Confused about graphics cards?

[Bonito]

Hi everyone,
Before I purchase my new iMac, I have a question. I am confused as
to which would be the best graphics card to get. I will me mainly using
it for photoshop, not gaming, but still I want the fastest. I was under the
assumption that the NVIDIA was the newest, best, but when I look on
the Apple site and check the speed test ratings for the games, the
Radeon is the clear winner. Any input would be appreciated.


NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory

[In2Photos]

Any of those cards will be fine. I'm running a Radeon 3450! ;) So the 4850 should easily be able to handle it.

[tim]

Does CS4 like nVidia or ATI cards?

[ChasP505]

I thought I read something several months ago suggesting nVidia is preferable.

[gcogger]

I thought I read something several months ago suggesting nVidia is preferable.

Several years ago, ATI had a habit of releasing drivers that prevented monitor calibration software from working properly as they were unable to load the LUT on startup. They'd fix it in the next driver release, then break it again a while later (ATI regarded it as a 'feature' not a bug, intended to fix some issues when exiting games). I wonder if this is what you've heard, Chas?

Because of this (and a few other driver issues) I stopped using ATI cards a few years back, but I expect it's been sorted out by now.

[René Damkot]

Cards tested with PSCS4:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405711.html

limitations:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html

[TTk]

The NVIDIA GeForce GT130, with 512MB of GDDR3 will be more than enough I use this one and have CS4, L/R2 and DPP open altogether at times with No ill effect on my system.

[MaxxuM]

Hi everyone,
Before I purchase my new iMac, I have a question. I am confused as
to which would be the best graphics card to get. I will me mainly using
it for photoshop, not gaming, but still I want the fastest. I was under the
assumption that the NVIDIA was the newest, best, but when I look on
the Apple site and check the speed test ratings for the games, the
Radeon is the clear winner. Any input would be appreciated.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory

Like others of said, any of those cards would be fine. However, since upgrading in the future will be limited I would always opt for the fastest part available. So, I would get the 4850 for 'down the road' speed.

[basroil]

Like others of said, any of those cards would be fine. However, since upgrading in the future will be limited I would always opt for the fastest part available. So, I would get the 4850 for 'down the road' speed.

With iMacs, upgrading is not limited, it's practically non-existant. Limited means you can only get a few dozen types (in modern computers), apple will wash their hands if third party parts breaks the OS or hardware, making the market small and the suppliers even smaller. Not to mention form factor limitations.

However, if you only want to use it for PS, then a larger memory cache will be better than a faster card. Most filters are CPU only, and most cards are capable of handeling large files with ease, even the slowest ones on the market (that are still PCIE 4x or better, and some of the laptop versions)

[MaxxuM]

With iMacs, upgrading is not limited, it's practically non-existant. Limited means you can only get a few dozen types (in modern computers), apple will wash their hands if third party parts breaks the OS or hardware, making the market small and the suppliers even smaller. Not to mention form factor limitations.

However, if you only want to use it for PS, then a larger memory cache will be better than a faster card. Most filters are CPU only, and most cards are capable of handeling large files with ease, even the slowest ones on the market (that are still PCIE 4x or better, and some of the laptop versions)

I don't see the benefit of debating between limited and practically non-existent. We were speaking about the iMac and Apple, not PC's. And Apple has shown it's willingness to increase and extend support of their third party parts if something goes wrong. Instead of bashing Apple and the OP choice you could have simply stated that you agreed, upgrading now would be optimal in their case because down the road they will not be able to.

I'm not too sure your statement that most PS filters are CPU only is accurate. I would think that many are memory [bus] hogs as well. And as for video cards, yes, almost any would be capable of doing a fine job of rendering images below 512MB without issue; once you get to the larger RAW files some of the smaller video cards may not be able to rasterize these images smoothly onto a screen when being moved - e.g. you'll start seeing the redrawing of an image sliding across the screen when the buffers are full.