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Kjell K
Kjell K
Participant
April 6, 2021
Answered

Graphics card and 10 bit color

  • April 6, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 3843 views

I use Lightroom quite a lot with 30 Mb raw files (24 Mp) and fairly simple use of Photoshop now and then. In my desktop system I have an old Nvidia GeForce 760 card with 2 Mb GDDR5. It works quite OK, but it's not lightning fast, and it does not support 10 bit color. (I have an Eizo CS2420, the rest of the system (i5, M2 SSD) is newer (2019) than the graphics card).

 

If I was to upgrade the card, what do I need to have 10 bit color and gain some speed for the heavier functions?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer D Fosse

Any decent model should do. The GTX 1660 seems pretty popular.

 

Previously you needed a Quadro for 10 bit color, but there was a change of policy a while back, when Nvidia introduced their "studio" branch of drivers. These drivers support 10 bit color in GeForce cards (except, I suppose, in the most basic/inexpensive models).

 

Quadros are still considered a bit more reliable and rugged, but also increasingly expensive. The relatively affordable P-series is now replaced by the RTX series, at a considerably higher cost, and it may not be good return on investment unless you do pretty advanced and specialized stuff.

 

So a GeForce GTX 1660 (or upwards) should work well. But use the studio driver, and I would also recommend to install only the basic driver and skip the extra components. Remove your old driver completely first. You'll need to enable 10 bit color in the new driver. It's not on by default.

 

Note that the latest Photoshop release, 22.3, has a bug that may prevent all advanced functions in the driver, including 10 bit. If that happens, revert to 22.2 which works well. It's been reported and a fix is expected in a future release.

1 reply

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
April 6, 2021

Any decent model should do. The GTX 1660 seems pretty popular.

 

Previously you needed a Quadro for 10 bit color, but there was a change of policy a while back, when Nvidia introduced their "studio" branch of drivers. These drivers support 10 bit color in GeForce cards (except, I suppose, in the most basic/inexpensive models).

 

Quadros are still considered a bit more reliable and rugged, but also increasingly expensive. The relatively affordable P-series is now replaced by the RTX series, at a considerably higher cost, and it may not be good return on investment unless you do pretty advanced and specialized stuff.

 

So a GeForce GTX 1660 (or upwards) should work well. But use the studio driver, and I would also recommend to install only the basic driver and skip the extra components. Remove your old driver completely first. You'll need to enable 10 bit color in the new driver. It's not on by default.

 

Note that the latest Photoshop release, 22.3, has a bug that may prevent all advanced functions in the driver, including 10 bit. If that happens, revert to 22.2 which works well. It's been reported and a fix is expected in a future release.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 14, 2021

    ...and a fix has now come, with 22.3.1. Everything should now work reliably.

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