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Ok guys, what sort of graphics card do you think would be adequate for photo editing, its just i am looking at buying an iMac, and wondered if a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128 MB, would be suitable for my photo editing needs? Its mainly just LR, sometimes i use Gimp, although might be getting a full version of PS, when i get a Mac, and start doing more advanced stuff! Although, please bear in mind, i NEVER play games, (have a PS2 for that )
Thanks

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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I might be wrong, but i'm pretty sure gfx cards have nothing to say when it comes to photo editing programs.
Only thing is that the vista interface can be set to use ur gfx card, so a little power might be needed for that. Shouldn't be a lot though.

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Jake

Canon EOS 400D + EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF 50mm f/1.8
My Photos - My webpage (danish)

I think PS CS4 has some acceleration features which can use the gfx, but for everything else it makes practically no difference. Even then, I wouldn't worry about it.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
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3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Ok, thanks, its just the iMacs are so expensive, and i wondered if i really needed that 256MB graphics card! Also the baseline spec iMac should be fine for my editing and general use needs? Or would it be worth getting the 2.66ghz model? I am going to get a bigger HD, when i do get one!

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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Whats with everyone getting macs =(

Just put OS X on your pc - so much faster.

And unless your using an Nvidia Quadro, ATI Fire GL or a very high end card thats supported in assisting rendering (e.g. Geforce 8800, 9800, GTX 260, 280) then it will make little difference.


But honestly, do you really want a mac? If so why? if one of the factors is speed, your not getting that with an iMac - not even the highest end one.

Go get a Cheap Q6600 quad core, decent motherboard, overclock the crap out of it, grab 8GB DDR2 (its dirt cheap) and maybe a GeForce GTX 260 or a 8800GT. Spend the rest on a good screen.

PS those cards are 512Mb and above in the pc, the cpu has double the coures, over double the L2 Cache, and the memory is just as fast.

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
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I tried, putting Leopard on my laptop, and suceeded, although, i have hundreds of iMacs at school, and you couldn't get close to the experience you have on a real iMac, compared to my laptop! I tend to prefer Macs, they just seem different, but if i do get a iMac, i will still have a Windows based laptop (currently running W7)! Also i am a big fan of Modern Simplicity Although i still very much see the appeal of say a Dell Studio....... Although, DD you hav really made me think there, i am now confused again, ahhhhh!

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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I wouldn't go there

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Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm IS
Knowledge of Photography: Hours of reading and videos.
Computer: iMac 24inch 3.06Ghz 4gb ram 500gb HD Nvidia 8800 GS 512mb

If you have CS4 and you have video card that supports Open GL, then your looking at faster rendering of images, specially when working with 3D imaging as well as larger files. Of course you need a decent processor to and some nice RAM

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If you want to get the most performance per $$ don't even look at a mac. If you like looking trendy at starbucks then maybe a mac is for you. Just my honest opinion on that matter, the numbers speak for themselves.

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Putting OSX on a PC other than a Mac is in violation of the EULA and therefore illegal. Ignoring all debate on whether this is fair or not, this is why it's not an option for most people.

You don't need a powerful GPU to run photoshop or any other image manipulation program but like Alex has said, CS4 benefits from GPU acceleration. Also, Snow Leopard will have OpenCL which will also get a boost from a decent GPU so it's nice to have anyway. If you only use the GIMP and LR, no difference.

I have a 8600m GT in my MBP, it is nothing special but I can definitely see a boost in speed with CS4. If you get the HD2600 or the 8800 GT with the iMac you'd be quite happy with that I think. Ignore the amount of RAM the GPU has, it's pretty much of no use to you unless you work at really high resolutions and even then you might not notice the difference outside of games and full blown 3D work. 256MB will be just fine.

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Graham
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I was using over 1.5GB of ram with photoshop open yesterday....firefox using about 400 odd, windows media player, msn etc. sucking up more.

4GB is almost a must now.

And Photoshop and lightroom both use quad cores, to what extent im not sure, but the appear to be multi-threaded.

For the Price of a "good" iMac

You could get an AMAZING Core i7 system that would probably give a low end Mac Pro a run for its money. (if you overclock it, i dont doubt the Core i7 would beat it!)

As for it being illegal. well thats still being disputed by a few companies yet, and hopefully they are made to allow the OS to run on any computer. I see the EU doing this at somepoint since they are suing MS for billions just for IE being built into windows (and part of windows explorer)

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!