Image & Photo Editing

Designed for programs like - Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom

Possibly the most critical component within a workstation for Photoshop CC and Lightroom is the CPU. It's also worth noting that although Photoshop does use multi-threading for specific actions, there is a minimal benefit to using a CPU with over eight cores. So ideally you need a CPU with high single-core clock speed.

Certain features within Photoshop require a GPU for acceleration here, so we recommend a mid-end Quadro card or Geforce RTX 2060 as suitable options.

Perhaps more important than your choice of GPU will be your hard drive configuration. We suggest using an NVMe drive for your O/S and installation drive, and a fast SSD for active projects. If you are working with very large documents, then it is worth considering a separate SSD as a scratch drive.

Video Editing & Post Production

Designed for programs like - Premiere Pro, After Effects, Da Vinci Resolve

Generally speaking, the choice of CPU will be the most critical factor when deciding on a Video Workstation, as the majority of tasks within these applications will be carried out on the processor.

Your choice of processor here will come down to your workflow and style. For example, how many effects you use, how your footage is encoded, and what resolution you're working with.

Video editing applications, such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve, tend to utilise the CPU similarly. For the majority of active/timeline tasks use only a handful of cores, so high clock speed and fewer cores are preferred. Conversely rendering and encoding/decoding are heavily multi-threaded tasks, so a CPU with more cores (16+) is recommended. For a good all-round system, we'd recommend a CPU with both high single-core clock speed and a minimum of six/eight cores.

Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve also both make great use of a GPU, so if your workflow relies heavily on GPU accelerated effects, then we'd advise looking at a GeForce RTX 2070 as a starting point.

Another thing to consider when deciding on your choice of GPU is the amount Of VRAM (video RAM) available to you. Depending on the resolution of your footage, GeForce cards will be suitable for up to 4K. For 8K footage, we'd recommend a Titan RTX, or Quadro RTX due to the additional VRAM available.

Having enough RAM in your workstation is essential to ensure smooth and stable performance, the amount will vary depending on your project, but as a general guideline we suggest 32GB for 1080p, 64GB for 4K and 128GB for 6/8K.

Finally, one thing to consider is your storage, often an area that is overlooked. The ideal configuration would consist of 3 fast SSD drives and a larger mechanical drive for archive storage. For example, an NVMe for your system O/S and installation drive, a fast SSD drive for your active projects, and a third fast SSD/NVMe drive for use as a scratch disk. Add in a large mechanical (Platter) drive If you'd like to archive files locally.

3D Modelling & Animation

Designed for programs like 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, Unreal

Modelling and animation is predominantly a single-threaded process, so the applications can only utilise a single core on a CPU. Therefore a processor with a fast single-core clock speed (sometimes referred to as high-frequency) is desired.

It is, however, worth noting that some render engines within these programs are highly optimised to make use of a high number of cores. If your workflow includes both modelling and rendering, we recommend a CPU with both high single-core clock speed and a minimum of six/eight cores.

Graphics are less critical, as the GPU only really comes into play within the render of the viewport. An entry-level Quadro or GeForce RTX card will help to ensure high FPS playback when navigating and previewing animations within the viewport.

GPU Rendering

Designed for programs like Redshift, Octane, VRAY GPU

GPU render engines, as you'd expect can utilise multiple GPUs. So the more GPUs you have in your system, the better the performance.

For multi-GPU workstations, you need to ensure that the CPU has lots of PCIe lanes. A lack of PCIe lanes will limit the performance of the GPUs and force them to run at lower speed modes (x4 or x8 instead of x16).

Currently, NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards will give you the best price/performance ratio, but depending on your choice of render engine you may require the additional VRAM offered by Quadro GPUs.