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Peter ByeFlag for United States of America

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Graphics card for a new Dell 5810 workstation

This is about choosing a graphics card for a new Dell Precision Workstation 5810 computer.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-t5810-workstation/pd?ref=PD_OC

The primary unique use for the system that needs higher performance is image editing. My current six year old Dell T7500 using  Xeon E5530 2.4GHz processors (four cores) and Intel 530 series SATA SSDs gives very slow response with software such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and Affinity Photo. I also do some light video editing although much less than still images.

The PC will run Windows 10 64-bit Pro. It will probably have:
* Xeon E5-1660 v4 (8 cores, 3.2GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo, 2400MHz)
* 64GB RAM
* m.2 PCIe drives: 512GB system, 512GB or 1TB data
* SATA HDD for infrequently-accessed data

I will only need one display - presently a 30" Dell monitor.

Dell offers these single-display graphics cards:

NVIDIA® Quadro® M2000 4GB (4 DP) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter) [default]

AMD FirePro™ W7100 8GB (4 DP) (3 DP to SL-DVI adapters) [add $265.66]
AMD FirePro™ W8100, 8GB (4 DP) (3 DP to SL-DVI adapters) [add $594.22]

NVIDIA® Quadro® M4000 8GB (4 DP) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter) [add $314.59]
NVIDIA® Quadro® M5000 8GB (4 DP) (1 DP to SL-DVI adapter) [add $1,213.40]
NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24GB (4 DP, DL-DVI-D) (2 DP to SL-DVI adapter) [add $3,640.20]
NVIDIA® Quadro® K6000 12GB (2 DP, 2 DL-DVI-I) (2 DP to SL-DVI adapter) [add $3,686.14]

While I do not want to spend more than necessary I do want a high quality, responsive, fast display. Especially for image editing. It has been a while since I did any gaming but who knows if I might do a little again in the future - but I am not a real gamer.

My questions:

Which graphics card should I choose, and why?

Or should I buy a different one separately and not use the one that comes with the computer?

Thanks,
Pete
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Brian B
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Hi Brian,

Thanks for these resources. Photoshop and Lightroom share the same core engine so the needs are similar for the two. Photoshop can get more demanding simply because it does pixel-level editing but both are resource intensive.

The Lightroom video is interesting although all he did was adjust some sliders and some mask outlines. I wish the video showed more intensive operations such as comparing many images in the Library module or stitching several large raw-format images into a panorama, into a multiple-image focus stack, or rapid editing with quickly-changing screen displays.

Pete
verify also that your PS can handle the load of all devices, especially the new video card !

also regarding your Q about the choice w7-W10, consider also if the software and drivers for printers, scanners etc are available
I'm still seeking further input about whether to choose one of the listed graphics cards, which are the ones available from Dell, or to purchase a card separately.

Thanks,
Pete
what power supply do you have?
you can calculate the power needed here : http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
If Dell is offering a fair price for the card you might as well buy it from them. It will make it easier to get support from Dell if required and everything will already be set up when the system ships.
Thanks for these further inputs.

Power is handled automatically by Dell's system configurator. It says, for example, that for:

Quadro M2000 (75W dissipation) the standard 425W power supply can be used
Quadro M4000 (120W dissipation) requires the 685W power supply
Quadro M5000 (150W dissipation) requires the 685W power supply

There is also an 825W power supply available.

My primary concern, though, is high performance during image editing. Following Dell's online recommendation they say a Quadro K2200 is sufficient for image editing. This seems an old product and is not even in the Dell options as a choice. It seems from specs I see that the M2000 may be an upgraded replacement. But that is just their view and I do not know their assumptions.

If anyone has insights about relative performance for image editing and whether one of these or another of the cards listed above (or yet some different card that I would need to purchase separately) is the best choice that is the main information I am seeking.

Thanks,
Pete
I would suggest you go with AMD FirePro™ W8100, 8GB (4 DP) (3 DP to SL-DVI adapters) as it provides good performance at a much lower price point.
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* m.2 PCIe drives: 512GB system, 512GB or 1TB data
* SATA HDD for infrequently-accessed data

Have you actually tried to configure that combination?

I don't see any M.2 drives offered in the first Boot Hard Drive section, and no way to delete that drive... I tried various combinations of the 3 HDD controllers offered there, but was unable to configure a Precision 5810 Tower with a SATA HDD *and* two M.2 drives (which apparently requires an add-on x8 PCIe card, probably populating PCIe slot 1, which is a physical x16 slot wired as x8; I see no onboard M.2 connectors on the 5810 as some other Precision models have... e.g. the Precision 3620 tower).

I was only going through that exercise to compare how much a similar model would cost on the outlet.dell.com site (where <7-day return computers, refurbished and scratch&dent models are liquidated) then adding in the M.2 card and drives yourself... but the difficulty I had trying to configure one as you describe made me wonder if you had actually tried it yet.
Thanks for these additional inputs.

Davis - Thanks for the observations and for the video benchmark website - that site is really helpful. I see your point about the performance boost from the M4000 for a relatively small price. This makes a lot of sense.

Mohammed - You suggest the FirePro 8100 in part because it has a much lower price point. Lower compared to what? It adds $594 to the price of the computer compared to, say, the Quadro M4000 that adds $314.

The video  benchmark site shows that the M4000 seems to outperform the FirePro 8100 while dissipating less power and costing less. Seems a compelling combination so at this point I am leaning toward the Quadro M4000.

Darr247 - I had the same result when configuring the system - tried and was unable to get it. In the past I've always ordered Dell computers by telephone. I find the people who answer the phone generally have more flexibility than the website so I am hoping they will be able to configure it. I used a separate question to ask about HDD/SSD configuration. You might look at garycase's response to my question about SSD configuration - it is a quad (or dual) x16 card into which the m.2 drives connect.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28996579/Hard-drive-SSD-Config-for-Dell-5810-Workstation.html

These inputs have helped a lot, thanks. I will leave the question open another day or so to see if additional thoughts, experience, and recommendations come in.

Pete
Just an aside, I know you are looking at the Dell configurator, but have you ever considered getting a custom system built? Then you can get exactly the pieces you want.
You can edit images with paintbrush with basic windows system requirements, including the old PC you have,

For photoshop any video card of today will work
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Responses to the last few comments follow. At this point I've decided to go with the Quadro M4000 so I'll close out the question momentarily.

Brian - Building a custom computer is attractive although I just don't want to get into it at this point. I've been using Dell computers since the first one that ran Windows 3.1.

gheist - I respect your viewpoint although complex editing of raw images is well beyond paintbrush and many people on photography sites such as nikonians and Photography Life emphasize a need for more powerful graphics cards although of course nothing like what is needed for video editing and gaming.

Darr247 - Agreed. I noticed that as I got deeper into the cards. Single and dual on the Dell configurator simply means one or two cards.

Thanks all,
Pete
Thank you everyone who responded. In choosing the best and assisted solutions I focused on responses that were on topic (choosing video card based on performance in image editing) and that I found helped me make a choice.

The video benchmark site and Davis's accompanying comments were extremely helpful - this crystallized the differences and relative value, making my choice obvious.