Best Intel Processor For Photoshop

Intel Core i5 processors

Core i5 is the mid-range processor from Intel. As an upgrade to the Core i3, Core i5 processors definitely offer you more power, whether for gaming or multitasking scenarios. Because depending on the type of applications you are running, you will notice a noticeable difference in speed.

When gaming, you'll notice the difference between an i3-10100 and an i5-10400 is great (10-25 FPS depending on the game), but if you edit multiple files in Photoshop, you'll find that the Core i5 can do such tasks faster.

The Core i5 series comes with 6 cores, 12 MB cache, and Hyper-Threading in the current generation. You will benefit from the six cores, especially with multithreaded tasks. Also, with the i5-10600K, you get a processor that you can overclock (there is none in the Core i3 series). Should you have the necessary change, we definitely recommend a Core i5 instead of the rather limited Core i3 processors.

Intel Core i7 processors

Next up, we have the Intel Core i7 line of processors. Core i7s were the top chips of all processors in the Core series for many years, until the Core i9 and Core X series came out. Nevertheless, the Core i7 series is still quite expensive and clearly in the high-end segment, not just in price.

In the current 10th generation, the i7 series has octa-core performance, virtualization support, Hyper-Threading, and Turbo Boost technology. Also, faster DDR4 RAM of up to 2933 MHz is supported here, with the i3 and i5 only clock rates of up to 2666 MHz are possible.

The main areas of application for Core i7 processors are large multitasking and heavyweight multimedia tasks, high-end gaming, and computationally intensive things such as video editing and rendering. You'll also see the benefits of an i7 when running multiple virtual machines or editing 4K videos.

i7 processors also have a larger built-in cache that makes repetitive tasks more efficient. Larger caches also mean better multitasking performance.

Should you buy an i7 processor? For the vast majority of you, this is certainly not necessary. For gaming, in particular, it would be much smarter to go with something like an i5-10600K and spend the savings on a better graphics card, more RAM, or even a faster SSD hard drive. However, if you occasionally do CPU-intensive tasks or target 1440p or 4K gaming, the i7 series is an excellent choice.

Intel Core i9 processors

Finally, we have the ultimate processor series: The Intel Core i9. Initially, there was only the X series for the special LGA2066 socket, but now there are also "normal" i9 CPUs for the LGA1151 socket or currently the new LGA1200.

The X series represents a separate processor series of the Core i9, which was specially designed for computationally intensive application areas and is less useful for gaming. Accordingly, processors with an "X" in their name really only make sense if the system is designed for maximum multitasking performance.

In contrast, the "normal" Core i9 CPUs represent Intel's processor lineup's absolute spearhead. At the moment, they are still the most powerful gaming CPUs. Now with 10 instead of just 8 cores, the 10th generation Core i9 CPUs with their 20 MB cache and clock speeds of up to 5.3 GHz offer plenty of power reserves.

In gaming and multithreaded tasks, you get an upgrade compared to a Core i7, but only at an extreme surcharge. Some games can take advantage of the extra threads, and certain benchmarks also benefit from the extra performance from these costly chips. Still, in most cases, the benefit is minimal.

So if you want to equip a workstation for rendering, video editing, or other intense tasks that can use many cores, then a Core i9 is worth considering. Gamers who really want to get the last FPS out will be happy with this – if the budget is not an issue. But an i7 9700K, i5 10600K or i7 10700K is much cheaper and with similar performance. For almost all gamers, the Core i7 is the better choice.

Intel Processors the 10th Generation in Detail

In the following, we would like to introduce you to the differences between the CPU models within the latest generation. This gives you a good idea of how big the distance between the different rows i3, i5, i7, and i9 actually is. We leave out the X series, especially since it is not relevant for gamers.

Property	i3	i5	i7	i9
Max. Base clock	3.8 GHz	4.1 GHz	3.8 GHz	3.7 GHz
Max. Turbo boost rate	unsupported	unsupported	5.1 GHz	5.2 GHz
Single core turbo	up to 4.6 GHz	up to 4.8 GHz	up to 5.0 GHz	up to 5.1 GHz
Max cores / threads	4/8	6/12	8/16	10/20
Hyperthreading	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cache	Max. 8 MB	Max. 12 MB	Max. 16 MB	Max. 20 MB
R.A.M.	Up to DDR4-2666	Up to DDR4-2666	Up to DDR4-2993	Up to DDR4-2993

Even with the 10th generation, Intel cannot compensate for its weaknesses outside of gaming and the price-performance compared to the Ryzen 3000 chips from AMD. Nevertheless, some interesting processors are especially interesting for us gamers (more on this below in the recommendations). Unfortunately, even the tenth Intel-Gen cannot yet support PCIe 4.0 and also needs a new mainboard for these CPUs that supports the LGA1200 socket (such as mainboards with the Z490 chipset).