Help in Choosing a Graphics card for ~4k Monitor + which CPU Cooler to Buy

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am looking to build/upgrade a new computer - basically I need this computer to be able to do two things REALLY well

1) Use "R" on very large data sets.  I am an R hack programmer.  I am good at what I do (interpreting/analyzing data and building predictive models), but what I do well isn't really the programming part.  Therefore - I need to be able to throw more memory at the problem rather than learn to write more efficient code.  Even if I did write more efficiently - in some cases - I am dealing with very large data sets and deal with algorithms that sometimes are very memory intensive.  Anyway - take my word for it - I NEED 64G of RAM.  I say this - as every time I see a thread (on other boards) with someone asking about 32 or 64 GB of RAM - someone asks what the hell they need it for -I really do need it.  Even 64 GB isn't enough - and I have to work with others sometimes to break the problems down to more manageable chunks - I'd rather not have to use other people when not needed.

2) Do kick ass photo manipulation.  This is something I am just sort of getting into - and want to do more of.  I want to process and manipulate photos using a higher bit depth than 24.  Think Lightroom, Photoshop, 
Photomatix Pro, and someone anal enough to be using:

http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?id=1257
And 
X-Rite ColorMunki Accurate Monitor Display Calibration (purchased, but haven't used yet)

I am A+ Certified and have built a few systems in my day, but my day was quite some time ago - and if you don’t keep up to date on this stuff it means virtually nothing. Heck I don’t even know if A+ is even a thing anymore :slight_smile:

Anyway - I am getting a little overwhelmed at some of the minutiae in some of the decisions I have to make.

My first stumbling block is the graphics card - I am strongly leaning towards the following monitor:

Dell Computer UltraSharp UP2414Q 24" Monitor

I am concerned about the best graphics card to get for my situation:

• The monitor is a relatively high Ultra HD 3840 x 2160 resolution
• It is capable of (and I want to exploit) its 30 bit color depth
• It needs to be able to fit on a motherboard that will have to have adequate cooling for a minimum of a 130W processor (as there are only a few Intel non Xeon processors capable of doing 64GB of ram - and none run cooler than 130W)
• That being said - I have no need or desire to overclock my processor or graphics card
• I want to be able to run another high resolution (but it doesn’t need to be - and probably wont be - 4k) monitor off of the same card.
• I have no real plans to use this PC for video or gaming.

I don’t think I care about frame rate, but I do sometimes plot large complicated graphs that look something like this:
http://i1.wp.com/blog.ynada.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mla-small.png

But much more dense - more nodes and edges. I am guessing that the fact that I can see it "drawing " these edges and nodes over a period of minutes that it is the graphics card that is doing the work here - and not the processor, but I do not know if this is a safe guess.

I am also not sure how important a graphics card’s speed is in Photoshop & Lightroom type manipulation

Anyway - any help on what graphics card to get?

How about what cooling system to get?

Noise is a big factor - I don’t want something very noisy if possible (and I am flexible on it having to get more noisy when things are running hot. I usually leave the room while my algorithms run). So basically - if I am browsing the web and writing code -I don’t want it to sound like a jet engine, but have no problem with a bit of noise when the CPU is in high use. I also am concerned about size - as I have had issues in the past with cooling getting in the way of graphics cards and/or memory.

Again - I am not going to overclock, but my code will sometimes be running for days - so I want something that would basically be able to run Prime95 at full blast and stay within temperature specs, but I do not plan on pushing the processor speed through overclocking.

Here are the other components I am leaning towards:

Motherboard:

ASUS P9X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor:

Intel® Core i7-4820K Processor

HDD:

Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE1T0BW

Any help would be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

Re the Samsung SSD and other components it might be useful to look on the Newegg’s sale site component rating comments. I have found more useful info there re real world usability, reliability and and things to watch out for than in any formal magazine or online spec review.

3

Thanks - you are right - It appears very useful. I had even used it before, but had forgotten about it this go around.

