Do I Need a Super Computer for AI?

Topaz has been using Ai for a while now, with Adobe including Denoise in Lightroom Classic and Ai Generative Fill in Photoshop, Ai is now mainstream.  You may have seen your old Windows and Mac OS systems struggling a little when you run things like Denoise in LRC or Topaz. If so, the first thing you think about is do you need an upgrade or a new system.  It’s not as easy as that, buying the wrong system or upgrading the wrong components may not give you what you need.I’ve run tests with 3 systems, all running the same version of Lightroom Classic, all editing the same 45mp RAW file from a Canon EOS R5 stored on the local NVMe M.2 SSDs, all connected to the same two 4K 27″ monitors.System 1 – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2– 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1280P vPro® Processor– 32GB RAM DDR5-6400– Intel® Iris® Xe GraphicsThis is a high-end ultra-lightweight laptop designed for travel.

System 2 – Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 5– 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-12900H vPro® Processor– 64GB RAM DDR5-4800– NVIDIA®GeForce RTX™3080Ti 16GBProfessional workstation laptop, designed for CAD and graphics users.

System 3 – Lenovo ThinkStation P5– Intel® Xeon® W5-2455X Processor– 128GB RAM DDR5-4800– NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 16GBProfessional workstation, designed for CAD and graphics users.

Please watch the videos and see the results. If you look at the task manager in each video, the CPU and RAM are not maxed out, but the GPU is.Results:System 1 – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 – Over 7 minutesSystem 2 – Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 5 – 33 secondsSystem 3 – Lenovo ThinkStation P5 – 17 seconds Take off a few seconds to start the clock and then move the mouse to Denoise.I think this is clear proof you need to spend the money on a good GPU. How much do you need to spend? £380 will buy you a good GPU, ask Bradley, his was £380. If you compare the difference between systems 2 & 3, you can see you don’t need to go for £1000 plus GPU, £350-400 will buy you a GPU that will provide results in seconds, not minutes.