ANYTHING with 512MB or more is fine. LR/CS5 only use 2D image manipulations which can be handled fine by any graphics card you are able to buy new out there
I'd like you to point me at a graphics card released in the last 5 years that doesn't have OpenGL acceleration please. The only thing PS uses anything more than 2D image manipulation for is for the 3D stuff mentioned here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405745.htmlThat's actually not entirely true. I don't know about Lightroom as I don't use it, but Photoshop has had the option to use OpenGL functionality since CS3 or CS4 for certain features, in which case a good graphics accelerator is actually quite important.
That's actually not entirely true. I don't know about Lightroom as I don't use it, but Photoshop has had the option to use OpenGL functionality since CS3 or CS4 for certain features, in which case a good graphics accelerator is actually quite important.
I'd like you to point me at a graphics card released in the last 5 years that doesn't have OpenGL acceleration please. The only thing PS uses anything more than 2D image manipulation for is for the 3D stuff mentioned here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405745.html
For general use, here's the list of tested cards with PS5: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/831/cpsid_83117.html
Basically, for photo manipulation, only 2D is used and anything reasonably current will do for acceleration.
ANYTHING you can buy now with 512MB or more will have enough oomph for CS5 for 99.9% of people. I've run CS5 successfully on £25 graphics cards (Nvidia 8400). Given your experience, perhaps you could quantify the performance hit for 2D operations on a low end graphics card.that means being a bit pickier than just buying, as you suggested, "ANYTHING with 512Mb or more", as it's not just the amount of memory that determines a card's overall performance. I'm unsure of why you're suggesting that OpenGL is only used for 3D; OpenGL affects both 2D and 3D performance.
And while some people don't use the OpenGL features, many do. I find the zooming and arbitrary canvas rotation essential for my own workflow.