Looking at the chart we see the fastest result from a Mac Pro with a base price of $6199 and a test time of a 9.3 seconds. Now with the release of the Intel 6 core Sandy Bridge i7-3930K we have an overclocked time of 10.6 seconds on a custom built high end PC machine that has a $2000 price tag. That seems like an awful lot more money for a really nice looking shiny case the has a fruit on it. Note: Prices are current as of December 20th, 2011.

————————— Test Results —————————

One of my many European readers, Bruce Murry from England posted a time of 21.5 seconds on a home built computer based on the the Intel i5-2500k . Using an old Dell case and already purchased hard drive he put together the system which also included a 64 GB SSD for £541 including the VAT. Using the same parts Murry did, I was able to price them at $685 at newegg.com. Here is a list of the components used.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor – Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game

Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5″ SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1)

Asus P8H67-M Pro Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard – (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit – OEM (GFC-00599)

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) and

OcUK Value 2.5″ to 3.5″ Hard Drive Adapter

HP is again shipping their high perform desktop computers featuring the Sandy Bridge CPUs. After the “little problem” Intel had with the motherboards for the Sandy Bridge CPUs, HP stopped using next generation Intel CPUs. Currently HP is selling a model quite similar to the build Murry made for $709. That would be the HPE510t model with an upgrade to the Intel i5-2500 3.3 GHz CPU with turbo boost to 3.7 GHz.

Melwin Silva, a reader from the North Jersey/New York Metro posted an overclocked speed tying record time of 14.2 seconds using the Intel i7-2600k running at 5.1 GHz instead of the normal 3.4 GHz rate. Melwin’s desktop computer was also a home build that features water cooling for the CPU, a 12 TB 8 drive Raid 6 array, and 4 drive Raid zero 240 GB SSD set up. The total price for the entire set up was $3636. Even more impressive is if you strip out the price for all the extra hard drives, and the extra video card ( he’s running 4 monitors ) you get a price tag of about $1700 for the top of the line desktop computer using the Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs.

If the i7-2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4 GHz overclocked to 5.1 GHz time of 14.2 seconds ( costing $1700 ) is compared with the Apple Mac Pros, you find it takes a 6 core Xeon Westmere 3.33 GHz model priced at $3700 to get the same benchmark time. Well at least with the Mac Pros you get a shiny case that has an apple on both sides. Here’s the details of Melwin’s computer.

CPU: Intel I7-2600k overclocked @ 5.1Ghz -  cpu @1.2-1.4v 49x cpu multiplier – Max load temp running prime 70 – 35 idle $280

motherboard:     Asus Maximus Extreme IV $370

memory:  Corsair XMS3 DDR3-2000 8GB @933MHz $280

video card:  Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB   $50  Ebay

video card:  Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 $450

Disk1:  Microcenter G2 Series 64GB SSD 4xR0 $400 4 Drive Raid0 240GB partition  $100 each connected to an areca 1680IX-12 2gb raid controller

Disk2:  Samsung F4 2TB HD204UI $560 8 Drive Raid6 64k 12TB array 2 partitions  $70 from Microcenter sale updated firmware to work with raid controllers

Disk3 :  OCZ Vertex 2 100GB    $200  Lightroom/Adobe Cache drive

Raid controller   Areca 1680IX-12 2GB cache $366 Ebay   $850 new

Water Cooling   Swiftech MCP655 pump $ 80

Swiftech MCR-320 Radiator $ 55

Swiftech Apogee XT cpu waterblock $ 65

Koolance 8800GTX GPU water block $100  I think I paid around this price in 2007

Case:   Coolermaster Stacker $200

Power supply:  Antec TruePower 1000  $180

Don’t forget to head on over to the free photoshop radial blur test and find out how your current CPU stacks up.

Update: I’ve added the CPU test time chart from the Photoshop Radial blur CPU test so you see all the times including the just published Sandy Bridge CPU times.

