Photo editing: PC vs Macīelow is an excerpt of “The Digital Darkroom: The Definitive Guide to Photo Editing” by James Abbott, published by Ilex Press ( £17.70 on .uk (opens in new tab)). As a result, your work and your workflow suffers.įor a PC for photo editing, we recommend minimum specs of 16GB RAM and 1TB of SSD storage - paired with a well-sized photo cloud storage service for backups. That leads to a lowering of performance, slowing down creative processes, and outputting images that don’t match the vision you had in your head - or what the client wanted. Professional software like Adobe Photoshop, and the best Photoshop alternatives can force the computer to work hard.

So, it's important to select a PC equipped to handle photo editing apps. Photo editing software, video editing software, 3D modeling and rendering software, and VFX are usually resource-intensive. Ideally, choose a computer offering a minimum of 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage for best results. Memory and disk are really important, even more than picking a high-powered CPU and GPU (although they really help ease workflows, of course). When selecting your photo editing PC, look for those that offer a high amount of RAM and SSD storage. Windows or Apple is the main one, of course, but there are also aesthetic choices like whether you want something that will sit unmoved in a defined office space, or whether you require something portable. There are of course more subjective choices to be made too.

If you're an amateur photographer who would love to simply spend a little more time editing shots taken in your spare time, then you're unlikely to need to shell out on some of the more powerful machines in this list.Ĭonversely, if you're a professional photographer who relies on being able to turn around a considerable number of photos during working hours in order to pay the bills, eyeing up the powerful models will prove a shrewder decision in the long run. Given the considerable variance in costs between some of the PCs featured in this list, it's important to get a solid grasp of the level of photo editing performance you require. When choosing which photo editing PC is best for you, it's a good idea to have a clear idea how you'll be using the machine. Why you can trust TechRadar Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.

Cs6 photoshop system requirements