believe that - of the Intel CPUs available at the time of this article - the following three models should give you the best possible performance in Photoshop CC:
Recommended CPUs for Photoshop CC
Intel Core i7 4790K 4.0GHz Quad Core 8MB 88W
or
Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz Quad Core 8MB 95W
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...formance-625/#SpeedTestMulti-threadingResults
Looking at your CPU, it has
a max turbo of 3.4Ghz. It's going to be very difficult to find a meaningful CPU upgrade for your
H67M motherboard. Therefore, I think you should save your $ here. If you needed a faster CPU, it would be better to sell your entire rig and start over fresh with a Skylake i5 6600K (or used i7 4790K) build and learn to overclock. That would give you the biggest improvement in Photoshop on the CPU front without breaking the bank.
Since the ONLY game you mentioned is SC2, let's take a look:
Anything above HD5870 maxes this game out on a 60Hz monitor:
Your CPU will also get close to 60 fps:
So, taking all of that into account:
$105 R7 260X accomplishes
all of the requirements - OpenCL Photoshop + class matching price/performance for games against 750Ti.
Total system power usage with an i7 4960X is just
222W, so your system will use way less power with an R7 260X:
If you want to play other more demanding games than StarCraft 2, you could step up to the
$150 R9 280:
-> Gives you OpenCL acceleration in Photoshop
-> Gives you 3GB of VRAM and the best price/performance for gaming out of any card out right now in this price range.
-> Comes with lifetime warranty for a safe peace of mind
-> Comes with the necessary power cables for your PSU
If you want something in between the R7 265 and R9 280, there is the
6-pin powered R7 270.
It costs $135, comes with lifetime warranty and as I provided above, the total system power usage will go up by just 17W (239 vs. 222).
Average performance of the R7 270 is about
27% faster than the 750TI but not as fast as the GTX950/R9 280.
If you are willing to step into the used card market, then of course cards like $80-100 HD7870/7950/GTX670/760 could provide a better bang for the buck against a $135 R7 270.