Hi Hardware Forum,
I have just bought a new Apple 27” LED Cinema Display for my Windows computer. In South Africa there appear to be no adapters available and the opinion that I have gained from the internet seems to be that changing my graphics card to one that has a “mini display port” to plug the monitor into is a better option than an adapter.
You kindly helped me build my windows computer a year ago and my understanding at the time was that the configuration needs to be balanced. Would you mind helping me select a graphics card with a “mini display port” that would complement my configuration (or improve it) and at the same time have the necessary Mini display port for the Apple monitor. There is some confusing info on the internet implying that the Apple 27” monitor has other connection option, which I think may have been true in the past, but this latest one only has the mini display port.
I use my computer primarily for video editing in Premiere Elements as well as stills editing in Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 4. At some future point I may upgrade to Premiere Pro.
I was using an nVidia GTX 560Ti graphics card with a Dell US271127” monitor. I have had repeated problems of the screen crashing and recovering. Error message read something like “nVidia has detected a problem and needs to close”. It mostly didn’t crash the software program, just the screen. I have just had the graphics card drivers updated with a clean install and hope that this may have sorted out the problem as I plan to transfer the GTX 560Ti graphics card into another computer, however I feel anxious about the next graphics card purchase. Would there be any benefit in keeping the 560Ti graphics card in my computer as well as the new graphics card with the mini display port? I seem to recall that there is also an onboard graphics card in my configuration. I had wondered if the two graphics cards could have had compatibility problems.
I have read that these very high resolution screens, 2560 x 1440 pixels, have given some people problems of slowing their computers down. Would this be a graphics card issue? I would rather err on the side of more power than less power as I spend a lot of time video editing. Very frustrating if the machine is slow or crashes.
My Windows Computer:
CPU: Sandy Bridge i7-2600K
Motherboard: GA Z68XP – UD4
RAM: 4x4 GB DDR3-1600
PSU: Corsair Pro Gold AX850
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master H212 EVO
Windows 7
The supplier says that he has the following Graphics cards that have mini display ports. When I asked about nVidia cards he said that he didn’t have any in stock. If any of the three below will work well, that would be easier for me, but if you have other suggestions that would be better, I would prefer to hunt further for the cards. I live in the country but can order from the city. Or would a lower end card with mini display port as well as my old GTX 560Ti card be better?
In stock at supplier:
MSI R7950 Twinfrozr OC 3GB Ram
ATI Radeon MSI R7870 OC 2GB Ram
Radion HD 7850
I would greatly appreciate your help again.
Kind regards
Linda Collison