Workstations for photography
Photoshop and Lightroom Classic lean on a fast CPU, while Lightroom’s AI features and Capture One processing use the GPU. We offer two single-GPU Electron builds for photographers and retouchers.
What matters for photography
- A fast modern CPU: Photoshop gains little beyond about 8 cores
- An NVIDIA GPU with 8GB or more for Lightroom’s AI features and Capture One
- 64GB of memory, or 128GB to run Lightroom Classic and Photoshop together
- A fast SSD for catalogues and previews
In Photoshop there is little gain beyond about 8 cores, and raw GPU performance has little effect. In Lightroom Classic the CPU drives import, Smart Previews and RAW Details, and an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus performed best. More GPU memory does not directly speed processing. Adobe says full GPU acceleration and AI features such as Denoise need 8GB of dedicated GPU memory (Adobe Lightroom Classic requirements), and Lightroom Classic does not use more than one GPU (Adobe GPU FAQ). Capture One recommends 4 or more cores, 16GB or more of memory and a GPU with at least 8GB, and says more GPU cores generally means faster processing (Capture One requirements).
So both tiers are single-GPU Electrons with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. Standard has the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 32GB and 64GB, the recommended minimum for Lightroom Classic. Heavy steps up to the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 48GB, with 1,344 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and 128GB to run Lightroom Classic and Photoshop together.
Recommended configurations
Photography – Standard
Electron · NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 32GB
For a single artist or engineer
- CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
- RAM: 64GB UDIMM ECC DDR5 5600Mhz
- PCIe slots (16x): Nvidia RTX Pro 4500 Blackwell 32GB
- NVMe Storage (Gen 5.0): Samsung 9100 Pro Gen 5 2TB
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
£8,739.71 inc VAT
£7,283.09 ex VAT
Built to order · dispatched in 5 working days
Photography – Heavy
Electron · NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 48GB
For professionals and freelancers
- CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
- RAM: 128GB DDR5 6000 2x64GB
- PCIe slots (16x): Nvidia RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell 48GB
- NVMe Storage (Gen 5.0): Samsung 9100 Pro Gen 5 4TB
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
£15,186.86 inc VAT
£12,655.72 ex VAT
Built to order · dispatched in 11 working days
Each recommended system is a starting point. Select Customise to add components or change the specification before you order.
Tell us what you need for photography
Share which of Photoshop, Lightroom Classic and Capture One you use, your camera and file sizes, and the tasks that slow you down. We will review the right configuration and confirm availability before you order.
Frequently asked questions
Not Lightroom Classic: Adobe says it does not use more than one GPU (Adobe GPU FAQ). Capture One said in 2014 that it spread work across all available GPUs (Capture One blog, 2014), but we have not confirmed this for current versions, so both configurations use one GPU.
For Photoshop, allow 16GB for documents up to 500MB, 32GB for 500MB to 1GB, and 64GB or more above that. For Lightroom Classic, 64GB is the recommended minimum, with 128GB if you run Photoshop alongside it.
Photoshop needs a GPU, but raw GPU performance has little effect, and 4GB of GPU memory is plenty unless you drive several 4K displays. The GPU matters more for Lightroom Classic’s AI features and for Capture One processing.
An Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus performs best in Lightroom Classic, and dropping to a lower CPU gives up quite a bit of performance. For Photoshop alone, AMD’s Ryzen 7 9700X and 9850X3D rank highest, so tell us if Photoshop is most of your work.
Standard suits Lightroom Classic or Capture One on their own, with 64GB and an NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 32GB that clears the 8GB Adobe asks for AI features. Choose Heavy if you run Lightroom Classic and Photoshop together or work on documents over 1GB: it has 128GB and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 48GB, with 1,344 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Talk to someone at Renderboxes
Not sure which build is right? Speak to our team and we will help you choose the right configuration for your work.
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Tell us what you are working on and we will recommend a configuration.
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