Which new (color accurate) 30"+ display for Mac Pro 4,1?

[DDB-UK]

I'm looking to buy a new monitor for my Mac Pro, as the existing one (an old Samsung running at 1680 x 1050, which I got free with the Mac a couple of years or so ago) is on the way out.

Ideally I'd like the new display to be at least the equal of the old Apple 30 inch Cinema Display in terms of screen size and resolution (2560 x 1600) and to be the sort that can be calibrated to give accurate colours, have Adobe RGB support, etc.

I'll be using Adobe CS6 on the Mac for web graphics / design / coding, and also some design for print, as well as video editing / compositing work.

My budget would be about £1200 at most.

The Mac only has the stock NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card installed, so it may struggle to support the new monitor at optimum resolution and give optimum performance, but I'm hoping the monitor I go for can be run (albeit sub-optimally) on the GT 120 until I can upgrade the graphics card to something more suitable at some point in the future.

Details on the GT 120 (from everymac.com) are as follows:

By default, a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory was installed in a double-wide, 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot. It has both a Mini DisplayPort and a dual-link DVI port. It can support two 30-inch displays. The default video card is capable of supporting digital resolutions up to 2560x1600 and analog resolutions up to 2048x1536.

I've done some online research, and come up with the following as possible options, most of which are 30" or larger and run at 2560 x 1600 or more:

http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/asus-pa328q-p20758/test.html

http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/benq-bl3201pt-p22555/test.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6890/dell-u3014-lcd-review

http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/dell-up3216q-p27957/test.html

http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/philips-bdm3270qp-p26853/test.html

http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/viewsonic-vp2780-4k-p25887/test.html

Eizo monitors seem to be very high end, but the ColorEdge ones seem to be out with my budget:

http://www.eizoglobal.com/products/coloredge/cg277/index.html

although a FlexScan one might fit the bill(?):

http://www.eizoglobal.com/products/flexscan/ev3237/index.html

Similarly NEC monitors also seem to be high end:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/EA304WMi.xhtml

and this one:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/PA302W.xhtml

is recommended by Lloyd Chambers, whose opinion I value:

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA302W.html

although the 27" version is more within my budget:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/PA272W.xhtml

I've no particular preference for digitalversus.com and / or anandtech.com or their opinions. I just happened to stumble across these sites, and as well as reviewing many different displays that might be suitable, they seem to know their stuff regarding colour accuracy etc.

I've also read this forum:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/monitors-for-2012-mac-pro.1851908

which helped point me towards some of the monitors I mentioned.

I'd prefer a matt rather than a gloss screen, and although there's no substitute for trying out a screen before buying it, as far as I know I don't live anywhere near to somewhere that would have any of these models on display that I'd be able to try out.

Therefore I'd greatly appreciate anyone's wisdom as to any displays I should either disregard or seriously consider.

I'm not wedded to any of the ones I've listed, and there may be other options I've not considered.

Many thanks.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Welcome to Tom's,

Mac's use glossy displays, you can't match print with a glossy coating. This is scientifically impossible, simply put, they oversaturate colors. For all web stuff, sRGB is the standard, aRGB is a dead space, and is used internally, not your typical consumers.

I feel like you're putting too much attention on the monitor, when in reality I can put together a build + monitor that will suit your workflow.



All the best!

 

[DDB-UK]

Welcome to Tom's,

Mac's use glossy displays, you can't match print with a glossy coating. This is scientifically impossible, simply put, they oversaturate colors. For all web stuff, sRGB is the standard, aRGB is a dead space, and is used internally, not your typical consumers.

I feel like you're putting too much attention on the monitor, when in reality I can put together a build + monitor that will suit your workflow.

All the best!

Thanks for your reply, but this is just the sort of reply that I was hoping not to receive.

I should have said in my original post - I'm a professional graphic designer of more than 20 years. I need a high calibre display, and am willing to pay for one.

I know that I "can't match print with a glossy coating". Yes Macs with built in displays use glossy coatings (more's the pity) but they didn't used to. My Mac is a Mac Pro - no built in display.

The 30 inch Apple Cinema Display (a fabulous monitor in its day) being a case in point. I used one every day in a previous job and it was a joy to work with, but it was discontinued years ago, and specification-wise it can't hold a candle to a modern display.

"I feel like you're putting too much attention on the monitor". I'm afraid with a comment like that you're completely missing the point of my question. You might want to read this article that I mentioned before:

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA302W.html

You might just find it an eye-opener. As Lloyd says, "When you first see a monitor like the PA302W, you’ll be shocked at just how much you’ve been missing with a conventional display."

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

NEC are really good, should have no obvious defects that are typical for IPS. They are sometimes recommended on here. And I was professionally designing motion and company logos. I required fast hardware, because when I was designing, I had to make 10-15 different designs, before deadline. I got by because I knew how to make sure how to get accurate colors using the histogram and waveform. All digital processing was incredibly easy to get right. I had no problems with sRGB or CMYK. But that's fine, keep in mind though that to be able to use 10-bit color, the monitor, graphics card, application has to support it too. Pick a monitor that you'll be happy with, and I wish you all the best!

 

[DDB-UK]

NEC are really good, should have no obvious defects that are typical for IPS. They are sometimes recommended on here. And I was professionally designing motion and company logos. I required fast hardware, because when I was designing, I had to make 10-15 different designs, before deadline. I got by because I knew how to make sure how to get accurate colors using the histogram and waveform. All digital processing was incredibly easy to get right. I had no problems with sRGB or CMYK. But that's fine, keep in mind though that to be able to use 10-bit color, the monitor, graphics card, application has to support it too. Pick a monitor that you'll be happy with, and I wish you all the best!

