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10-bit per Channel Video Output on the nMP?

tomvos

tomvos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2005
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In the Nexus.
I just read today that the new and the previous iMac support 10-bit per channel video output, i.e. 30-bit color instead of 24-bit color.

With Mac OS X 10.11.1 this should be indicated in the System Information under Hardware > Graphics/Displays. The iMac shows there "ARGB2101010".

I wonder if the nMP (with a 30-bit color display) supports this feature, too. If someone would be so kind to have a look? That would be great.
 
Sorry, I am a bit confused. My cMP's 7950 always output 32 bit colour. Isn't the D700 should able to do the same (or better)? Or 30 bit is actually better than 32 bit?
Screen Shot 2015-10-24 at 23.00.56.jpg
Screen Shot 2015-10-24 at 23.00.45.jpg
 
That make sense. I just wonder why from 24 to 30, but not 32. And how that related to 8 or 10 bit.

So the ARGB8888 actually means 8+8+8+8, and the ARGB2101010 mean 10+10+10.
 
h9826790 said:
That make sense. I just wonder why from 24 to 30, but not 32. And how that related to 8 or 10 bit.

So the ARGB8888 actually means 8+8+8+8, and the ARGB2101010 mean 10+10+10.
Click to expand...

8 bits per colour gives 256 gradients and 10 bits give 1024 gradients per color (RGB). so instead of 16.7 millions of colours you're getting +/- a billion colors.
 
h9826790 said:
That make sense. I just wonder why from 24 to 30, but not 32. And how that related to 8 or 10 bit.

So the ARGB8888 actually means 8+8+8+8, and the ARGB2101010 mean 10+10+10.
Click to expand...

Correct. Mac systems before this were 8-bit (8-bits per R+G+B and another 8-bits to a dedicated alpha channel - 32-bit). It seems now with 10.11.1, we have true 10-bit output now... which is exciting!
 
Yeah 30 bit color has been on the wishlist for many pros for a while, so it's good to see it coming to OS X (I believe W8+ have had it built-in.)
 
To enable 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010) on my cMP with 7950 and Dell P2715Q I did the following:
Installed SwitchResX and on the top bar icon-button where you display resolutions etc. set the color to Billions instead of Millions. Then on the System Profiler you will see the following image.

I hope this helps to setup the same ARGB2101010 if you work along with a nMP ;)
 

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Cool, but only useful when you are working with media that has such high color depth. Some apps don't support 30bit output in their viewport or you have to enable it, even if you have set 10bit color in your display properties. For example, Photoshop by default shows an 8bit/32bit viewport. To enable 30bit you have to check the box in the Performance>Advanced section of the app's preferences. But this option only exists in the Windows version and probably won't come to the Mac version until Adobe sees it's worth activating now that the OS supports it.

I see SIP has to be disabled for SwitchResX erggghh
 
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More info from the Windows side to show how apps need to be written to take advantage of 10bit color. It's probably the same on the Mac side, but if Apple doesn't enable 10bit on all capable GPUs or doesn't offer the setting officially then it will be a while before apps make use of it.
 

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VAGDesign said:
To enable 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010) on my cMP with 7950 and Dell P2715Q I did the following:
Installed SwitchResX and on the top bar icon-button where you display resolutions etc. set the color to Billions instead of Millions. Then on the System Profiler you will see the following image.

I hope this helps to setup the same ARGB2101010 if you work along with a nMP ;)
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this tonight, we'll see how it goes.
 
2 ^ (8+8+8) = milions colors
2 ^ (10+10+10) = billion colors
 
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fabric17 said:
right! corrected the mistake thanks
Click to expand...
Aside from the fact that an image with less than a billion pixels can't have a billion colours :p, when we are talking about colour accuracy and using it in our workflows, it is mostly in the cyans and magentas where colour matching across different screens and media becomes inconsistent, as many of you know. Fluorescent materials are also tricky to match on screen as their appearance quickly changes depending on how much light and what kind of light is bouncing off the material.

Most people are trichromatic. We can only see around 10 million colours. That means we can't even see the full palette of an 8bit screen. Then there are colour blind people who see far less. They are the ZX Spectrum of computer users :)) Then there are a tiny minority of people who are tetrachromats. They can see about 100 million colours. They sometimes become wacky psychedelic artists who don't need drugs to see richer tones and subtle details.

Nevertheless, we have been able to work quite well with 8bit screens for years and achieve satisfactory results as long as we calibrate our screens to match our final media. Hell, we had better tools for colour accuracy than telecine artists were using and they didn't complain much. So don't worry too much about the 10bit issue. The human eye can't perceive anything close to a billion. It just helps to have that palette available for a limited range of aforementioned colours.
 
tomvos said:
I just read today that the new and the previous iMac support 10-bit per channel video output, i.e. 30-bit color instead of 24-bit color.

With Mac OS X 10.11.1 this should be indicated in the System Information under Hardware > Graphics/Displays. The iMac shows there "ARGB2101010".

I wonder if the nMP (with a 30-bit color display) supports this feature, too. If someone would be so kind to have a look? That would be great.
Click to expand...

30 bit color is now available on the MacPro 6,1 using El Capitan and the Photoshop CC 2015.1 release. Of course you must have a monitor that displays 30 bit. 30 bit color is also utilized in Apple Photo and Preview apps.

Screen Shot 2015-12-07 at 9.40.09 PM.png
 
Using the iMac (2013) in target display mode connected to the nMP enables 30 bit colour on the iMac display which is pretty nice if you have an old iMac sitting around. The iMac on its own does not support 30 bit colour probably due to the gfx card
 
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