I'm after some reference quality video (I've already got reference quality active monitors and subwoofer) and wondering whether I can by an up to date entry level AH-IPS monitor (http://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/lg-27MP65HQ) and spend the rest on a reference quality graphics card or has the money got to be spent on the actual panel? Would something like a GTX 980 be overkill for video/photography and just go for the GTX 970 or similar? PS. I'm not a gamer just simply would like some reference video quality to match my sound system. Cheers.
Powerful graphics cards like that are only really for gaming. Video editing and photoshop is all about your CPU and RAM. I doubt you could notice a difference between a £70 graphics card and a £700 graphics card when it comes to video/photo work. Getting a good monitor with accurate colour reproduction is the important thing, and not cheap too. You might also want to buy one of those colour tester gadgets that you put on your screen and it helps you calibrate it to get accurate colours. If I was you I'd just get a cheap graphics card and make sure your CPU is as good as possible, and you have plenty of RAM (16gig minimum, maybe 32 is necessary for big stuff, photoshop eats ram if you are working with huge files). And of course a really good screen.
If you are using photoshop, I believe CUDA cores also help. If I remember correctly the nvidia 600 series was better in this department than the 700 (not sure where the 900 series stands on this) but maybe a 2nd hand 670 or 680 if its cheap enough would do the trick. Also 2nd what is said above.
If you want true reference quality then you will need to be budgeting at least £2k for the monitor and probably the same again for a professional GPU to fully unleash its potential. However, if you just want something that gives very accurate colours then spend all of your budget on a decent panel - even on board graphics will output "reference" colours via digital outputs. If you are more of a power user then consider a low end Quadro card. If you're not a gamer then any money spent on a GeForce or Radeon will likely be wasted.
Take a look at http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ for some good critical reviews, might give you some useful pointers.
If you are after entry level but still excellent performance then I would recommend the Dells. http://www.nrgit.biz/product/dell-2...itors/dell-ultrasharp-u2713h.html?c=196&p=557 at 27" (great pric/performance if you are looking at this you want the one with the H at the end, NOT the HM) AH In-plane switching, anti glare with hard coat 3H Colour Depth: 1.074 billion colours Colour Gamut (typical): Adobe RGB 99%, sRGB 100% and 120% (CIE 1976)3 and as far as I am aware it is a 12 bit panel (also you get the amazing Dell warrranty) (Here is the Dell website specs: http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dell-u2713h?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs) As you can see NRG are offering a very good price for this and Bit-tech members get a further discount if you mention that this is where you heard of them. Everyone who has used them has said they wouldn't have even known their monitor was a refurb if they hadn't been told, they come like new. (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with them but they are very well thought of on this forum, loads of members have used them and have had nothing but good things to say about them). or if the budget allows and you want something bigger (plus it is 16:10 rather than 16:9 like the 27"above which I much prefer for work, but as you are doing video you might not like it so much): http://www.nrgit.biz/product/dell-3...0-inch-ultrasharp-monitor-fr.html?c=212&p=562
If it was me I'd get the NEC but it is $2,299 so I could never afford that heh. But check out these links for monitors: http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2014/10/20/best-monitor-for-photo-editing/ http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402114,00.asp
