# Which graphics card to use with Lightroom 6.14, Windows 10



## XEyedBear (Jun 25, 2008)

Apologies if this question has previously been adequately addressed in this forum – my ability to specify an effective search argument is obviously inadequate.

I’m searching for a better performing graphics card for use with LR 6.14 under Win 10. I currently have a rather old Nvidia GTX 645. I want to keep below about 85W TDP but I want good G2D performance and a card that is DX 12 or GL 3.5 at least compliant, so that I can utilise the minimal GPU acceleration capability in the Develop module of this older version of LR. I don’t think I need more than 2 GB of graphics RAM. The rest of my hardware is current generation.

The problem I am having in choosing a suitable card is that there is almost no information on the G2D performance of graphics cards, but plenty of comparative information on G3D, which I believe is irrelevant when using LR 6 (correct me if I am wrong). Not only that but I read elsewhere that modern very high performing cards actually have quite poor performance on G2D, possibly worse than my GTX 645.

Any opinions?


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Please post your system specs because to make a recommendation, compatibility must be taken into consideration.


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## XEyedBear (Jun 25, 2008)

AS requested, system specs are:

Mobo: Asus Prime H370-A
CPU: Intel i3-8100 3.6 Ghz
RAM: 2 x8 GB Corsair 2400 Mhz DDR4
System drive: Crucial MX500 SSD
Main LR Catalog and images drive: 500 GB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD M2.2280; content replicated daily to:
Working and backup data drive: 2 x 1TB 7200 rpm Seagate SATA 6 drives in RAID 1
Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 645
Monitor: Samsung LCD 1900 x 1200, DVI
Power Supply 550W
External backup:: 2 separate 2TB 7200 rpm Seagate drives, USB3,; used for weekly Raid 1 drive replication; one always off-site, rotated monthly
Also 1 x 1 TB Iomega HMNHD, external enclosure , on LAN
Also 1 x 500 GB Iomega HDD, USB 2.0 for non-critical video backups 



System running Win 10 Home 64 bit, version 1903


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## bassfisher6522 (Jul 22, 2012)

Have you checked Lightrooms support page for system specs......
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/system-requirements.html?promoid=2K4PCHD1&mv=other


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## XEyedBear (Jun 25, 2008)

bassfisher6522 said:


> Have you checked Lightrooms support page for system specs......
> https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/system-requirements.html?promoid=2K4PCHD1&mv=other


Yes, of course, it was my first stop in searching for the optimum replacement. Their article makes no reference to 2D performance and is specific only to the latest version of LightRoom. Where there are G2D performance figures for the ranges of graphics cards suggested by Adobe those figures appear to show less ability than the card I currently have.

In short, the referenced Adobe statement creates the problem stated in my post rather than solving it.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

You could "play around" with this: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ I'm not sure enough people care about two dimensional results from a card, since the on-board system provides what most consider ample.


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## XEyedBear (Jun 25, 2008)

Corday said:


> You could "play around" with this: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ I'm not sure enough people care about two dimensional results from a card, since the on-board system provides what most consider ample.


yep: that's the issue: not enough people care about 2D results, especially the manufacturers. As a result the 2D performance I experience is not quite adequate in my system, especially when using the adjustment brush - there can be a 1 to 2 second delay in the brush effects being shown.

As I said originally : "there is almost no information on the G2D performance of graphics cards, but plenty of comparative information on G3D"; the url you have pointed me to seems to just about the most guilty, in terms of graphics card 2D performance data I have so far found in about a week's worth of intense searching.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Go back to the link and in the "Search" type 2d.


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## XEyedBear (Jun 25, 2008)

Corday said:


> Go back to the link and in the "Search" type 2d.


You are absolutely right - which I should have known from the start!.

A quick glance through the 1800+ hits resulting from searching for 'G2D' lead me to a post on the PassMark forum which explained how to get and sort a complete list of G2D data for every card in their database. The process is not obvious - which raised the question of 'why not?'.

Anyhow, having found the data I required, I find that there is no card, other then 6 NvIdia Quadro cards, which meet my requirements any better than the GTX 645 I currently have. And those Quadro cards generally are either too expensive or far too expensive to justify the marginal performance gains I would experience without also using a much faster CPU with higher single core performance. LightRoom 6 does not work well with multi-core CPUs.

So my search for the best card is over: I already have it.

And I now understand why Dell used it in their Alienware X51 computer (from which I extracted it!).


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