Thanks for recommending NEC monitors. As you can see here:

http://diglloyd.com/gear-computers.html#Displays4K

Lloyd Chambers would agree with you. His reviews of these 2 monitors:

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA302W.html

and

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA322UHD.html

demonstrate their high calibre, although both are out with my budget unfortunately, leaving me with my dilemma of how to get something approaching the quality & specifications of either these 2 screens with my limited budget.

Incidentally, I've posted this thread in 3 other forums but not had any genuinely useful input (the replies above apart) to help narrow my monitor choice I'm afraid. I'm still hopeful though that someone with real insight will come across the thread and offer me their wisdom...

______________________________________________________________


Having initially posted this topic in 5 different places (macrumors.com, apple.com, tomshardware.co.uk, overclock.net and cnet.com) as well as trying a 6th (mac-forums.com, who never published my thread and never responded to my email asking why not) I'm taking the advice of a cnet.com Forum Moderator and narrowing my list down (to 4 displays) before asking for any more feedback.

I'll also be posting at http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78. as this seems the place where this type of discussion is most common.

So… to recap, I'm looking to buy a new colour accurate 30"+ display for my Mac Pro 4,1 running at at least 2560 x 1600, and of the sort that can be calibrated to give accurate colours, has Adobe RGB support, etc.

I'll be using Adobe CS6 on the Mac for web graphics / design / coding, and also some design for print, as well as video editing / compositing work.

The Mac only has the stock NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 graphics card (with 512 MB of memory) at the moment. Although it supports resolutions up to 2560 x 1600, it's an old, slow card which will struggle with the new display, so I'll be replacing the card once I've decided which display to buy, and will seek advice on selecting the card in these forums.

If money was no object, I'd either go for the Eizo ColorEdge CG318-4K:

http://www.eizoglobal.com/products/coloredge/cg318-4k/index.html

or the NEC SpectraView® Reference 322UHD:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/Reference322UHD.xhtml

However these cost over £3,600 and £4,000 respectively here in the UK, so are out of the question. Ideally I don't want to spend more than about £1,200, but I appreciate I may have to if I want to meet my requirements.

In theory a display like the Dell UP3216Q ticks all the boxes and can be had for less than £800:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dell-up3216q-monitor?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&

However, reading certain reviews, as well as threads such as this one:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1838486&highlight=ev3237&page=2

casts doubt on the quality of the likes of Dell displays when it comes to colour accuracy, true calibration accuracy (not to be confused with faux calibration - see http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/display-calibration.html) top notch sRGB and Adobe RGB etc.

The LG 31MU97-B should in theory be a possibility:

http://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/lg-31MU97

It comes out top from a UK review of six 32-inch Ultra HD monitors:

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6143/6/six-32-inch-ultra-hd-monitor-review-serious-business-lg-31mu97-b

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6143/14/six-32-inch-ultra-hd-monitor-review-serious-business-final-thoughts

Indeed on paper it has some technical specs (for example true 4K resolution and a very useful split screen feature) which are superior to the other displays I'm considering, and it can be had for only £750, but there seem to have been many quality, reliability and poor after-sales support issues reported:

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00OKSEVTY/showViewpoints=1&sortBy=helpful&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1

The Eizo FlexScan EV3237 would be a possibility:

http://www.eizoglobal.com/products/flexscan/ev3237/index.html

and can be had for around £1,000 but doesn't offer Adobe RGB:

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/6143/5/six-32-inch-ultra-hd-monitor-review-serious-business-eizo-ev3237

and the very thorough review on overclockers.ru mentions in its summary/conclusions that the display isn't up to the professional levels of NEC and Eizo (CG series) models:

http://www.overclockers.ru/lab/66089_7/obzor-i-testirovanie-4k-monitora-eizo-flexscan-ev3237-plata-za-brend.html

I'm therefore left with a choice of NEC monitors. The MultiSync® PA302W:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/PA302W.xhtml

which can be had for £1,200 or so.

The "SV2" version of this:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/PA302W-SV2.xhtml

which comes with the calibration hardware, can be bought for around £1,500, and is recommended by Lloyd Chambers, whose opinion I value:

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA302W.html

or the MultiSync® PA322UHD. The SV2 version with the calibration hardware is listed here:

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/rp/PA322UHD-SV2.xhtml

I've given this link as there doesn't appear to be a page for the non-SV2 version on the NEC UK website.

The PA322UHD is also recommended by Lloyd Chambers:

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC-PA322UHD.html

It retails at over £2,100 but second hand units seem to come up on Amazon UK from time to time at around the £1,100 mark:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00T3SEXK8

I've emailed the seller of these asking about warranties, dead pixels, accessories, etc.

_____________

So, to summarise, I'm down to a choice of 4 displays.

The LG 31MU97-B, which is true 4K, has Adobe RGB support, has the split screen feature, etc, and would seem perfect at only £750, but there are so many quality and support issues mentioned online that buying one of these would make me nervous.

The NEC PA302W on the other hand isn't 4K, or even UHD, "only" having a 2560 x 1600 resolution, but from a colour accuracy point of view, a brand new SV2 version of this may be the best choice, as it comes with calibration hardware

The NEC PA322UHD is UHD (almost 4K) and is rated very highly for colour accuracy by Lloyd Chambers too, but I'd have to risk buying a second hand unit.

And the Dell? It can be had for less than £800, but it's not an Eizo or an NEC and as such would appear simply to not be in the same class. It's merely a Dell. A compromise it would seem. Or is that just snobbery on my part?

Wise, meticulously thought out opinions would be most welcome!

Many thanks.