Photoshop minimum and recommended specs CHANGES

[mevinyavin]

The photoshop master thread is dead. I figured I would post about specs here so the relevant people would see it. This post is for people shopping for computers for photoshop or wondering why theirs is not working well/well enough.
As someone who helps people buy computers, I was shocked when Adobe bumped the requirements in 2019. It went from midrange normal laptop with a bit of dedicated graphics to gaming laptop. Yesterday I noticed the requirements went back down. The small print says they removed the 3D graphics features from Photoshop, so I assume this eased the need for powerful hardware.
Anyone to whom the list below is gibberish can post and I'll try to help (or someone else will).
That said:
Processor: anything that matches the other requirements will be fine.
RAM: 8 minimum, 16 is better. Check to see if upgrading yourself is cheaper than finding one with 16 already inside. Also check to see if the RAM is upgradeable at all - many lighter systems are not.
Drive: One with enough room to store all of your projects. Can't answer this one for you. It should be a modern (ie PCIE 3 or newer) SSD for ease of use, though.
Graphics is the most important for most people (see the link below to see if the tasks you do require powerful graphics). Adobe says the following: A) At least 1.5GB VRAM, or 4GB with 4K displays B) Supports DX12. Digging in, though, you see they recommend graphics that can do more than 2000 Ops/sec on Passmark's testing software. (If you check out that list, ensure you find the right entry. The laptop versions, usually labeled "mobile" or "laptop," are far less powerful than their desktop equivalents but have almost identical names. There are also some less powerful variants named "Max-Q" and it is often hard/impossible to know which yours has - maybe assume the worst.)
The new specs now include laptops with the MX550. Also, laptops with a 6000 series Ryzen 7 seem to be good enough (as well as any Ryzen 9). It is possible, though, that you would prefer something more robust rather than having the laptop's graphics running full-tilt all day - again, depends on how often you need the graphics. I wouldn't buy one of these if you will be doing this full time.
One last thing: Mac requirements: M1/M2 of any variation with at least 16GB of RAM.


Adobe specs: https://helpx.adobe.com/il_en/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
GPU benchmarks: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/directCompute.html

[Yisroel Tech]

Adobe: "Users working with 3D are encouraged to explore Adobe’s new Substance 3D collection" [and pay another billion dollars for these programs separately!]

[mevinyavin]

Adobe: "Users working with 3D are encouraged to explore Adobe’s new Substance 3D collection" [and pay another billion dollars for these programs separately!]

This was the line that clued me in (I added the brackets in my head, too) to what had been going on.
In 2018 it supported an MX150. In 2019 the minimum was, I dunno, a GTX 1650 (the 1050 TI had too little VRAM). Today the minimum is the MX550 again (NOT equal to the 1650 at all).

A funny anecdote was the avreich who got a gaming laptop for his wife in 2020 (I think). (I told them that despite what all the stores were selling for Photoshop, this was what Adobe said. Oish.) Anyways, a year later she decided to take a course in 3D graphics to get into the business. She said hers was the only computer in the class capable of running the programs smoothly. (4800H/1660TI)