Seeking help upgrading two 8600GTs for a mostly photo-editing machine

[ccityinstaller]

Interesting, I'll have to check that out. I seem to remember looking into quad cards in the past, but something about my 30 inch monitor prevented that. Something about dual-link DVI??

OP, I am not sure WTF happened earlier, but around 3pm yesterday, I typed up a Super Long reply with several options for you via the [H]ard app for Android, hit submit and then I couldn't find it!

Anyway, the reason I quoted this post is because you will be able to use this card if you wanted to stay on a budget since it has 3 Single Link DVI ports (which will work just fine with your NECs) and 1 Dual Link DVI (which you need for the 2560x1600p for your 30")...Finally you can use a standard mini HDMI to full HDMI for the Tv you use to watch movies...This being said, this is an older card, and even with it's 2GB of Vram, it will struggle with current gen games @ 1600p, unless the settings are turned way down...

My inital suggestion was to go with the best performance/value card on the market right now, which is by FAR the AMD 7950... This Sappire 7950 for $239 before MIR will fit your needs perfectly..

You will use 2 DVI ports for the 30" and 1 NEC, an HDMI to DVI cable for the other NEC (these are only $5-8 for a quality cable @ Monoprice) and a Displayport to HDMI for the TV..

The 7950 is a better buy then the 660tI..It is faster outta the box, and can usually pick up ~30% performance with a healthy O/C, which will REALLY help @ 1600P..The 660TI just doesn't have the power at the higher resolutions the 7950 will offer..It also has 3 free games, and with the new AMD Mantle API, there is much better "future proof" aspect to the 7950 vs the 660tI/760..


On a semi related note, why have you not overclocked the 2600K you have? You already have an excellent cooling setup for it, and you will see some significant gains in the work you do if you get it up to ~4.4-4.6Ghz..The 2600K is a super easy CPU to overclock, and once you have it stable, it won't affect your stability, except for allowing you to process your work faster...

 

[cathpah]

OP, I am not sure WTF happened earlier, but around 3pm yesterday, I typed up a Super Long reply with several options for you via the [H]ard app for Android, hit submit and then I couldn't find it!

Anyway, the reason I quoted this post is because you will be able to use this card if you wanted to stay on a budget since it has 3 Single Link DVI ports (which will work just fine with your NECs) and 1 Dual Link DVI (which you need for the 2560x1600p for your 30")...Finally you can use a standard mini HDMI to full HDMI for the Tv you use to watch movies...This being said, this is an older card, and even with it's 2GB of Vram, it will struggle with current gen games @ 1600p, unless the settings are turned way down...

My inital suggestion was to go with the best performance/value card on the market right now, which is by FAR the AMD 7950... This Sappire 7950 for $239 before MIR will fit your needs perfectly..

You will use 2 DVI ports for the 30" and 1 NEC, an HDMI to DVI cable for the other NEC (these are only $5-8 for a quality cable @ Monoprice) and a Displayport to HDMI for the TV..

The 7950 is a better buy then the 660tI..It is faster outta the box, and can usually pick up ~30% performance with a healthy O/C, which will REALLY help @ 1600P..The 660TI just doesn't have the power at the higher resolutions the 7950 will offer..It also has 3 free games, and with the new AMD Mantle API, there is much better "future proof" aspect to the 7950 vs the 660tI/760..


On a semi related note, why have you not overclocked the 2600K you have? You already have an excellent cooling setup for it, and you will see some significant gains in the work you do if you get it up to ~4.4-4.6Ghz..The 2600K is a super easy CPU to overclock, and once you have it stable, it won't affect your stability, except for allowing you to process your work faster...

Ugh...there's nothing worse than losing a long post. I really appreciate you writing one in the first place, but coming back and writing it all over again is downright saintly. Thank you.

I'll admit, I never really even thought about AMD cards because I've only used nvidia in the past. Do you think a 7950 w/ 3gb is better than this 760 w/ 4g?

As far as OCing my 2600K...yeah, you're right. I really should do that, and keep meaning to, however I've never OCed anything before, and stability really is the main priority of my machine, as my bank account and livelihood depend on it. That said, when things slow down a bit once the snow falls, I really should try overclocking. I've got a corsair h70 cpu cooler, and the machine is in a giant Corsair 800D obsidian case with a bunch of fans, so I should be good to go there. If you happen to have any OCing guides that would walk an utter noob like me through the process, feel free to post/send me the link.

Anyone else care to chime in on the 3gb 7950 vs 4gb 760? The more opinions I can get, the better. Consensus makes people feel warm and cozy.

 

[cathpah]

Anyone else have an opinion before I pull the trigger?

 

[Quartz-1]

Yes. How serious are you about photography?

If you are serious I suggest you get a Nvidia Quaddro card for your 1600p display to handle 10 bit colour. If the display can handle 10 bit colour, that is. Of course, this means that you will not be able to game on it.

 

[cathpah]

Yes. How serious are you about photography?

If you are serious I suggest you get a Nvidia Quaddro card for your 1600p display to handle 10 bit colour. If the display can handle 10 bit colour, that is. Of course, this means that you will not be able to game on it.

It's my full-time career and has been for a while (I shoot editorial and commercial work...no families/weddings/babies/seniors). I own the NEC 3090WQXI monitor with spectraview software, which allows the monitor to calibrate internally rather than at the video card. I know that's certainly not a gaming monitor, but I'm hoping I can do both.

No plans to upgrade the monitor as I've had no issues with calibration or color gamut, and it's a big/nice monitor built for this. When that dies I may go for 10-bit, but that's just not necessary right now, especially since I've never had a complaint from an art director.

If not, no worries about gaming...just looking for the right solution for multitasking and video.