UHD 4K graphic cards -- any good ones

Hi there

Any good 4K UHD graphic cards out there -- I'm not a gamer so I don't need all the 3-D and Direct X stuff but a really good (2D) 4K graphics card that I could use on Photoshop etc (Pro level photos etc) without blowing up the computer or computer running really hot -- graphics cards often run mega hot even with decent heat sinks !!

Monitor to be driven is 50 inch UHD 4K TV. Any bigger than that I would need to sit at the end of the garden !!!!!

Another nice to have feature would be a switch to revert to standard (on board) graphics when I didn't need the 4K UHD video -- saves energy and 1080p is perfectly fine also on 50 inch TV - the 4K though is brilliant for things like photoshop when preparing stuff for pro magazines at high quality. (Also for watching 4K streams from Netflix !!!!).

Cheers
jimbo

650ti and up support 4k in the nvidia range dont know anything about AMD so will leave that to someone else :)

all from 650 up should be able to cope with what you want

BorisTheAnimal said:

What do you currently have?

Have been reading some other threads on other forums and it seems that you don't really need a graphics card if you aren't into gaming. Like integrated graphics in the CPU might be alright.

Hi there

The main problem for "Non Gamers" is the quality of resolution from on board graphics -- to provide proper flicker free / stable 4K resolution you start needing more power than the on board graphics can usually supply. Most onboard graphics can deliver say up to a 30 inch monitor at 1080p resolution but if you are using a decent size monitor (say 50 inch) with 4K resolution any imperfection in the graphics is immediately noticeable on the large monitor.

Specialized graphics (overkill for me) have all sorts of extra features like floating point / other compute bound stuff suitable for gamers but not really what I need.
It's always the problem though as you improve parts of your system the imperfections in the other bits become more noticeable.

Most onboard graphics cards aren't really suitable for large monitors yet --just not man enough for the job even though the spec might say "4K capable". There's a difference driving a 26 inch monitor say and a 50 inch one !!!

A cheaper Nvidia might do the trick - possibly one of the GTX series -- a half height one would fit into my computer without blowing up the power supply I suspect but what are these like for driving high res large monitors.

Cheers
jimbo

Take a look at Matrox cards.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/4K-8K/

Jim

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

The main problem for "Non Gamers" is the quality of resolution from on board graphics -- to provide proper flicker free / stable 4K resolution you start needing more power than the on board graphics can usually supply. Most onboard graphics can deliver say up to a 30 inch monitor at 1080p resolution but if you are using a decent size monitor (say 50 inch) with 4K resolution any imperfection in the graphics is immediately noticeable on the large monitor.

Specialized graphics (overkill for me) have all sorts of extra features like floating point / other compute bound stuff suitable for gamers but not really what I need.
It's always the problem though as you improve parts of your system the imperfections in the other bits become more noticeable.

Most onboard graphics cards aren't really suitable for large monitors yet --just not man enough for the job even though the spec might say "4K capable". There's a difference driving a 26 inch monitor say and a 50 inch one !!!

A cheaper Nvidia might do the trick - possibly one of the GTX series -- a half height one would fit into my computer without blowing up the power supply I suspect but what are these like for driving high res large monitors.

Cheers
jimbo

Do you really think that the size of the monitor (rather than its resolution) matters? I had no idea that monitors were so, er, macho.

What are the specs of the system you'd like the card for? (PSU in particular.)

I get good results with a Maxwell Titan X on a UHD (3840 X 2160) non-TV monitor (DP interface), but it's a 28" weakling.

Nice Setup ! you just made Jimbo reconsider 55"

is it connected with normal monitors too , or just it ?

I got the 970 at the time as I wanted 3 DisplayPort outputs off one card but that was 2 years ago , so it's likely easier to find now days.