Adobe Photoshop CS4 Performance

To measure performance under Photoshop CS4 we turn to the Retouch Artists’ Speed Test. The test does basic photo editing; there are a couple of color space conversions, many layer creations, color curve adjustment, image and canvas size adjustment, unsharp mask, and finally a gaussian blur performed on the entire image.

The whole process is timed and thanks to the use of Intel's X25-M SSD as our test bed hard drive, performance is far more predictable than back when we used to test on mechanical disks.

Time is reported in seconds and the lower numbers mean better performance. The test is multithreaded and can hit all four cores in a quad-core machine.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Retouch Artists Speed Test

Hyper Threading does have a real benefit in Photoshop and thus we see the Core i5 750 suffering a bit. It's still faster than the Phenom II 965 BE but it is marginally slower than the i7 920. The 870 is bested only by the i7 975.

SYSMark 2007 Performance Video Encoding Performance
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  • Gary Key - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link

    Actually the manufacturers wanted Clarkdale desperately for the school/holiday shopping seasons. It is delayed as they are still debugging the platform, unofficially I think that means the drivers are not ready. ;) Believe me, if we had a stable Clarkdale platform worthy of a preview, you would have read about it already.
  • justme2009 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link

    You are incorrect sir. The manufacturers were complaining to Intel that they couldn't get rid of the current stock before Intel released mobile Nehalem, so Intel caved.

    http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16152">http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16152

    http://www.techspot.com/news/33065-notebook-vendor...">http://www.techspot.com/news/33065-note...-pushing...

    http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articl...">http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articl...

    http://gizmodo.com/5123632/notebook-makers-want-in...">http://gizmodo.com/5123632/notebook-mak...o-delay-...

    Needless to say, I'm waiting for mobile Nehalem (clarkdale/arrendale). With a 32nm manufacturing process, plus starting in 2010, Intel will begin to move both the northbridge and southbridge chips onto the processor die. The move should complete some time around 2011 as far as I can tell.
    It will be far better than what we have today, and I'm really ticked off at the manufacturers for holding back progress because of their profit margin.
  • Gary Key - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link

    I spoke directly with the manufacturers, not unnamed sources. The story is quite different than the rumors that were posted. I will leave it at that until we product for review.
  • justme2009 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link

    Of course the manufacturers wouldn't fess up to it. It's bad business, and it makes them look bad. It already angered a great many people. I don't think they are rumors at all.
  • justme2009 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - link

    Personally I'm holding off on buying a new system until the northbridge/southbridge migration to the processor die is complete, ~2 years from now. That will definitely be the time to buy a new system.
  • ClagMaster - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link

    “These things are fast and smart with power. Just wait until Nehalem goes below 65W...”

    I surely will Mr Shimpi with this exceptional processor. I am going to wait until the summer of 2010 when prices are the lowest, rebates are the sweetest, before I buy my i7 860. By that time, hopefully, there would be 65W versions available on improved stepping. It’s worth the wait.

    I would wager the on-chip PCIe controller could use some additional optimization which would result in lower power draw for a given frequency.

    Intel sure delivered the goods with Lynnfield.
  • cosminliteanu - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link

    Well done Anandtech for this article... :)
  • ereavis - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link

    great article. Good replies to all the bashing, most seem to have misread.

    Now, we want to see results in AnandTech Bench!
  • MODEL3 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link

    Wow, the i5 750 is even better than what i was expecting...

    For the vast, vast majority of the consumers, (not enthusiasts, overclocking guys, etc...) with this processor Intel effectively erased the above 200$ CPU market...

    I hope this move to have the effect to kill their ASP also... (except AMDs...) (not that this will hurt Intel much with so many cash, but it is better than nothing...)


    I see that the structure/composition in this review and in many others tech sites reviews is very good, maybe this time Intel helped more in relation with the past regarding info / photos / diagrams / review guide etc...


    One question that i have (out of the conspiracy book again...) is,
    if the integration of the PCI-Express controller in the CPU die on the mainstream LGA-1156 platform will be a permanent strategy from now on...
    and if the recent delay for the PCI-Express standard 3.0 has a connection with the timing of the launch of mainstream LGA-1156 based CPUs with PCI-Express 3.0 controller integrated...

    Sure, they can launch future LGA-1156 motherboard chipsets with PCI-Express 3.0 controller, but doesn't this contradict the integration strategy that Intel just started with the new processors?
  • MODEL3 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - link

    I can't edit...
    I just want to clarify that the PCI-Express 3.0 question is for LOL reasons, not taken serious...

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