Getting the most out of Photoshop can help to notably boost your performance and creative workflow.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide, detailing our top five expert tips to help you boost your performance, productivity, and get the maximum potential out of Photoshop.
Colour Accurate Monitors
A colour accurate monitor is a must for any form of creative work.
Your work will be shown in stunning high-res quality, with vivid colours to ensure all your designs look flawless. Plus, fast response times and refresh rates mean you won’t need to worry about stuttery performance or input lag. Instead, you can enjoy near-zero screen tearing and latency.
If you’re looking for a new monitor for your creative set up, our dedicated gaming monitor guide has all the information and key features you need to look out for!
Corsair XENEON 32” 32UHD Gaming Monitor
- 32” gaming monitor
- 3840 x 2160 display
- IPS panel
- 144Hz refresh rate
- DCI-P3 98% colour gamut
Corsair XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240 Gaming Monitor:
- 45” gaming monitor
- 3440 x 1440 display resolution
- 240Hz refresh rates
- 0.03ms response time
- 99% DCI-PC colour gamut
Invest in High-Quality Storage
Quality storage with high capacities is a must-have in any set up, but especially for creative professionals. It’s incredibly easy to fill up all your precious storage space with your design files and projects.
Therefore, we recommend you invest in plenty of storage, either utilising SSDs with fast read and write times, or external desktop HHDs. Some drives even come equipped with dedicated backup software, to help keep your files protected from any unexpected hardware failures.
WD Elements Desktop 4TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive:
- Desktop external hard drive
- 4TB storage capacity
- USB 3.0 connectivity
- Includes a free trial of WD SmartWare Pro backup software
Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 Solid State Drive:
- 1TB storage capacity
- 7300MB/s read time
- 6800MB/s write time
If you’re struggling to decide which storage drive is best for your set-up and needs, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to storage for more!
A Powerful PC
Investing in a powerful PC, packed with all the latest hardware will not only boost your performance, but also your productivity.
Hardware, such as Intel 12th or 13th Gen CPUs, with their hybrid P- and E-architecture have been fine-tuned for superior performance, efficiency, and workload management. The P-cores ensure you get the very best performance, whether you are gaming or designing, whilst the E-cores boost your efficiency to make multitasking a breeze. What’s more, we also recommend you consider a PC that has a high capacity of either DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, arranged in at least a dual or quad configuration. This ensures all your intensive workloads will be spread equally across all the RAM sticks for greater efficiency and speed.
Lastly, the latest NVIDIA RTX 40 Series come equipped with an array of cutting-edge features that can help improve your creative workflows. This includes NVIDIA Studio, Broadcast, Ansel, and much more. Plus, the Ada Lovelace architecture, with third-gen RT and fourth-gen Tensor cores, has been designed to deliver stunning hyper-realistic visuals and silky-smooth frame rates.
Our Top PCs for Photoshop:
Refract Gaming Indigo Pre-built PC:
Fine-tuned for elite-tier gaming and high-quality content creation, the Refract Gaming Indigo PC comes equipped with everything you need for all your creative projects. This includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super GPU. Harness the intelligent Zen 4 architecture, to achieve seamless multitasking and efficiency. All of which is backed up by 32GB of DDR5 RAM. What’s more, the NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super will render all your visuals and images in stunning photo-realistic quality, thanks to built-in support for Real-Time Ray Tracing and AI DLSS 3. Lastly, to keep your PC well protected, the Indigo includes a three-year warranty, which also covers parts and labour.
- Pre-built gaming PC
- Designed for elite-tier gaming and content creation
- Includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super GPU
- 32GB DDR5 RAM
OcUK Gaming Radiance Drift Configurable PC:
Built utilising powerful hardware, the OcUK Gaming Radiance Drift is the perfect addition to your creative set up. Harness the Intel i9 14900KF CPU, for blisteringly fast performance in both single- and multi-threaded tasks. Plus, with the NVIDIA RTX 4090, designed with Ada Lovelace architecture, unlock stunning hyper-realistic visuals with silky-smooth frame rates. In addition to this, with a 1TB M.2 SSD and optional secondary storage drive you will have plenty of space for all your design files, creative projects, and of course your favourite games. As the OcUK Gaming Radiance Drift is a configurable system, you can adjust the base hardware specification to suit your individual preferences. This includes upgrading the CPU, customising the braided cables, along with opting for additional storage drives.
- Configurable gaming PC
- Includes an Intel i9 14900KF CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4090
- Up to 32GB DDR4 RAM
- Flexible storage options available
If you’re unsure whether your current PC can run Photoshop or other heavy-duty software, be sure to check out our dedicated guide.
Must-Have Peripherals
For Photoshop and all your other creative applications, we recommend you invest in high-quality peripherals.
This includes a full-sized mechanical keyboard. You will have access to the whole suite of 104 keys, including a numpad. A 100% keyboard is especially useful for Photoshop since they often come with programmable keys and macros which you can customise to complete complicated tasks with just the press of a button. For example, with Photoshop you can create a macro for quick saving or opening a new design template.
In addition to this, with a gaming mouse, you can enjoy superior precision, control, and ultra-fast response times. We recommend a lightweight mouse with an ergonomic design, to reduce strain on your wrists and ensure you remain comfortable during extended hours of creative work.
Lastly, you can also opt for dedicated creative touch pen tablets. These have been fine-tuned for creative applications, such as Photoshop, and give you greater control over your designs. They often include a touch-pen and only require a spare USB port on your PC or Bluetooth compatibility.
Glorious Model D USB Optical Gaming Mouse:
- Optical gaming mouse
- Pixart PMW 3360 sensor
- 58g
- Omron mechanical switches
- Up to 12,000 DPI
- Ergonomic design
- Integrated RGB lighting
Ducky One 3 Classic USB RGB Full-sized Mechanical Keyboard:
- Full-sized mechanical keyboard
- Hot-swappable PCB
- This model comes with Cherry MX Speed Silver switches
- PBT double-shot keycaps
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Pen Tablet:
- Creative tablet
- Comes with a compatible touch-pen
- Cross platform compatible
- Wireless
Customise Your Default Photoshop Settings:
Along with plenty of incredible hardware and peripherals, you can make some adjustments to the settings to Photoshop to optimise your performance.
This includes customising the performance preferences. You can configure the settings to ensure you get the maximum potential out of your graphics card, cache and processor, along with increasing how much RAM capacity is allocated to Photoshop.
What’s more, there are three different cache presets available.
- Web/UI Design: for those who use Photoshop for web, app, or screen design
- Default/Photos: for those who use Photoshop to edit and retouch moderate-sized images, such as photos from your mobile or digital camera.
- Huge Pixel Dimensions: for those who work with heavy documents, such as panoramas and matte paintings.
You can select the option that perfectly suits your needs to optimise your response times, performance, and much more.
Your Top Tips for Photoshop?
Do you have any top tips for getting the most out of Photoshop? Be sure to leave them in the comments below.
*Prices correct at time of writing and PC specs are subject to change.
- 7 min read
Ruth Rowley
Author
Ruth has been with Overclockers UK for over a year and has gone on to write about everything ranging from in-depth hardware guides to monthly game releases.
Outside of writing blog posts, she can be found wrapped in a blanket with her black cat, engrossed in a book or playing life-simulation games such as The Sims, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing.
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