Graphics card advice.

[Mark von Kanel]

I have an NEC PA27W monitor but unfortunately my built in graphics chip and motherboard doesnt support its native resolution of 2560 x 1440.... it all looks a bit weird at the moment!

So ithought id spring for a graphics card. What a minefield! I thought id sorted it out but then noticed that the monitor supports 10 bit colour depth but only through the display port connection....

Then i noticed that all of the cards i was looking at dont support 10 bit in the format that photoshop does.... and if i wanted to do that id have to buy a "pro" card.... CA CHING!

Am i being stupid by wanting the 10 bit depth?
what graphics cards are you guys using?

Yet another colour space thread OMG !!

[HaseebM]

My nVidia 560 ti zips through all files and latest games. Any graphic card which supports 256 bit and in the main series ( not the drop down for eg., 760 to 750 ) from either nVidia or AMD will work fine. I am actually surprised that PS utilizes the graphic card to an extent, the heat goes up to 52 C, almost as much as playing a game at Ultra settings.

Also your processor needs to be on par. I have i5-3570K overclocked to 4.20 ghz with suitable Noctua cooler and 16 gb of ram.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Haseeb, All of the cards i am considering a a higher spec than that so i have no worrys about performance for processing speed/power BUT if im using a prophoto colourspace in photoshop/lightroom on a monitor that can display 10 bit depth but using a card that processes at 8 bits then it all seems a bit silly and i might as well process in SRGB and by done with it!!

at least thats what i think is the case anyway

[HaseebM]

This is from Nvidia's FAQ and hope it helps.

Quote: NVIDIA Geforce graphics cards have offered 10-bit per color out to a full screen Direct X surface since the Geforce 200 series GPUs. Due to the way most applications use traditional Windows API functions to create the application UI and viewport display, this method is not used for professional applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. These programs use OpenGL 10-bit per color buffers which require an NVIDIA Quadro GPU with DisplayPort connector. A small number of monitors support 10-bit per color with Quadro graphics cards over DVI. For more information on NVIDIA professional line of Quadro GPUs, please visit:Unquote.

[Mark von Kanel]

This is from Nvidia's FAQ and hope it helps.

Quote: NVIDIA Geforce graphics cards have offered 10-bit per color out to a full screen Direct X surface since the Geforce 200 series GPUs. Due to the way most applications use traditional Windows API functions to create the application UI and viewport display, this method is not used for professional applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. These programs use OpenGL 10-bit per color buffers which require an NVIDIA Quadro GPU with DisplayPort connector. A small number of monitors support 10-bit per color with Quadro graphics cards over DVI. For more information on NVIDIA professional line of Quadro GPUs, please visit:Unquote.

Hi Haseeb.

yes i had read that. ive gone down the Quadro route, the guys at scan really helped me out and ive managed to get an opengl format card for 2 displays for £140 so im all sorted, and i can expand to 4 displays for an extra £80 useing the display port 1.2 system. so all is good i now have the best colour space workflow thats achievable for my equipment

Its no good for gaming but i dont play games so hey ho!

[IzzieK]

Mark -- welcome back to the real world! Are you back on land yet? Just asking. I nearly wrote you a PM of welcome...

Anyway, I am also using the same NVidia GEForce series like Haseeb and it works very well for me. I had chosen that for the graphics capabilities that Photoshop requires as standard CUDA.