April 27, 2011 Addition Results - Just received the first test time for a Sandy Bridge i7-2600k CPU run at factory specs ( 3.4 GHz ). The time was 20.0 seconds on a Win 7 machine. Time once again for a Mac vs PC comparison. You can purchase a HP PC with the Intel i7-2600k CPU with 8 GB of RAM for $899. That CPU will get you a test time of 20.0 seconds. The current comparable Mac desktop is a Mac Pro running a 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” CPU with 3 GB of RAM, that computer will get you a test time of 19.9 seconds and will cost you $2499. So the comparable Mac Pro is $1600 more and comes with less RAM. I’ll let the reader draw their own conclusions as to which desktop computer is a better value.

June 24, 2011 Update: With my just purchased HP HPE h8xt ( configured as h8-1070t ) I’ve joined the sub 20 second club for the Photoshop Radial Blur CPU Benchmark test. The Hewlett-Packard computer that was less than 24 hours out of the box posted a 19.6 second time for the test running Windows 7 64 bit on Photoshop CS5 64 bit using a Intel i7-2600 3.4 GHz CPU with turbo boost to 3.8 GHz. The screen capture below shows the Photoshop Radial Blur test running along with Windows Task Manager displaying the CPU usage history and the allotted memory. While the Intel -7 2600 has 4 cores, it runs 8 threads. In this photo we see that all 8 threads are running at 100%. For most of the test the CPU usage was in the 97% to 100% range.

Here’s the really good news. All that performance can be had for just $899. The current base configuration for the HP HPE h8xt model includes the Intel i7-2600 3.4 GHz CPU based on a lithography of 32nm & 8MB of cache, 8GB of DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, and a 1.5 TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

——————————– Test Results ——————————–

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——————————– Custom Build PC with stock and Overclocking Times ——————————–

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Step one – down load the Radial Blur Test Action. Load action into photoshop. The test automates this routine – ( Filter > Blur > Radial Blur.Set the Radial Blur setting to: Amount at 100, Blur Method to Spin, and finally Quality to Best ) Step two – down load the file ( about 4.8 MB ) to run the test on by clicking on the image below. Next open the image in CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, or CS6. Step three – close any and all unnecessary programs including the browser you used to read this exciting photo blog post and down load the files from. Step Four, note the time in the box below the image. If the time is not showing, use the black arrow shown in the bottom image to change the display mode under the image. Step five – note the time displayed under the image. The amount of time already listed under the picture will need to be subtracted to from the the test score time. Step six – Run the test by opening the action and running the “PS Radial Blur Test”. The test took 51 seconds on my computer which is a HP m9510f PC powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz CPU running Vista 64 bit on CS3. ( Update: Downloaded CS5, the test took 48.9 seconds. The improved test speed might be attributed to the fact CS5 uses both the CPU and the video card CPU ) Step seven – if you have gotten this far and have a test time, please feel free to post a comment with your time. Don’t forget to include the photoshop version along with the CPU specs. The tests results are not effected by RAM size, so there is no need to list how much RAM your computer has.

May 2012 Update – The CS6 official version has been released and we have the first radial blur photoshop benchmark test time. Using a MacPro 2.1 running OS X 10.7.3 ( Lion ) with 2 quad core 3.0 GHz Xeon Intel CPUs on CS6, the benchmark test time was 20.7 seconds.

Sized to 700 pixels test image - Do not use this image for test - Click on image to down load test file

Image after running the test with time listed below.

February 2011 update: To quote Eddie Murphy from the movie 48 Hours, “there’s a new sheriff in town” & his name is Mac Pro with 12 cores.

A reader has sent in a new chart topping time of 9.3 seconds using the photoshop benchmark test on his brand spanking new 12 core Mac Pro. Here are the details of the machine – Mac Pro running OS X 10.6 – Dual 6 core Intel 2.93 GHz Xeon Westmere CPU – 8 GB of RAM – ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB – Tested using Photoshop CS5 64 bit – Priced at $6349 – Here’s the interesting note, the reader purchased his brand new top of the line chart busting desktop computer for video editing. He said of the new computer “nice to have a top score machine at least once”.

April 2011 Intel Sandy Bridge update: The first times with the new Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs are in and they are smoking fast for what they cost.

