System requirements for photo editing and retouching in 2017
Minimum system requirements for decent photo editing:
- Intel Core i3 5th generation
- 8 GB Ram
- AMD or NVIDIA graphics card with OpenCL and OpenGL support
- one hard drive for the operating system
- second hard drive for cache
Something like this will work well for editing portraits, headshots and small photo shoots (under 100 photos). Post processing a big number of raw photos for weddings and other events is possible but the speed is not optimal.
System requirements for intense photo editing:
- Intel Core i7 7th generation
- 32 GB Ram
- AMD or NVIDIA graphics card with OpenCL and OpenGL support
- one hard drive for the operating system
- second SSD for cache (Solid State Drive)
These are the requirements only for the processing power. You’ll also need a calibrated monitor, mouse, keyboard and maybe a tablet. The tablet is needed for very specific photo retouching tasks.
Tip: you can use the second hard drive for both Operating System and Editing Software cache.
I’ve wrote this article based on my personal experience and after testing quite a few computers over the years.