Do I need a graphics card for Lightroom?
What GPU (video card) is best for Lightroom Classic? Lightroom Classic does not really utilize a modern video card for the majority of tasks, so we generally recommend a mid-range GPU to handle the needs of other related applications like Photoshop that do use the GPU more heavily.
When configured (Preferences > Performance), Lightroom Classic can use a compatible graphics processor (also called a graphics card, video card, or GPU) to speed up tasks of displaying and adjusting images in the Develop module, the Library module's Grid view, Loupe view, and Filmstrip.
For Photoshop, it is extremely important to have a supported GPU, but the actual performance of that card will not make a major impact on performance.
Minimum | Recommended | |
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Operating system | Windows 10 (64 bit) version 22H2 or later | |
RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB or more |
Hard disk space | 10 GB of available hard-disk space; additional free space is required during installation and sync | |
Monitor resolution | 1280 x 768 display | 1920 x 1080 display or greater |
Lightroom can use the GPU in place of the CPU to accelerate an increasing number of functions on high resolution screens. It's primarily used to speed up displaying and adjusting photos in the Develop module. It also makes the Grid display, Loupe view and Filmstrip faster.
Minimum | |
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RAM | 8 GB |
Hard disk space | 4 GB of available hard disk space; additional space is required for installation |
Monitor resolution | 1024 x 768 display |
Graphics card | GPU with DirectX 12 support 2 GB of GPU memory |
For best performance, use a discrete graphics card that has the GPU Compute benchmark score of 2000 or greater. Note: A very high benchmark score does not mean that you will also get great results in Lightroom Classic as the performance dependent on multiple factors.
Yes, you can use Photoshop without a graphics card, but some features may not perform as smoothly as with a dedicated GPU. These features include 3D rendering, GPU-accelerated filters, and certain advanced compositing and performance features.
Can I Run Adobe Photoshop? You'll need an Intel Core i7-920 processor and 8GB of RAM to meet the Adobe Photoshop system requirements. Although a dedicated graphics card is not necessary, a GeForce GTX 950 will provide you with just enough power to improve performance marginally.
For full Photoshop system requirements, see Photoshop system requirements. Generally, consider using GPUs with an Average Ops/Sec of 2000 or higher on PassMark's GPU Computer Benchmark Chart. If you are using an older graphics card or driver, GPU functionality in Photoshop may be limited or not supported.
Which computer is best for Lightroom?
- Apple Mac Studio. The best photo editing PC overall. Our expert review: ...
- Apple iMac 24-inch M3 (2023) Best mainstream photo editing PC. Our expert review: ...
- Apple Mac Mini M2 (2023) The best cheap photo editing PC. Our expert review: ...
- HP Envy 34 All-in-One. A serious iMac alternative for creative professionals.
Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop, the two most popular photo-editing packages, benefit little from a GPU; you're better off having more RAM and faster storage.
- Best overall: MacBook Pro (M3)
- Best Windows: Asus ProArt OLED.
- Best 2-in-1: Surface Studio 2.
- Best AMD: Alienware M16.
- Portable: Dell Precision 5480.
- Portable MacBook: Air (M2)
- Best modular: Framework.
- Lightweight OLED: Swift Edge 16.
12 GB of RAM (recommended); At least 4 GB of RAM, more if you use Photoshop at the same time. Fast hard disks, especially for the catalog and previews.
Both of those could handle photo editing but I would go with the newer processor, they're still just getting better and better. Processor and RAM are going to be most important with having a solid state drive as your boot drive being very important as well.
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5900X 12 Core (24 thread) |
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Video Cards | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB |
RAM | 64GB DDR4 |
Drives | Primary: 2TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus PCI-E Gen4 M.2 (peak 7000 MB/s) Storage: 2TB Samsung 870 EVO SATA SSD (Peak 560 MB/s) Cache: 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus PCI-E Gen4 M.2 (peak 7000 MB/s) |
Is 16GB RAM enough for Photoshop and Lightroom? For most photographers 16GB of memory will allow Lightroom Classic CC to run really well, though photographers doing a lot of work using both Lightroom and Photoshop at the same time you will benefit from having 32GB of memory.
Both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom have very low minimum system requirements, only demanding an AMD or Intel 64-bit CPU that has a clock speed of at least 2GHz. If you bought any processor in the past near-20 years you'd be able to match that specification.
What is the difference between Adobe Lightroom for mobile and desktop? Lightroom for mobile and desktop are the same product, built for different surfaces. They provide you with most of the same powerful and intuitive editing tools.
GPU acceleration in Lightroom Classic
Acceleration may also be turned off automatically if your system does not support it or due to an error. If acceleration is turned off and an error message appears, it could be due to GPU hardware, driver version, or operating system not meeting the system requirements.
How do I improve photo quality in Lightroom?
- Open your image in Lightroom.
- Choose Photo > Enhance.
- Select Super Resolution.
- Click Enhance.
- Lightroom will increase your image resolution and save it as a new DNG file.
If you just edit photos, you really don't need a fancy graphics card but you probably shouldn't completely overlook it in a computer. Some of the most recent updates to Lightroom and Photoshop have included options for GPU accelerated tasks, which might make a difference to heavy photo editors.
Photoshop relies on your GPU for effects using Mercury Graphics Engine, which is associated with blurring tools, warping tools etc. Your CPU is used for general photo editing, resizing etc., and Photoshop prefers a fast single core in a CPU, and will use multithreading for complex compositing.
Minimum | Recommended | |
---|---|---|
Operating system | Windows 10 ARM device running Windows 10 64-bit (version 20H2) or later | |
RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB or more |
Graphics card | 4 GB of GPU memory | |
All the other aspects for ARM are the same as Intel |
With the launch of Lightroom Classic, Adobe made great strides in being able to effectively utilize higher core count CPUs. However, having a high number of cores (more than ~8) typically only helps with a few tasks like exporting and generating previews.