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Need New Monitor for new Mac Pro

T

tony3d

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2006
377
2
Just received my new 12 core Mac Pro the other day, and just now have time to set it up. I gave my son my old Mac Pro 2008 quad core,and my HP monitor because he just had an old Visio tv/monitor, and the image looked really bad. So now I need a new monitor. I was looking at AOC, but have read people are having compatibility issues with it. What would be a good monitor with decent picture controls, that is 100% compatible with the ATI 5870 graphics card? The only DVI cable I have says it is a DVI Digital dual link cable. Will this work for DVI? Thanks.
 
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I just upgraded to a Dell Ultrasharp U3011. I absolutely love it. Very good color accuracy, fantastic picture, and has plenty of inputs. If you don't want the whole 30 inches they have a 23, 24, and 27 inch lineup as well. It supports DVI, Displayport, VGA, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

DVI Dual Link is only required to drive a 27 and 30 inch monitor and larger. It'll be just fine as a normal DVI cable.
 
Hey Tony, recall your earlier posts, how are you finding the new Mac Pro?

I went from a 2006 3.0 Ghz 4 Core to a 2012 3.3 Ghz 6 core with 32GB ram, I recon the new machine is about 25 snappier around general OS and 50% faster i my 3d Cad, Vectorworks and Renderworks.

I had dual 30" Apple matt screens. I moved to the 27" LED Cinemas which are gloss. First few days on the glossies took a bit of getting used to, had to lower brightness as the leds have big impact over the older tube, pixel density on the 27"s is tight so near retina presentation of icons and dock, pixels and edges are choppy on the 30", color and contrast are epic on the 27, and excellent on the 30, but you know what, the FaceTime camera, the sound and the smaller desk real estate of the 27 are really good, I will miss my 30's but onwards and upwards, the 27s are a great screen.
 
I bought NEW Multisyncs due to outstanding reviews regarding color fidelity (they are a wide gamut monitor, not sure if that's what you want). They calibrate nicely and are low glare (personally I can't stand glossy monitors!).

Not cheap, but worth the money IMO thus far (had them maybe a year or so)

I bought a PA271W for main and a PA241W for portrait next to it.
 
spacedesign911 said:
Hey Tony, recall your earlier posts, how are you finding the new Mac Pro?

I went from a 2006 3.0 Ghz 4 Core to a 2012 3.3 Ghz 6 core with 32GB ram, I recon the new machine is about 25 snappier around general OS and 50% faster i my 3d Cad, Vectorworks and Renderworks.

I had dual 30" Apple matt screens. I moved to the 27" LED Cinemas which are gloss. First few days on the glossies took a bit of getting used to, had to lower brightness as the leds have big impact over the older tube, pixel density on the 27"s is tight so near retina presentation of icons and dock, pixels and edges are choppy on the 30", color and contrast are epic on the 27, and excellent on the 30, but you know what, the FaceTime camera, the sound and the smaller desk real estate of the 27 are really good, I will miss my 30's but onwards and upwards, the 27s are a great screen.
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sup dude thank you very much for the thoughts on both the monitors.

i'm debating between a 27inch cinema and a 30" 2010 cinema.
from what you wrote it seems like the 27 is a better screen as much as you'll miss the old 30".

i think ill grab a 27...
 
Asus pa238

Hi Tony, I bought the ASUS PA238 along with the new 12-core. It might be small for you, but for photography, it is incredible. Moving from laptops to this system has been a huge benefit. I am planning on buying one more when the bank account recovers. ~$280. I understand for gaming, it might not be the best.....
 
I would also suggest looking into the Dell UltraSharp line. I upgraded to the U3011 about 6 months ago, and it is an incredible monitor. I believe Dell has UltraSharp monitors starting at 23 or 24 inches.
 
ogs said:
sup dude thank you very much for the thoughts on both the monitors.

i'm debating between a 27inch cinema and a 30" 2010 cinema.
from what you wrote it seems like the 27 is a better screen as much as you'll miss the old 30".

i think ill grab a 27...
Click to expand...

I don't think you will regret going with the glossy. In my setup the reflections are gone at 50% brightness on the new LED's, 100% brightness is too much for me for long periods at the moment, (2 weeks in) but each day its gets easier and honestly better. The screens have a much much faster response time, I rant them with my 30" matt and dragged some windows across both displays and I could actually see the 30" stutter. I sold my 30" today for €700 which is about $860 and I thought I would be sad to see it go but I am very happy with the LED's, Im gonna use the cash to buy another 5870 card and run 3 27" LEDs. yes they are that good!
 
Personally I enjoy Dell Ultrasharp monitors. They offer great quality and image at a great price.

I was looking for a monitor a while back and started a thread on here. Didn't take long to get some great replies. It might be worth checking out.
 
To each their own. I have a U2311 gathering dust and it is supposed to be amazing value. I'd rather use a 20" NEC glossy AS-IPS. Faster response but worse contrast ratio calibrated:(
The Dell's paint on REALLY thick AG coating and use 6-bit NOT 8-bit panels. The 27 and 30 may use 8-bit but I would check on that if you are at all sensitive to that sort of thing. If quality and backlight bleed isn't an issue I may well grab the new Samsung PLS 27". It looks pretty fantastic. But I am still waiting on GPU upgrades for this. Grrrr.
 
derbothaus said:
To each their own. I have a U2311 gathering dust and it is supposed to be amazing value. I'd rather use a 20" NEC glossy AS-IPS. Faster response but worse contrast ratio calibrated:(
Click to expand...

In the US, NEC is super aggressive on pricing relative to what you get. They seem to drop pricing mid cycle whenever it's possible. Their 27" is down to $1150 at B+H. Their 24" is $766 now. I personally like the 24" size. Even with the large wacom tablets, they map weird when paired with too large of a display, and there's no way to set the pen to mouse mode and get it specifically 1:1:mad:. Otherwise I'd do that. I don't put as much value in contrast ratio. It's possible to have a high contrast ratio with poor highlight and shadow detail.
 
thanks to everyone for the input. I ended up getting an HP 2311Xi. It has the ips technology for off angle viewing. I calibrated it with a Huey Pro, and the results are extremely nice for the money. Now to get Lightwave 11 installed on my 12 core.
 
thekev said:
In the US, NEC is super aggressive on pricing relative to what you get. They seem to drop pricing mid cycle whenever it's possible. Their 27" is down to $1150 at B+H. Their 24" is $766 now. I personally like the 24" size. Even with the large wacom tablets, they map weird when paired with too large of a display, and there's no way to set the pen to mouse mode and get it specifically 1:1:mad:. Otherwise I'd do that. I don't put as much value in contrast ratio. It's possible to have a high contrast ratio with poor highlight and shadow detail.
Click to expand...

I love that your as fussy as me with this stuff. I absolutely understand your 1:1 needs ;)
 
AOC i2353Ph LED IPS

I think its cheap and looks great.

AOC%20i2353%20Exterior%20Gallery-1_575px.jpg
 
derbothaus said:
I love that your as fussy as me with this stuff. I absolutely understand your 1:1 needs ;)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty detailed, but I like to work by feel. Before I strictly kept everything 1:1, I used to find strokes slightly offset when viewed close up. I had to set tilt sensitivity to high too for some weird driver reason as the other settings sometimes gave me slight waviness. I can do this stuff on paper, so I don't like to feel held back by the quirks of the technology.
 
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