Posted by Rob Graham on September 17, 2015 at 1:36 PM
Hello. I upgraded to Win 10, and now my old Nvidia card doesn't work. What is a good video card for photography use, under $150? I don't game at all on the computer. I know $150 isn't a lot, but it is going to have to do.
Take a look at the nVidia GE Force GTX 750. This card has 2GB VRAM and is also passively cooled (no fan to add noise). The reviews on this card have been very good. The street price should be close to your budget.
That looks like a great card for you. Since it doesn't need a lot of power, the fan is powered through the PCi slot, rather than requiring power from the PSU.
After your receive card, download the latest driver from nVidia. Once you get the card installed and see that it's working, install the new driver. You should be good to go!
Let us know how it's working for you.
--P
Posted by Rob Graham on October 18, 2015 at 11:40 PM
Overall, I am happy with the card. The extra memory plus better card has made using Topaz Impression much faster and a more pleasant experience.
One issue that I have noticed, and I don't know if it is the card or something else going on. I am seeing more posterization and increased contrast on a lot of images. This is most noticeable in CC, so I checked in DPP with the same results. I have used FastStone viewer for years to view the images before processing, and it isn't showing this issue. I assume it is using the embedded jpg file for display. However, when I compared screen captures of the same image, one in FS and one in CC, the difference was visible.
The most visible contrast differences between the programs comes in the shadows. The deep blues and turquoise/cyan are especially bad. I was thinking it was just me, until I saw some images on Facebook that showed the same posterization. Knowing the photographers, I don't think they would find those images acceptable. I went and looked back at some of my old FB nightscapes, and they showed horrible banding. I could have messed them up, and not seen the banding back then, but it is such an extreme that I doubt it.
My monitor is a Dell 2209WA, which is several years old. I installed Win 10, then updated the video card. I assume CC is displaying the image properly, but I don't know why the display is so different between the programs when it wasn't before the various upgrades. Any ideas?
Hmmm? It looks like you're getting some tonal compression in the monitor's grey scale response. This could cause banding and increase in apparent contrast.
What are you using to calibrate and profile your monitor?
Here are few things to check...
Right click start and open Open Device Manager. Click the arrow adjacent to "Display adapters". It should show your current video card. Right click your card and select 'Properties". Look at the "General" and "Driver" tabs to be sure all is good.
If you are using a colorimeter and calibration software, open the nVidia Control Panel. Under "Display", click on "Adjust desktop color settings". Ensure that the "Other applications control color settings " radio button is ticked.
In PS-CC go to Edit>Color Settings. Click the down arrow in RGB. Your monitor profile should be listed there. (Do not select it). If it is not there, your system is not seeing the profile. (See below how to install your monitor profile)
For some weird reason, PS needs your monitor profile to be installed even if you're using Adobe RGB, or some other profile as your PS default.
How to install your monitor profile...
Open File Explorer
Navigate to Windows>System 32>Spool>Drivers>Color
Once there you'll see a long list of profiles. Scroll down and find your monitor profile. If it's not there, you'll need to create one using your calibration software. If the profile is in the Color folder, right click it and select "Install Profile". Note that most profiling software will do this automatically, but sometimes not, so it's always a good idea to check this after calibrating.
I hope these tips help you resolve the issue. Post back and let us know what's up.
--P
Posted by Rob Graham on October 26, 2015 at 11:52 PM
Preston, thank you for the long response. I missed it when you posted it. I don't use a monitor calibration device. I was doing some more research tonight and finally found the answer in this Adobe link.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1942474
Win 10 installed a monitor profile for my monitor, which is the a bad profile. By following the advice in that post, I was able to fix the display issue. Photoshop and Firefox both display images properly now :). My gut told me it had to be something along the lines of a profile issue, since it was happening in mulitple color managed programs. If I had seen your post sooner, I might have solved it without as much frustration.
Happy to hear you got the color issue sorted out! I had forgotton the Control Panel applet for setting the default monitor profile. That method is certainly easier than drilling down in the Windows folder.
I strongly encourage that you obtain calibration hardware and software. Creating a profile for your specific monitor will give you more accurate color and grey scale rendering. There are some nice tools out there that will get the job done.
I am going to post the procedure for defining a default monitor profile in a separate thread for those who may have the same issue after upgrading to Win 10.
