New benchmarks from UL help content creators choose a PC

Over the last year, we’ve seen a lot of interest in a new category of PCs designed for content creators. With high-end specifications and serious styling, these new creator PCs are being marketed to animators, designers, photographers, videographers, musicians and other digital content creators.

Today, to meet growing demand from our press and retail partners, we’re releasing two new benchmarks for measuring the performance of creator PCs. These two benchmarks use popular Adobe applications to test PC performance for photo editing and video editing work.

Creativity unleashed

Enthusiast creators now have easy access to many of the same software tools used by professionals. Add increasingly powerful, yet affordable PC hardware, and creators have everything they need to develop their talent and unlock their potential.

For creators who make a living from their craft, focus and productivity are key. When the process gets in the way, creativity suffers. Even the smallest interruption can break the flow. Longer delays from loading images or exporting video files are even more frustrating.

Creator PCs promise to smooth out the wrinkles in the production process. Many manufacturers are now offering dedicated systems for content creators. Benchmark scores offer an easy way for creators to compare the performance of these different systems.

Helping creators buy from PC retailers

UL is working with consumer electronics retailers to help people choose the right PC for their needs and budget. Retailers use benchmark scores and testing data from UL to categorize and sort the PCs, notebooks and laptops they offer. UL is currently working with more than fifteen major consumer electronics retailers worldwide.

UL uses a range of benchmarks to test aspects of performance from everyday web browsing and personal productivity, to how well a system handles the latest games and virtual reality experiences. Retailers use this benchmarking data at the point of sale to help their customers make informed buying decisions.

Today, UL is releasing two new benchmarks that help retailers communicate the capabilities of PCs designed for content creators.

UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark

UL Procyon benchmarks use real applications to test performance whenever possible. The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark uses Adobe®️ Lightroom®️ Classic and Adobe®️ Photoshop®️ in a typical photo editing workflow that includes batch processing and image retouching.

The benchmark starts by importing Digital Negative (DNG) image files into Adobe Lightroom Classic and applying various presets. Some images are cropped, straightened and modified. In the second part of the test, multiple edits and layer effects are applied to a photograph in Adobe Photoshop. The benchmark score is a measure of how quickly the PC performs these tasks.

Photo editing performance depends on the CPU, GPU and storage working together. Using relevant Adobe applications ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the system as a whole.

The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark is compatible with Adobe Lightroom Classic 10.0 and Adobe Photoshop 22.0 and higher. You must have the relevant Adobe applications installed and licensed in order to run the benchmark.

The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark is available now. Single-seat licenses for professional users start at $995 (USD) per year.

UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark uses Adobe®️ Premiere®️ Pro in a typical video editing workflow.

The benchmark starts by importing two video project files. The project timelines include various edits, adjustments and effects. The second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects. Each video project is exported in Full HD encoded with H.264 and again in 4K UHD encoded with HEVC (H.265). The benchmark score is based on the time taken to export all four videos.

Exporting video files from Premiere Pro is dead time to a creator. Even short videos can take several minutes to export. Longer sequences with layers, color grading and complex effects may take an hour or longer. A faster PC takes less time to export video files, giving more time back to the creator.

Video editing performance depends on the CPU, GPU and storage working together. Using relevant Adobe applications ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the system as a whole.

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark is compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro 14.5 and higher. You must have the relevant Adobe applications installed and licensed in order to run the benchmark.

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark is available now. Single-seat licenses for professional users start at $995 (USD) per year. 

About UL Procyon benchmarks

UL Procyon is a new suite of benchmark tests for professional users in industry, enterprise, government, retail and press roles. Each Procyon benchmark shares a common approach to design, user experience and features to better meet the needs of professional users. Find out more about UL Procyon benchmarks.