Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: jani on July 25, 2005, 03:57:41 pm

Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: jani on July 25, 2005, 03:57:41 pm
Based on earlier discussions in these discussion boards (you know you can search them, right?), I think I dare to summarize in the following way:

1) Graphics cards

ATI and Matrox deliver cards with good to superb performance. Check that they can deliver the resolution and refresh rate of the display(s) you intend to buy.

Both ATI and Matrox cards exist in fanless versions; Matrox cards usually are, but for ATI you usually have to look around a bit (but not much) for "silent" versions like the "Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Atlantis".


2) Affordable or semi-affordable but decent LCD monitors

Apple Cinema 20" (16:9)
Dell 2005 FPW (20" 16:9)
Dell 2405 FPW (24" 16:9)
Samsung 213T (21" 4:3)

Not so affordable:

Apple Cinema HD 23" (16:9)
EIZO ColorEdge CG21/CG210 (21" 4:3)
EIZO ColorEdge CG220 (22" 16:9)
LaCie 321 (21" 4:3)
LaCie photon20visionII (20" 4:3)
Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: jliechty on July 26, 2005, 02:04:34 pm
PCI-E is faster in theory, but as far as I know, the "slower" AGP is not a problem in reality. This may change in the future as newer, faster cards are released, but even then, it is certainly not an issue that should be of concern to photographers.

For what it's worth, I use a Samsung 213T and Gigabyte-made Nvidia Geforce 6600 PCI-E with fanless heatsink.
Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: jani on July 26, 2005, 05:04:51 pm
Quote
Thanks for the recommendations and advice... and I would welcome any more thoughts anyone might share.  I have searched the postings here and found a lot of helpful info.  All very much appreciated.

But I'm still struck by the scarcity of comprehensive online reviews and side-by-side comparisons for key components as used daily by photograhers.  When it comes to cameras, every pixel gets peeped and re-peeped. But nary a peep (from photog POV) about display cards, the latest film scanners, or low and mid-priced LCDs.  

Why are new cameras so sexy and everything else so chopped liver?
There are plenty of reviews of mid- or low-priced LCDs that tell you exactly what you need to know as a photographer.

1) That there is variation in the lighting levels across the screen's surface
2) That the contrast, brightness and color representation of the image changes depending on viewing angle
3) How faithful it is to reproducing reds as reds, greens as greens, blues as blues
4) How black is black, and how white is white

If neither of these are up to snuff, then I don't really see the need for a "photographer's review" of the same monitor; it's already failed the basic tests. I guess the only salveagable points are #3 and #4, which could be helped by calibration unless the values are off by too much.

While I don't know exactly what you mean by "low and mid-priced LCDs", I'm afraid it may be difficult to find monitors that are good in that segment. Good for gamers, yes, no problem at all. The focus in that segment is more on the number of milliseconds for refreshing the screen than on photographic reproduction.


As for graphics cards, as long as you're using DVI connectors and the bit depth, resolution and refresh rate are supported in DVI mode, it shouldn't make much of a difference.

PCIe, PCI-X, PCI or AGP should be completely irrelevant for a card primarily used for 2D images, though you might want it to use AGP or PCIe, so that it won't suffer from bandwidth contention on the PCI bus from other peripherals.
Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: mschubb on July 25, 2005, 02:43:08 pm
Are PC gamers the only people who buy graphics cards?

Been having a lot of trouble finding thoughtful reviews of video cards (PC) from a photographer's perspective.  (As a further wrinkle, I'm hoping to find an fanless AGP card to keep my Shuttle XPC as quiet as possible.)   The conventional wisdom -- which I suspect is faulty -- is that any old card will do, except for gaming.

Any recommendations or links to sites would be much appreciated.  

There also seems to be a similar lack of good photo-minded reviews for affordable LCDs with decent color and dynamic range.

Help there also appreciated.

Thanks,
Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: tived on July 26, 2005, 02:14:37 am
I think that sums it up.

Though I haven't gone Matrox this time around, I have always been very happy with Matrox Parhelia, but you can also look at the P-series which i think comes in all flavours PCI, PCIe and AGP, so take your pick.

Note that PCIe is the faster connector atm AFAIK

www.matrox.com
www.ati.com

:-)

Henrik
Title: DVI Video Cards?
Post by: mschubb on July 26, 2005, 02:56:30 pm
Thanks for the recommendations and advice... and I would welcome any more thoughts anyone might share.  I have searched the postings here and found a lot of helpful info.  All very much appreciated.

But I'm still struck by the scarcity of comprehensive online reviews and side-by-side comparisons for key components as used daily by photograhers.  When it comes to cameras, every pixel gets peeped and re-peeped. But nary a peep (from photog POV) about display cards, the latest film scanners, or low and mid-priced LCDs.  

Why are new cameras so sexy and everything else so chopped liver?