Discussion
9 repliesHello. I upgraded to Win 10, and now my old Nvidia card doesn't work. What is a good video card for photography use, under $150? I don't game at all on the computer. I know $150 isn't a lot, but it is going to have to do.
thanks.
Rob,
Take a look at the nVidia GE Force GTX 750. This card has 2GB VRAM and is also passively cooled (no fan to add noise). The reviews on this card have been very good. The street price should be close to your budget.
Edit: Here's more info from Puget Systems
This card will have plenty of juice for imaging and non-gaming use.
--P
Thanks, Preston. The price is right, and the info on it sounds good. I like the no fan part.
Cool. Happy to help.
You need to be sure you have good airflow in the machine's case and over the heat sink on the card so that it will stay cool.
If you can't gaurantee adequate cooling, you might consider a card with a fan.
--P
Yep, probably going to end up with the Ti version of the card. Same money, slightly better specs, fan cooled.
That looks like a great card for you. Since it doesn't need a lot of power, the fan is powered through the PCi slot, rather than requiring power from the PSU.
After your receive card, download the latest driver from nVidia. Once you get the card installed and see that it's working, install the new driver. You should be good to go!
Let us know how it's working for you.
--P
One issue that I have noticed, and I don't know if it is the card or something else going on. I am seeing more posterization and increased contrast on a lot of images. This is most noticeable in CC, so I checked in DPP with the same results. I have used FastStone viewer for years to view the images before processing, and it isn't showing this issue. I assume it is using the embedded jpg file for display. However, when I compared screen captures of the same image, one in FS and one in CC, the difference was visible.
The most visible contrast differences between the programs comes in the shadows. The deep blues and turquoise/cyan are especially bad. I was thinking it was just me, until I saw some images on Facebook that showed the same posterization. Knowing the photographers, I don't think they would find those images acceptable. I went and looked back at some of my old FB nightscapes, and they showed horrible banding. I could have messed them up, and not seen the banding back then, but it is such an extreme that I doubt it.
My monitor is a Dell 2209WA, which is several years old. I installed Win 10, then updated the video card. I assume CC is displaying the image properly, but I don't know why the display is so different between the programs when it wasn't before the various upgrades. Any ideas?
Hmmm? It looks like you're getting some tonal compression in the monitor's grey scale response. This could cause banding and increase in apparent contrast.
What are you using to calibrate and profile your monitor?
Here are few things to check...
- Right click start and open Open Device Manager. Click the arrow adjacent to "Display adapters". It should show your current video card. Right click your card and select 'Properties". Look at the "General" and "Driver" tabs to be sure all is good.
- If you are using a colorimeter and calibration software, open the nVidia Control Panel. Under "Display", click on "Adjust desktop color settings". Ensure that the "Other applications control color settings " radio button is ticked.
- In PS-CC go to Edit>Color Settings. Click the down arrow in RGB. Your monitor profile should be listed there. (Do not select it). If it is not there, your system is not seeing the profile. (See below how to install your monitor profile)
For some weird reason, PS needs your monitor profile to be installed even if you're using Adobe RGB, or some other profile as your PS default.How to install your monitor profile...
- Open File Explorer
- Navigate to Windows>System 32>Spool>Drivers>Color
- Once there you'll see a long list of profiles. Scroll down and find your monitor profile. If it's not there, you'll need to create one using your calibration software. If the profile is in the Color folder, right click it and select "Install Profile". Note that most profiling software will do this automatically, but sometimes not, so it's always a good idea to check this after calibrating.
I hope these tips help you resolve the issue. Post back and let us know what's up.--P
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1942474
Win 10 installed a monitor profile for my monitor, which is the a bad profile. By following the advice in that post, I was able to fix the display issue. Photoshop and Firefox both display images properly now :). My gut told me it had to be something along the lines of a profile issue, since it was happening in mulitple color managed programs. If I had seen your post sooner, I might have solved it without as much frustration.
thank you for all your help, Rob
Happy to hear you got the color issue sorted out! I had forgotton the Control Panel applet for setting the default monitor profile. That method is certainly easier than drilling down in the Windows folder.
I strongly encourage that you obtain calibration hardware and software. Creating a profile for your specific monitor will give you more accurate color and grey scale rendering. There are some nice tools out there that will get the job done.
I am going to post the procedure for defining a default monitor profile in a separate thread for those who may have the same issue after upgrading to Win 10.
--P