How important is the graphics card for photo editing?

[Nordavind]

Hi all
I just bought a new pc:


-Intel quad core i5 3450 3.1 GHz socket 1155 Ivy Bridge (with integrated vga Intel HD2500)
-mobo AsRock H77 PRO4/MVP
-psu XFX Pro 550W
-16gb ram Corsair Vengeance LP
-HD WesternDigital Caviar Blue 500gb
-windows 7 home premium 64 bit


-Monitor: Dell U2412M 24'' 16:10 1920x1200px


I just bought an economic dedicated video card, Sapphire Radeon HD6450 http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=917&pid=316&psn=&lid=1# because there was some problems with the integrated graphic card (Intel HD2500)


I bought this card because I haven't much money, I hope this card it's good for photo editig. What do you think?
My dilemma: how important is the graphics card for photo editing? I don't use my pc for gaming, I use it only for internet and photo editing 2D (= adobe photoshop cs6) not 3D
Is HD 6450 a good vga for photoshop? In your opinion does a Radeon HD 6450 work fine with 24 megapixels files (Nikon D600)?



Thanks in advance for your replies, I hope I can clarify this

[David (PassMark)]

There are a number of functions in PhotoShop that are GPU accelerated.

You can find a list of them here,
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969

It is also dependent on the O/S and video card used.

Most of the functions in the list are things you aren't going to use all the time however. Plus the i5 3450 is plenty quick. So I think you'll only notice a small difference for photo editing I would think.

You would, in my opinion, be better off spending the money on a fast Solid State Drive rather than a better video card. You'll notice the speed improvement of a SSD.

The exception might be if you were editing truly massive images.