Do I need a graphics card for 2k screen resolution?

[Cesar_11]

Hello, I am starting a photography business, I recently bought a SFF PC from Dell .http://
It has i5 6400, I upgraded to 8gb ram, I have an old TN panel monitor and I want to upgrade to an IPS, I've been looking into the BenQ BL2420PT because my budget doesn't allow me to get an Adobe RGB monitor right now.

My real question is, with this computer will I be able to scale the resolution to 2k or will I need to get a graphics card?
And if so, which budget card should I get?

 

[SkyBill40]

You will almost assuredly need a discrete GPU as the iGPU probably won't display the resolution you need.

 

[WildCard999]

The iGPU on the 6400 (HD 530) supports up to 4096x2304@60Hz depending on the connection, it will work fine for your use as long as the screen natively supports the resolution you require.

https://ark.intel.com/products/88185/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

 

[jacobweaver800]

Hello, I am starting a photography business, I recently bought a SFF PC from Dell .http://
It has i5 6400, I upgraded to 8gb ram, I have an old TN panel monitor and I want to upgrade to an IPS, I've been looking into the BenQ BL2420PT because my budget doesn't allow me to get an Adobe RGB monitor right now.

My real question is, with this computer will I be able to scale the resolution to 2k or will I need to get a graphics card?
And if so, which budget card should I get?

Honestly, it depends on what cable your using to connect to the monitor, if it's VGA or DVI it won't. So unless your motherboard outs has HDMI then most likely not. Especially if you want to do any gaming or graphically demanding stuff like full resolution video playback. I still recommend getting a GPU for high FPS 1080p or higher resolutions, and an APU (Ryzen APU's preferably) for 720p or 1080p. As for a graphics card, it really depends on your budget. A 1050 ti or 1060 6gb should be plenty, or you can get an RX card like A 460, 470, 480, 560, 570, or 580. All of these cards can run games at 2k resolution fairly easily. What are you planning on doing and what is your budget and I can get you a good recommendation for a GPU.

 

[nobspls]

Looks like something like this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127584

According to the specs will go up to 2560 x 1600 so 2K.

 

[WildCard999]

Looks like something like this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127584

According to the specs will go up to 2560 x 1600 so 2K.

The iGPU is better then that card.

 

[Cesar_11]

Hello, I am starting a photography business, I recently bought a SFF PC from Dell .http://
It has i5 6400, I upgraded to 8gb ram, I have an old TN panel monitor and I want to upgrade to an IPS, I've been looking into the BenQ BL2420PT because my budget doesn't allow me to get an Adobe RGB monitor right now.

My real question is, with this computer will I be able to scale the resolution to 2k or will I need to get a graphics card?
And if so, which budget card should I get?

Honestly, it depends on what cable your using to connect to the monitor, if it's VGA or DVI it won't. So unless your motherboard outs has HDMI then most likely not. Especially if you want to do any gaming or graphically demanding stuff like full resolution video playback. I still recommend getting a GPU for high FPS 1080p or higher resolutions, and an APU (Ryzen APU's preferably) for 720p or 1080p. As for a graphics card, it really depends on your budget. A 1050 ti or 1060 6gb should be plenty, or you can get an RX card like A 460, 470, 480, 560, 570, or 580. All of these cards can run games at 2k resolution fairly easily. What are you planning on doing and what is your budget and I can get you a good recommendation for a GPU.

I will not game or play videos with it, pure photo editing, I just want to be able to edit photos at 2k res.

It does have HDMI, and the specs says it support 4096 x 2304 pixels via HDMI, although I've tried to hook it to my 4K TV via HDMI but the max res windows gives me is 1080p, but I think it might be the cable, I bought it like 4 years ago and it was a cheapo one from Wal-Mart, like 3 dollars.

I will buy a better one and try it out.

 

[SkyBill40]

If your HDMI cable isn't up to the newest standard for 4K (and if it's old, that's not surprising), that's the reason it wont display as desired.

 

[jacobweaver800]

Looks like something like this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127584

According to the specs will go up to 2560 x 1600 so 2K.

I think we are missing something more important, what connector are you using to connect to the monitor, vga and dvi I won't support that resolution, dual link dvi HDMI and dp will

 

[WildCard999]

Guys, the iGPU is more then enough for photo work and will handle that res. The OP said nothing about gaming so the iGPU is more then enough if using HDMI or DisplayPort.

 

[SkyBill40]

Guys, the iGPU is more then enough for photo work and will handle that res. The OP said nothing about gaming so the iGPU is more then enough if using HDMI or DisplayPort.

Right... but if he's not using a newer HDMI cable or DP cable, it might not output what he's after. Even he said as much in a previous post when attempting to output to his 4K TV. He needs a cable that supports 1.4/1.4a at a minimum for 4k output.

 

[jacobweaver800]

Guys, the iGPU is more then enough for photo work and will handle that res. The OP said nothing about gaming so the iGPU is more then enough if using HDMI or DisplayPort.

