ATI Radeon HD 4870 and 10-bit Color

Thanks a lot for that info. That's hopeful news about the Mac Pro with a D500 graphics card and the Eizo monitor. I heard from NEC tech reps that the FirePro series of cards supports 10bit color. They weren't so sure about the HD 4870, but thought it might through the mini display port, if Apple provides the driver in the OS, I guess. I'm not up to speed on all this, and wasn't confident any of the FirePro cards would work in my early-2008 Mac Pro with its' Pcie 2.0 x 16 slots.

I originally heard that Adobe isn't supporting 10 bit color yet, but since then I've seen others claiming, probably wrongly, that CS6 does. I haven't asked Adobe yet myself. I've also heard that it is now supported in the Preview and Photo apps.

I've spoken to NEC, AMD , and Apple tech reps repeatedly in the past week, and basically all have been unsure about whether an Apple Upgrade version of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 with a mini display port, installed in my early-2008 Mac Pro, will support 10 bit color in my 10 bit capable NEC PA 302W monitor. The answers have basically ranged from possibly yes to probably yes.

A few days ago I bit the bullet, and ordered the HD 4870. Not sure if any of my digital cameras ( I mainly use a Panasonic LX-3 (10mp) in RAW mode) shoots 12-bit, but I have come across, and book-marked, some 10-bit test gradients. After I install the HD 4870 , I'll revisit them, and see what I get. Right now, with my ATI Radeon HD 2600 connected to my NEC PA 302W via DVI-D, not surprisingly, I'm seeing the bars (= 8 bits). I'll post the HD 4870 results in this thread. Thanks again for the very helpful info. Best Wishes!, Jack

John,

Thank you for your helpful reply. I installed the ATI HD Radeon 4870 two days ago replacing the HD 2600 that came with my early-2008 Mac Pro. The install went fine and I'm now connected to my NEC PA 302W via the Mini-Display Port to Display Port cable that came with the NEC. It's embarrassing to say but I'm NOT SURE if I'm operating in 10 bit (30bit for 3 channels) color, or an still in 8bit! As i mentioned in an earlier post, I'm running El Capitan.

As far as apps supporting 10bits go, I've heard Preview and Photo in El Capitan are supported for 10bit color. Not sure about Photoshop. I'm running CS5 and someone helped me with my settings in an effort to enable 10bit color . In Photoshop>preferences>performance in box under GPU Settings the "enable open GL Drawing" is checked , and after clicking on the "advanced" options, I selected "advanced".

I was referred to an article from 2010 that seems promising for ATI Radeon, but I've since seen the article challenged on another forums. In line with the article it was suggested to me I might have to go back to Snow Leopard OS to have 10bit color on my HD 4870 supported by a driver.

10-bit Graphics on Apple Mac | Native Digital

Anyhow sorry for rambling on, but I'm trying to find out from NEC how I can know if I'm in 10-bit color now. I'm waiting for their response. The sort of gray-scale test ramps I've downloaded are showing slight, or very subtle banding. Don't know if they're supposed to be completely smooth when in 10-bit, or not? Here are some photos of my screen I forwarded to NEC support. One shows the briefly-appearing upon turn-on(upper right corner) blue-letter display which does say"30bit" (for the 3 channels combined). Another shows what I get when I chose the "i" (=information) option from the main menu. Again it shows "30bit". The third is an iPhone 5 photo of my screen with the 10bit test ramp displayed. That image loses some detail, so the banding was slightly more visible than it shows, but just slightly.

Thanks again. I'll update when i find out more. I'd appreciate any thoughts or feedback you might have. Sincerely, Jack

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Thanks for that info. I checked, and unfortunately, I'm seeing 32-bit color ( ARG B8888).

Here is the response I just got from NEC, however. I sent them the same 3 photos of my screen as in my previous post in my request for help on knowing if I'm in 10bit. Here's the response as a c+p -

It is correctly indicating 10/30-bit color (1.07b -10-bit).

So we know the graphics card/OSx and monitor are communicating 10bit correctly.

The banding in photo to me seems smoother than 8bit, but I am not seeing a full screen image either.

Ensure CS5 setting correct.

http://petapixel.com/2015/12/04/adobe-quietly-added-10-bit-color-to-photoshop-cc -heres-how-to-enable-it/

Hello John, Since my last post I passed your info about how to check if El Capitan 10.11.1 is running in 30bit in my system on to NEC. I got this reply -

Very interesting..

