PA272W-BK-SV Video Card Choice + Win OS

[Rowat]

I will be upgrading my Workstation shortly, and I will be purchasing a PA272W with Spectraview. I am using a Windows ecosystem and have two questions pertaining to Video Card options + OS options.

1a. On the video card front: is there a video card or family of cards that is recommended for this monitor to take advantage of all its feature (ie mainly the colour). I am not a gamer but will be using LR and PS heavily on this.

1b. If I want to drive an additional monitor (either colour managed or not) is there one card that will drive both; or is there a best practices approach with regards to using two separate cards? (and to the question above: does the answer change if one/both monitors are colour managed)?

2a. My new Workstation will be either Win7 or Win8.1 -- with regards to drivers/features are there any issue(s) that I should be aware of one way or the other with this monitor + OS + vid card drivers?

I wasn't sure whether to put this in Computers & Peripherals or Color Management, but look forward to hearing folks' experience here.


Andrew.

[Pictus]

Any modern video card can handle 2 calibrated monitors and I f you
want 30-bit output, get a Nvidia Quadro K2000.
I do not know how Photoshop CC latest version 14.2.1 is handling 30-bit, see
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5681314

[Rowat]

Pictus -

Thanks for the heads-up on that Adobe forum post. The staff who responded on that thread was singularly unhelpful. I am on CS6 for the moment so CC shouldn't be an issue for me but that is very good to know. Do you know if there are any issues with Lightroom and 10bit systems...?


Andrew.

[mlewis]

Using built in Intel graphics is not a good idea as it causes issues with the Spectraview software not being able to communicate with the monitor.  Any AMD or Nvidia card should be perfectlt able to drive this monitor and another one if you wish.  If you want 30bit video you will need a Nvidia Quadro or AMD Firepro card which cost more than the equivalent regular graphics cards.

[Craig Lamson]

Using built in Intel graphics is not a good idea as it causes issues with the Spectraview software not being able to communicate with the monitor. .

I'm not having any problems using Intel onboard graphics and Spectraview on two different Mac minis...

[Pictus]

Pictus -

Thanks for the heads-up on that Adobe forum post. The staff who responded on that thread was singularly unhelpful. I am on CS6 for the moment so CC shouldn't be an issue for me but that is very good to know. Do you know if there are any issues with Lightroom and 10bit systems...?

Andrew.

You are welcome, I am not a Lightroom user, but from what I know it does not support 10bit, only Photoshop supports.

[mlewis]

I'm not having any problems using Intel onboard graphics and Spectraview on two different Mac minis...

Things may be different on Apple kit but there are issues under Windows.

[Craig Lamson]

Things may be different on Apple kit but there are issues under Windows.

From another post in this forum

Hi, Sorry was on my phone for the last response. Here is a copy of the email with the link to the file.

Cheers,

Ned

Thank you for your support question.
 
Software support for the new Intel Haswell based graphics is not included in the currently released version of SpectraView. However we have a patch available which should work on your system if you are interested in trying it.
 
Here are the instructions for using the new version:
 
1. Close SpectraView.
 
2. Download and unzip this file:
http://www.necds-engineering.com/released/nec_MONAPI2_beta_131118_Haswell_test.zip
 
3. In this folder on your system:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\
[Assuming you are using the 64 bit version of Windows]
 
Create a backup of the existing file called “MONAPI2.dll”.
 
4. Replace the file in “C:\Windows\SysWOW64\” with the MONAPI2.dll file from the zip in step 1.
 
5. Start SpectraView. Check if it detected any displays. You may need to go into the “Edit -> Display Configuration” and see if it is detected and communicates correctly.
 
6. If it doesn’t work correctly, then replace the file from the backup in step 3.
 
Best Regards
 
Will Hollingworth
Senior Manager - Product Development
NEC Display Solutions of America Inc.

[mlewis]

That doesn't work for me unfortunately. I am in the UK so don't use the US Spectraview software.

[Lightsmith]

I found that going to the Giga GeForce 640 card helped with rendering large numbers of images when reviewing them in Bridge. It will also help with video and it is not super power hungry though it does take up two PCI slots. I bought it in part for better performance for video editing and not for gaming.