Photo work is pushing it, but it is capable of that resolution. I know the op didn't state they were gaming which is why I asked what they were planning on doing with it

 

[TJ Hooker]

The OP just needs a "high speed" (or "premium/ultra high speed") HDMI cable. HDMI cables don't have numbered versions, i.e. there's no v1.4 HDMI cable.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Guys, the iGPU is more then enough for photo work and will handle that res. The OP said nothing about gaming so the iGPU is more then enough if using HDMI or DisplayPort.

Photo work is pushing it, but it is capable of that resolution.

Depends on the software the OP is using. Some photo editing software doesn't support GPU acceleration, in which case the graphics card obviously doesn't matter as long as it's capable of outputting the desired resolution.

 

[SkyBill40]

The OP just needs a "high speed" (or "premium/ultra high speed") HDMI cable. HDMI cables don't have numbered versions, i.e. there's no v1.4 HDMI cable.

Of course not. The "high speed" is implied and would be necessary to meet the standards I mentioned. If his cable is older, which it very likely could be, it may not be adequate and thus a new one meeting the aforementioned speed requirement would be required.

 

[jacobweaver800]

The OP just needs a "high speed" (or "premium/ultra high speed") HDMI cable. HDMI cables don't have numbered versions, i.e. there's no v1.4 HDMI cable.

Of course not. The "high speed" is implied and would be necessary to meet the standards I mentioned. If his cable is older, which it very likely could be, it may not be adequate and thus a new one meeting the aforementioned speed requirement would be required.

The cable doesn't matter as long as it is half decent, what matters is that the output and input the cable is plugged into is good enough for the throughput. Also, to address a response to me above, most photo editing software can use GPU acceleration, and even if its a cheap 50 dollar card it will still be faster. Also, we don't know if the OP is editing these images or not, the OP may just be using the PC to store them or upload them to a website or cloud service. It is also important to make sure the motherboard has the correct outputs capable of 2k resolution, just because the CPU can handle it doesn't mean the motherboard can. VGA and DVI both can't handle 2k resolution, the OP has to be using Dual link DVI, HDMI, or Display Port to handle 2K, and unless his motherboard has Dual Link DVI, HDMI, or DP outputs the OP needs to get a GPU to handle it it doesn't matter if the CPU can handle the resolution or not.

 

[TJ Hooker]

The cable doesn't matter as long as it is half decent, what matters is that the output and input the cable is plugged into is good enough for the throughput.

It is also important to make sure the motherboard has the correct outputs capable of 2k resolution, just because the CPU can handle it doesn't mean the motherboard can. VGA and DVI both can't handle 2k resolution, the OP has to be using Dual link DVI, HDMI, or Display Port to handle 2K, and unless his motherboard has Dual Link DVI, HDMI, or DP outputs the OP needs to get a GPU to handle it it doesn't matter if the CPU can handle the resolution or not.

It's not just about being "half decent", there are different versions of HDMI cable. "Standard" HDMI cable would not be capable of 2K, "High speed" (or better) would be. Not sure how common "standard" cables actually are in the wild though.

Regarding the display outputs, the OP provided a link to the specs, it has HDMI out (1.4, based on the fact the CPU has HD 530 integrated graphics).

 

[jacobweaver800]

The cable doesn't matter as long as it is half decent, what matters is that the output and input the cable is plugged into is good enough for the throughput.

It is also important to make sure the motherboard has the correct outputs capable of 2k resolution, just because the CPU can handle it doesn't mean the motherboard can. VGA and DVI both can't handle 2k resolution, the OP has to be using Dual link DVI, HDMI, or Display Port to handle 2K, and unless his motherboard has Dual Link DVI, HDMI, or DP outputs the OP needs to get a GPU to handle it it doesn't matter if the CPU can handle the resolution or not.

It's not just about being "half decent", there are different versions of HDMI cable. "Standard" HDMI cable would not be capable of 2K, "High speed" (or better) would be. Not sure how common "standard" cables actually are in the wild though.

Regarding the display outputs, the OP provided a link to the specs, it has HDMI out (1.4, based on the fact the CPU has HD 530 integrated graphics).

The OP will still have to verify that the motherboard is HDMI 1.4 and the OP must use that HDMI port, in the end it will probably work but I still recommend a GPU for photo editing acceleration, even if its a cheap $50 card off of ebay, I bought one for 10 off ebay and I use it for acceleration and it works faster than my APU's integrated graphics on my A8 5500.

 

[TJ Hooker]

The motherboard HDMI version is 1.4 by virtue of the skylake iGPU.

Edit: And the OP is obviously going to be using HDMI, because the only other mobo output is VGA and a 2K monitor isn't going to have a VGA input.

 

[jacobweaver800]

The motherboard HDMI version is 1.4 by virtue of the skylake iGPU.

Ok, We still have to make sure the OP uses HDMI, I still highly recommend a GPU for any sort of editing or rendering of video's or images since GPU acceleration is much faster than CPU acceleration with a GPU much cheaper.