Monitor is communicating 30bit , but OS is not.

Can you send me a screen capture of the Graphics/Displays > Pixel Depth.
I will take all photos and discuss with engineering.

Thank you for your request.

I'm still waiting to hear back .

It was also suggested, by someone else, that I try the Switch ResX software as a way to run in 30bit color in El Capitan 10.11.1 with my hardware. Have you ever tried it? I'll probably try it using the 10-day free trial, but I was wondering if you have any thoughts about it? I did contact them yesterday asking about the 30bit color issue after giving them a description of my hardware. Here's the response I got from Stephane Madrau -

Hi

As far as I know, apart on specific Macs with specific video cards, MacOS X doesn't manage 10 bit colors.

If the possibility exists, then SRX will allow you to choose "Billion of colors" in the SwitchResX menus.

If this option is not shown in the Menus, or if after selecting it, the profier still reports ARGB8888, then OS X doesn't manage it on your hardware and there's nothing that SRX can do for this.

Regrads

I'd appreciate any further thoughts or insights you can give me. Thank you very much, Jack

Thanks John, I am clear on the fact that I'm looking for 30-Bit (ARGB2101010) showing I'm in 10bit color versus 32-Bit (ARGB8888) which indicates I'm in 8bit color. I'm still seeing the 32-Bit (ARGB8888) in my profiler and reported that to NEC. It's interesting the Dell U2711 can run in 30bit mode thru a display port connection to a 5K iMac. Wonder if it could also operate in 30bit mode connected the same way to a new MacPro? If so, simple - I could operate my NEC PA 302W in 30bit color for a mere $3K + tax! - yikes!

Yes, you're probably right about NEC. I'm also in touch with an Apple Senior Tech. Rep who is checking with engineering about my situation, and will be getting back to me. I'm pretty ignorant about technical matters, and have been feeling my way in the dark. Thanks to your help, and the help of others, I have a better of idea now of my situation regarding 10bit color.

I've been thinking about the Boot Camp route since seeing you say you've been using it . So, it's possible to do a demo of boot camp? Would one have to purchase a Windows operating system to do the demo? If I go the Boot Camp route and at some point need to purchase Windows what version of Windows would you recommend for me with my early-2008 MacPro and HD 4870 card? Also, would I have to purchase a Windows version of Photoshop? Are you finding it cumbersome to operate Photoshop in Windows thru Boot Camp?

Thank you John. Would I need to have a Windows version of Photoshop (CS5?) , if so, maybe available as a trial from Adobe(?) to run in Boot Camp as a trial or otherwise? I'm currently running CS5 for Mac in El Capitan 10.11.1. Unfortunately, I left my PC before Windows 7, but thanks for the free upgrade info. BTW, He may not be an engineer, or have checked that carefully with the AMD engineers(?), but here's the response I got from an AMD on-line tech support rep yesterday concerning the HD 4870 and 10-bit color. Oh!, I see you're using a 7000 series Radeon. I was thinking it was a 5000 series! Considering that, not looking good for my HD 4870, although the AMD rep does suggest things might be different with the Mac version of the 4870.

Dear Jack,

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[8200664378]} has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:

The Radeon HD 4000 series graphic cards were released before 2010 and are end of life. 10 bit was not supported yet. But since your graphic card is an Apple OEM, the best thing to do is to confirm it with Apple.

As Far as Support for 10-bit, it was implemented with the Radeon HD 7000 series and professional graphic cards such as FirePro W series.

https://www.amd.com/Documents/10-Bit.pdf

Thanks again, all great info!. I'll think about what i want to try/do from here. My NEC monitor is looking so good as it is now, I'll see if I want to go forward with the 10-bit color pursuit, or just wait on that for a while. Just in case I go forward now, and my HD 4870 does not support 10-bit color, as the AMD rep said, do you think the HD 7950 ,or other 7000 series Radeon HD would fit in the pcie 2.0 x 16 slots I have in my early-2008 Mac Pro and function alright? I realize that would still leave the driver issue, and that I'd probably have to run PS in Windows thru bootcamp. Maybe another option would be a new Mac mini $700 with the Intel Iris graphics card, IF it can support 10-bit color in a third-party monitor thru its' mini-display port out. Lot of dough, though, and I like my MacPro otherwise.

Oops! I just saw this on the Mac mini stats page - says "millions of colors" , not a "billion +" which would be 10-bit. -

Support for up to two displays at 2560 by 1600 pixels, both at millions of colors