The first test score from an Sandy Bridge CPU was 21.5 seconds on i5-2500k (not overclocked) on a desktop computer that can be had for about $750. That time was almost equal to Intel’s previous top of the line CPU ( the Intel i7 980X 3.33 GHz ) run without overclocking and costing more than a $1000 for the CPU alone. The other test time was from the i7-2600k overclocked from 3.4 GHz to 5.1 GHz resulting in a time of 14.2 seconds. The PC desktop home built computer featuring that CPU was built for about $1700. That’s pretty amazing when you consider the time was equal to the Apple Mac Pro 6 core Xeon Westmere 3.33 GHz which costs $3700 for a comparable set up.

————————— Test Results —————————

Great news, one of the many 1000′s of people who read my blog weekly, ( ok, hundreds of people who read my blog ) preformed the radial blur test on his computer at several different over clocking speeds. This is a great way to get an apples to apples comparison for CPU test results. Without any further delay, I present the test times, computer setup, and over clocking speeds from Steve Lingeman of Burke, Virginia.

Steve’s computer with prices as purchased from newegg.com

The total build cost for the system (not including Win 7) was $2853.79 plus $35 shipping.

Printing Intructions for PC users: Once you have made all the changes you require to the the template, save it as a JPG. (Also save the PSD file) Then print the picture using the print picture funtion of the Windows viewer. Select the full page photo so that the labels are printed the correct size. Do not use the “Fit picture to frame” function which Vista has. The jpg has been sized exactly so that it prints the labels to fit on the keyboard.

Printing Instructions for Mac users: I haven’t a clue. Maybe a Apple Mac user could post their experience with the JPG file.

Side Note: You wouldn’t think you could fill up all 58 keys of the professional model, but you can. It’s great to program a Photoshop action shortcut, and the put the shortcut into the X-keys keyboard.

Photoshop PSD template file for X-keys keyboards

The PSD template file can be found HERE.

The fine folks P.I. Engineering who make the X-keys keyboard have released MacroWorks 3 which supports Windows 7, Vista, and XP Operating Systems (32/64bit).

Canon 5D Mark 2 sRAW at ISO 6400 No noise reduction. Night football

Full frame ISO 6400 image from Canon 5D Mark 2 at ISO 6400

Canon 5D Mark 2 photo ISO 6400 on sRaw with noise reduction

The image was made at the East Bay Outlaws vs Central Valley Rams game on April 11th at Freedom High School in Brentwood.

This wedding photo was made on the 5D Mark 2 at ISO 6400 in the sRAW mode. The image photographed at 1/125 at f2.8 on a Canon 70-200 zoom at 200mm. There was no noise reduction done to this photo which is a full frame image.

Full frame ISO 6400 sRAW Canon 5D mark2 wedding image with no noise reduction applied photo

This is the same wedding ceremony image with a 30% crop and noise reduction applied via Noise Ninja.

Cropped wedding photo shot using Canon 5D mark 2 sRAW with noise reduction applied photo

February 2011 Update: Nikon has announced the D800,it’s update to the very successful D700. While the camera hasn’t hit the street yet, many users have noticed that the RAW files size has jumped from 12MB on the D700 to 35MB on the D800 with no option for a smaller RAW file like Canon offers.

Just to give Nikon users an idea of what you can get from a sRAW file, I’ve linked the full sized high resolution conversion of the football photo from above. Details about the sRAW file that the conversion was made from. The image was made on a Canon 5Dmk2 in the sRAW mode. The sRAW file created was 17.0MB. The exposure settings were ISO 6400, 1/500 of a second, f4.0 using a Canon 300mm f4.0 IS lens. The file dimensions are 3861 x 2574 pixels. The conversion was done in Lightroom 3.4.1 using Camera Raw 6.4.1.

Straight from camera with brightness bump only from +50 to +65. Quality 100. No sharpening. No nothing. sRAW ISO 6400 SOOC – 5.71MB

Lightroom adjustments – Brightness +65, Quality 100. Sharpening 66, Radius 0.5, Detail 25 |  Noise Reduction – Luminance 50, Detail 50, Color 25  -  sRAW ISO 6400 with Noise Reduction and Sharpening – 5.07 MB

First a few details on the new computer. It’s a HP m9510f with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz CPU running Vista 64 bit. The video card is an Nvidia GeForce 9500 GS discrete graphics card. The computer cost $799. This can be used to see if there really is a “Mac tax”. To test the speed of CS3 vs CS4 I decided to preform a radial blur on a 2.65 MB JPG file. The test was perfomed by opening JPG Test Image in photoshop. I almost forgot, turn off all other applications so they aren’t sucking up CPU power.

