Graphics Cards

AndrewSt · 26 Sep 2016

Putting a build together and struggling with what graphic card to go for. Nearly all Lightroom work with 2 monitors and some photoshop. Any recommendations, maybe £200 to spend.

Brazo · 26 Sep 2016

Ok you don't need one for Photoshop and your integrated gpu assuming it's fairly modern will handle two screens.however if you must (and I would

) £200 will buy you a 4GB AMD RX 480 maybe even an 8gb version if you shop around.

Mr Bump · 27 Sep 2016

yeah exactly as @Brazo you really don't need one if your integrated gpu is reasonably new. if you want to save pennies then some of the older nvidia GTX650Ti stuff is rocket ship for phot shop and lightroom.

neil_g · 27 Sep 2016

what resolution are the 2 screens?

AndrewSt · 27 Sep 2016

Two Dell U2515H monitors 2560*1440

neil_g · 27 Sep 2016

the cpu based GPU should be fine for 2D work then.

the 5th gen i5-5200U for example that has the 5500 GPU supports:

Max Resolution (HDMI 1.4)‡ 2560X1600@60Hz
Max Resolution (DP)‡ 3840x2160@60Hz
# of Displays Supported ‡ 3

start pushing it with any GPU intensive apps and it may start to struggle however.

retrosi · 28 Sep 2016

Now the ten series Nvidia cards (1060/70/80) are out the 9 series (960/70/80) have price cuts.
However, I have seen very keen prices on the ten series as well.
Ebuyer have a 3gb gtx1060 for £192.99
Which is £25 cheaper than my gtx970 I bought 2 months ago.
I have 4gb gtx970 and this gtx1060 has 3gb memory but the extra punch it gives overrides the 1gb less.

Brazo · 28 Sep 2016

retrosi said:
Now the ten series Nvidia cards (1060/70/80) are out the 9 series (960/70/80) have price cuts.
However, I have seen very keen prices on the ten series as well.
Ebuyer have a 3gb gtx1060 for £192.99
Which is £25 cheaper than my gtx970 I bought 2 months ago.
I have 4gb gtx970 and this gtx1060 has 3gb memory but the extra punch it gives overrides the 1gb less.

A 970 will more or less match a 3gb 1060. Not for VR but a 970 overclocks very well and tbh it won't be a noticeable difference. A 1070 will

Jimbu · 29 Sep 2016

A dedicated graphics card for that sort of work would be overkill. But with that budget you could go for either an rx 480 or Nvidia 1060

Snapsh0t · 29 Sep 2016

neil_g said:
the cpu based GPU should be fine for 2D work then.

the 5th gen i5-5200U for example that has the 5500 GPU supports:

Max Resolution (HDMI 1.4)‡ 2560X1600@60Hz
Max Resolution (DP)‡ 3840x2160@60Hz
# of Displays Supported ‡ 3

start pushing it with any GPU intensive apps and it may start to struggle however.

The only issue I can foresee with that is what the motherboard actually supports. A quick look shows that you have to buy a high-end motherboard to get both HDMI and DP.
The GPUs most people are suggesting are way over the top for non-gaming applications and the humble GTX750ti or a GTX950 are more than enough and would provide the necessary connectivity via DVI-DL.

Broken · 29 Sep 2016

Snapsh0t said:
The only issue I can foresee with that is what the motherboard actually supports. A quick look shows that you have to buy a high-end motherboard to get both HDMI and DP.
The GPUs most people are suggesting are way over the top for non-gaming applications and the humble GTX750ti or a GTX950 are more than enough and would provide the necessary connectivity via DVI-DL.

^--- what he said i work for Asus, and i currently use Asus GTX950 on sli bridge and work perfectly fine with multi screens. photoshop and lightroom etc, they even run games fine if you wanted to use them i dont personally. but stuff higher end they will struggle on ultra

neil_g · 29 Sep 2016

Snapsh0t said:
The only issue I can foresee with that is what the motherboard actually supports. A quick look shows that you have to buy a high-end motherboard to get both HDMI and DP.
The GPUs most people are suggesting are way over the top for non-gaming applications and the humble GTX750ti or a GTX950 are more than enough and would provide the necessary connectivity via DVI-DL.

not necessarily.

just found a sub £70 4th gen intel board with HDMI and DP.

im sure there are more out there.

AndrewSt · 29 Sep 2016

Broken said:
^--- what he said i work for Asus, and i currently use Asus GTX950 on sli bridge and work perfectly fine with multi screens. photoshop and lightroom etc, they even run games fine if you wanted to use them i dont personally. but stuff higher end they will struggle on ultra

Looking at the ASUS Z170-A motherboard.....good option?

Broken · 29 Sep 2016

AndrewSt said:
Looking at the ASUS Z170-A motherboard.....good option?

its a good board dude,

but if your only using your system for photos and video rendering etc

the X99 series is better for that esp with a top end CPU but it comes with a price so would be down to budget

im actually using a gaming mobo for my build and then i can overclock stuff if needed

Brazo · 29 Sep 2016

Snapsh0t said:
The only issue I can foresee with that is what the motherboard actually supports. A quick look shows that you have to buy a high-end motherboard to get both HDMI and DP.
The GPUs most people are suggesting are way over the top for non-gaming applications and the humble GTX750ti or a GTX950 are more than enough and would provide the necessary connectivity via DVI-DL.

I do agree but as we've all said the igpu is overkill so anything better would be errr.... overkill

The GPU's suggested simply reflect the budget of the OP.

Major Eazy · 2 Oct 2016

AndrewSt said:
Putting a build together and struggling with what graphic card to go for. Nearly all Lightroom work with 2 monitors and some photoshop. Any recommendations, maybe £200 to spend.

Any will do.

Just that worry about what kind of output ports those cards got, and the size of the cards to go into the computer.

For example: If your monitors comes with the option of using HDMI and DisplayPort, and you decided to go for using HDMI with both monitors, rather than one monitor is plugged in with the HDMI lead, while the other is plugged in with the DisplayPort, then better make sure the graphic card you want to buy should have two HDMI ports (or 2x DP ports if you opt for using DisplayPort) rather than a card that got 1x HDMI, 1x DP, 1x blah, 1x blah.

Of course, on the other hand, using two different leads helps avoid confutation between the two. For example: Monitor A use HDMI while Monitor B use DP, if Monitor B is not working correctly, and you know your software drivers, settings, etc., are all correctly set up. Makes senses to check the DisplayPort cable to see it is properly plugged in and check for damages (ie bitten by a mouse). Rather than if they both used (say for example HDMI) you wasted time checking one cable only to find out you were checking the cable for Monitor A, and say to yourself "Oh! It's the other cable!"

But then again, most people tend to stick a piece of masking tape to the leads, and write notes on it, to help know which is which.

And make sure you know how much room you have inside the computer, no point in buying a card only to find it is bit too big to fit in. Some of those graphic cards can have two fans, making it feels bit thick, like taking up two bays. Some are so high that once you put them in, you find you can't close the case cover.

Mine is MSi GeForce GTX 960 (can't remember how much it cost) and it works fine for Ligthroom and Photoshop. But I chose it not because of memory, processor, stuff like that, I chose it because it got 3x DP in addition to 1x HMDI and I have two monitors, both of them using DisplayPort, plus I had to make sure the card can fit into the computer case.

Graphics Cards

From under the bridge