Should I get a Hd-4870?

[Canonxsi]

Hi, guys. I'm from Venezuela and my English is not too good but I'll try to write as good as I can...

I'm a photographer and use Photoshop CS4 to process pictures taken at 15 megapixels. I own an Intel Q-9550 processor + 8 Gb RAM + ATi Radeon HD 4670, 512 mb and I'm planning to get an ATI Hd-4870, 1Gb. So, this is my question:

:confused:Does my PC is going to be "faster" while processing my pictures?

:confused:Will It be a noticeable "SPEED" difference ?

:confused:Will It be a good investment?

Thanks a lot for replyin... I'll appreciate hints, tips and suggestions.:)

[ultima]

it will not be faster for processing pictures

your CPU is what process the pictures for photoshop
to the best of my knowledge

[-RK]

1. Technically, yes it will be faster. Photoshop CS4 can use OpenGL and DirectX as well as ATI stream.

2. Realistically... no you probably won't notice the difference, Photoshop relies much more heavily on the CPU.

3. Not for your purposes. If you were gaming it would be a great choice though.

[hdantman]

Agree with both posts above.

CS4 is optimized for 64-bit processing (make sure you're using the 64-bit version), but is VERY CPU heavy in terms of load. Your GPU is used for 3D acceleration features within Photoshop--for rendering the image for your display in realtime while you work on it. The 8GB of RAM you have, and perhaps a good overclock of your CPU would be the key factor in speed both while you're working and while you're re-encoding your images.

So, 4870 probably won't do you much good--at least in terms of what you're looking to achieve. Check out the following link for more info on GPU acceleration in CS4

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15571