Then go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur.Set the Radial Blur setting to: Amount at 100, Blur Method to Spin, and finally Quality to Best. Then click OK and time how long Photoshop takes to complete the Radial Blur. The test is designed to check only the processing power of the computer and is independent of the RAM size or the speed of the scratch disk.

OK, here’s what you have been waiting for, the results. CS4 took 19 seconds to perform the task, and CS3 on the same computer took 20 seconds. CS4 is faster using the video card CPU, but the difference seems like nothing to write home about. I also did the test using a file that was 3.3MB. CS4 performed the Radial Blur in 23 seconds while CS3 took 24 seconds. I also ran the test on the older computer which is running CS3. The specs for the old desktop PC are, HP a1250n with an AMD Dual Core 3800+ 1.99 GHz CPU running on Windows XP. ( The computer is now about 3.5 years old ) The radial blur test took 58.5 seconds on this computer. I also perfomred the test on an older laptop the has an AMD 2800+ CPU and is running Windows XP. This computer has Photoshop 7 on it. The Radial Blur test took 3 minutes and 15 seconds in Photoshop 7.

The images below show before and after pictures (reduced in size) if you have done the test correct. The before image is linked to the actual image required to preform the test.

Please feel free to download the test JPG and perform the test on your compter then post the results in the comment section.

Hei jotta Finnish vieras jotta minun blog. It olla suuresti arvostaa tokko te erota huomautus avulla sinun hohde himmenntää ajonopeus koekäyttää lopputulos odottaa nyt kuluva käänsi korjata ardor Finnish.

Image before Radial Blur – Reduced to 700 pixels wide. This picture is linked to the full size test image.

Image after Radial Blur Test – Reduced to 700 pixels wide.

Update – Here is a compilation of results from the CPU speed test.

Conclusion – Overclocking your Intel Core i7 920 gets you the most bang for your buck. The Apple Mac Pro’s can perform the test quite quickly when equipped with 2 Intel Zeon CPU’s, but that option on a Mac Pro has a starting price of $3299. Not so much bang for your buck there

Because the result times on many of the newer computers were under 10 seconds, I designed a new and improved test. It can be found HERE.

A fountain outside the Forum Shops in front of Caesars Palace.

One of the five photographers at work during the Champagne Shootout on Monday night. There was plenty of Ice Cream for the attendees, but I didn’t see any champagne.

This image is from the WPPI Master Class given by Ray Prevost. Ray’s class was about the use of Photoshop, specifically Body Shaping: Beyond Liquify.
In this image Ray shows how to correct the problem of “Giant eye”. OK, not really. Actually Ray is showing how to improve the appearance of the eyes. You can find out more about Ray’s excellent work at his website.

A wedding photographer poses a Bride and Groom outside Caesars Palace.

The construction never stops in Vegas. Here workers are hanging steel beams.

The Planet Hollywood store inside the Forum shops.

Shhh, don’t tell my wife, but I bought her this Cartier Diamond necklace for our anniversary.

Moon rise over the Palazzo Hotel.

Back home to the Bay Area.

The 2010 WPPI convention will be held March 4th – 11th at the MGM Grand Hotel and Convention Center. This year’s events include the 16th annual golf tournament at the Siena Golf Club in Las Vegas, and the 30th annivesary pool party beside MGM’s multiple outdoor pools . Some of the featured 2010 speakers include: Gregory Heislor, Mike Colon, Kevin Kubota, Mitche Graf, Marcus Bell, Jonathan Canlas, Yervant, Doug Gordon, Mike Fulton – Cody Clinton, and Jerry Ghionis. More information about the 2010 show can be found HERE.

The dates for the 2011 WPPI convention are, February 17-24, 2011.