Video card for Adobe CS5 - silence please

[johnsby]

Hi,

I'm going to build a new silent pc for my wife. The PC will be dedicated to graphical design in Adobe CS5. As we already have an Antec P182 case, I will preferably reuse that. I haven't been following up on new hardware for quite a while, so to start somewhere I'm trying to figure out which video card I should choose when silence must be counted in. What I've read so far is that I should be looking for a nvidia card, but going to the full extend and choosing i.e. a GTX470 would probably be too noisy.

So if anyone has some knowledge to start me off in building this, I would appreciate it.

[Sirius]

I've had the same issue with choosing a graphic card, since i'm dealing with graphic design and Adobe CS5 tools (PS ext., Illustrator).
I've narrowed my choice to Sapphire HD 6850 and MSI GTX 460. I was concerned about 6850 because of Adobe CS5 features and nVidia's official support for Adobe (CUDA, OpenCL/GL etc.) and wanted to buy GTX 460 just because of imaginary (marketing) adds - that nVidia supports Adobe with its driver features.
There's a little demonstration on nVidia's site: http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html
- and this is nothing but pure marketing (pan zoom, and rotate! )))))

After that, i've managed to found out that AMD/ATI HD series 4000, 5000 + 6000 also support all of these CS5 OpenGL features and offer Basic, Normal and Advanced usage of OpenGL in Photoshop CS5 extended, just as nVidia. There are no restrictions or issues with AMD cards.

As i've been working in graphic design field for years, i've always used ATI cards. Now i'm building a new system and have (had) the same dilema: which card generates less noise?
Sapphire 6850 vs MSI 460 Hawk
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=61154

So far, i can see that Sapphire 6850 offers a great OpenGL acceleration with 1 GB DDR5, and consumes less power with a lower noise level than GTX 460.

[axee]

I've had the same issue with choosing a graphic card, since i'm dealing with graphic design and Adobe CS5 tools (PS ext., Illustrator).
I've narrowed my choice to Sapphire HD 6850 and MSI GTX 460. I was concerned about 6850 because of Adobe CS5 features and nVidia's official support for Adobe (CUDA, OpenCL/GL etc.) and wanted to buy GTX 460 just because of imaginary (marketing) adds - that nVidia supports Adobe with its driver features.
There's a little demonstration on nVidia's site: http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html
- and this is nothing but pure marketing (pan zoom, and rotate! )))))

After that, i've managed to found out that AMD/ATI HD series 4000, 5000 + 6000 also support all of these CS5 OpenGL features and offer Basic, Normal and Advanced usage of OpenGL in Photoshop CS5 extended, just as nVidia. There are no restrictions or issues with AMD cards.

As i've been working in graphic design field for years, i've always used ATI cards. Now i'm building a new system and have (had) the same dilema: which card generates less noise?
Sapphire 6850 vs MSI 460 Hawk
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=61154

So far, i can see that Sapphire 6850 offers a great OpenGL acceleration with 1 GB DDR5, and consumes less power with a lower noise level than GTX 460.

Why exactly are you using such a powerfull card just for 2d graphic design? I cannot find any reason, because GPU is being idle during my work, and I have HD 4670 and two 24' monitors. I use PS % IL(CS5), CD ecc.

So please explain me, what benefit do such powerfull gaming cards like 6850 or 460 bring in 2D environment?

[johnsby]

Thanks for your research on this sirius

I also suspected some marketing aspects in concern to nVidia and Adobe. Your link certainly emphasized this. Glad to read what you wrote: "There are no restrictions or issues with AMD cards." The Saphire HD 6850 did indeed score very well in this test: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3600/s ... dex19.html

I'm sure you've already been there sirius.

As for axee's input, I (she ) would prefer a video card that can manage some gaming on rare occassions. The power consumptions of the Saphire HD 6850 really appeals to me too. I'm not going to spend too much time on this hardware list, so as of now I will put Saphire HD 6850 on top of the list and work from there

Should I keep away from the Toxic edition?

[Sirius]

As for axee's input - i'm an occasional gamer and gotta play Age of Conan at least 2 hours per week That's why this video card has to manage some gaming. There is the benefit: gaming relaxation gets more creativity.

Youre welcome johnsby. I've seen this test on tweaktown.com, and ive browsed many videos with Sapphire 6850 fan noise, etc etc. )
There is a fan noise video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DwD9OAk9ls, don't know the exact noise level, but seems quiet enough
As for the Toxic edition - that card is slightly overclocked, so i guess it heats up more and generates more rpm/noise to cool the GPU.

I was concerned about Intel P55 chipset and "beloved" AMD catalyst drivers, so i've had second thoughts about motherboard as well
But, i've seen plenty of positive answers and experiences with 6850+P55 chipset so i have chosen i5-760, Kingston RAM, Corsair TX650, Sapphire HD 6850, and i have to decide for the motherboard. Plenty of boards out there, but MSI P55A-GD55 gets my attention. I will assemble it in couple of days and post some first impressions regarding silence.

[johnsby]

As i write this I'm in the middle of searching for a decent motherboard. As of now I've put Sabertooth X58 and ASUS P6X58D-E on the list. Pretty similar boards though. I know this post is placed in video cards, so I might need to take my questions elsewhere. But I assume you did some thinking before you chose to for for a P55 board. Any particular reason other than Catalyst compatibility for choosing P55?

[Sirius]

As i write this I'm in the middle of searching for a decent motherboard. As of now I've put Sabertooth X58 and ASUS P6X58D-E on the list. Pretty similar boards though. I know this post is placed in video cards, so I might need to take my questions elsewhere. But I assume you did some thinking before you chose to for for a P55 board. Any particular reason other than Catalyst compatibility for choosing P55?

X58 chipset natively supports up to 36 PCIe 2.0 lanes – P55 supports 16. If you need multi-GPU graphics (SLi or Crossfire) this is a reason to go with X58 (+ native support for USB 3.0/SATA 3).

Since i wont be using Crossfire/SLI (although plenty of P55 motherboards support it) and price/performance ratio is on P55's side - i decided to go with this chipset. New P55 motherboards support USB 3.0/SATA 3 (you can also buy an add-on card for 20$) and as far as i can see: Asus Sabertooth X58 is almost twice as expensive as some P55 models. i7 socket 1366 CPU's are also more expensive then i5/i7 s.1156 CPU's.
I decided to spend the rest of the money for more RAM and a decent PSU unit.

We can continue on PM, so this wouldn't turn to OT

[johnsby]

Let's do that. PM sent

[b_rubenstein]

So please explain me, what benefit do such powerfull gaming cards like 6850 or 460 bring in 2D environment?

There are filters and transformations in PS that are computational intensive that are speed up using open GL commands and having the work done by the video card that has hardware designed to process those commands/instructions.

[MatH]

I've set my Gigabyte GTX460 OC 1GB to work passive in 2D. Works great and all it needs is a simple bios mod. Read more here. I've also writen Gigabyte GTX460 OC 1GB specific instructions somewhere along this thread