Computer Upgrade Performance, 16-bit Blur

[Boatman]

I reported last month that performing the “High Contrast and Detail Effect using dodge and burn technique” (High Contrast and Detail Effect using dodge and burn technique.) was creating problems due to the long time it takes to do the surface blur in 16-bit mode.

I recently had a chance to upgrade my computer from a G43 chipset and an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU to an Intel DZ68BC motherboard with an Intel i5-2500K CPU. I ran the tests again and did see an improvement.

Original Image (7038 x 3960 pixels) 40 pixel-wide blur
Q6600 – 4:53
i5-2500K – 3:22 That's about a 30% reduction.

I also tested some images to see the difference in times for different pixel widths in the blur. This really makes a difference as does the frequency of the image. Low frequency images take less time, presumably because there are fewer edges to blur. Here were the general results based on a couple of 4768 x 3184 pixel images. (Numbers are for blur radius / threshold.)

40/40 2:00 to 2:30
30/30 1:00 to 1:30
10/10 0:30 to 0:45

The DZ68BC motherboard has a USB 3.0 port and a header, so I purchased a Rosewill USB 3.0 card reader for about $20. The difference in downloading is substantial. I haven't make any hard tests compared to USB 2.0, but a memory card loaded with 873MB of data took about ten seconds to load onto the computer. That's fast!

[herbert]

Hi Homer,

Thanks for the update. If I remember correctly you were using CS4. I am wondering if the newer version (or even older versions) would benefit from a better graphics card. Photoshop does have some functionality to offload work to the graphics card using OpenGL:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html

Do you have a recent graphics card too?

Alex

[Boatman]

Herbert:

Thank you for the link. I read this briefly and will take closer look at it and check all my settings tonight. I am using CS4 and the Adobe support article clearly states that Open GL works with CS4 and CS5. I suspect I don't need a graphics card to use this; the i5 has Intel HD Graphics 3000 onboard, and this is a very powerful graphics function. No doubt my settings are not correct to take full adantage of the Open GL support, though.

I'll post results and comments on what needed correcting if this results in a significant improvement. If Open GL does not help, I could try a graphics card. I'm sure we have one laying around the office somewhere and that I could borrow it for some testing.

[Boatman]

I enabled OpenGL and it does help. The two minute blurs dropped to about 1:30. There are other improvements as well but I haven't done any serious work since making the changes so I can't comment on how extensive the changes are and how much other actions are accelerated. Thanks for the tip.