One of the reasons I love this place.

4

Can’t really help, and I may have mentioned this before, but the monthly Hierarchy Chart which is part of TomsHardware Best Graphics Cards For The Money: March 2014 is a great comfort.

Also, I learned that some people lease Graphics Cards for frequent upgrades, which seems kinda screwy.

5

I’m way in over my head, but one thing that I don’t think’s been mentioned yet is your power supply. Is it big enough to handle the load of your cpu, cooler, etc…? I picked the GTX 750 Ti mainly because it was short enough to fit the dinky PCIe 2.0 slot my mobo has, plus it’s very frugal on power consumption.

Would SLI or CrossFire -ing two graphics cards be more useful than one big honking one?

Your setup sounds impressive.

6

I like high DPI as much as the next guy, but 4k just isn’t mature yet.
Read this review of that monitor’s big brother.
If you connect via HDMI 1.4 you get 30Hz. If you connect via DisplayPort 1.2 MST you run into many little annoyances.
At that price point get a U2713H, or spend a bit more for the U3014 (happy, happy, joy joy).

I know nothing about “R”. A quick google suggests that whilst the program itself cannot use the GPU, certain “packages” for it are able to take advantage of the GPU–perhaps through nVidia’s CUDA API or OpenCL in general.

What’s your intent? Do you:

  1. Use those packages and want as much GPU power as possible, perhaps including SLI/crossfire.

  2. Not use those packages. Which combined with low priority for games/video means you won’t need much of a video card at all. Just look for 30bit and the desired connectivity.

Consider a liquid cooler. Something like the Corsair Hydro Series H110.
If you’re running something for days stability has got to be paramount. Cooler equals more stable (cet. par.) and good liquid coolers tend to produce a sustained, lower temperature delta.

However, at typical loads, an air cooler with PWM fan/s is going to be quieter. Noctua is a quality brand.

OTOH when googling “R” it seems the program is single threaded. Is CPU heat an issue at 25% (i.e one of four cores)? Or do those “packages” stress the other cores?

7

If you’re not going to overclock, don’t get the K version of the CPU. Also, using the K version means you lose certain virtualisation features.

With regards to the RAM issue, you might look at Supermicro motherboards and workstations, which can support 1 TB of RAM. A quick gander indicates the X9SR series of motherboards can take 512 GB of RAM. As you might guess from the X prefix, these use the Xeon processor. Note that Windows 7 x64 is limited to 192 GB, but Windows 8 can use 512 GB. See here.

As for the GPU, I rather doubt your slow-down is due to the GPU, and you can check this by opening Task Manager and looking at the CPU performance there. I suggest you get a lower-end AMD Firepro or Nvidia Quadro and upgrading later if necessary.

There is a little wrinkle of which you should beware: Windows 7 supports only 1 DPI across all monitors, so don’t go pairing your 4K monitor with a 1080p one. Windows 8 fixes this.

I’ve a 4K monitor on order, a Samsung U28D590, and it’s due next month. It’s a TN monitor rather than IPS like the Dell, so unsuitable for artwork or photography, but it works in SST mode rather than MST like the Dell. I’m expecting a decent gaming experience with my 780 Ti.

8

Given your biggest CPU load is single threaded, you need to overclock, and you need to buy Intel.

9

This creates a dilemna : the fastest single threaded chips use a chipset that usually has 4 RAM slots. You also want a large amount of memory, and the server chipsets and Intel’s other socket will mean less CPU performance. (because you can’t overclock on server boards, usually, and their other socket is a generation behind in CPU microarchitecture)

10

As far as CPU cooling, I love this all in one liquid cooling system. The single fan 120V model. It comes ready to install, nothing to fill or seal. You just need to be able to mount a 120mm fan.

I’ve been running it on an AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz 8-Core Desktop Processor for about 6 months now without getting close to overheating.

ETA: It is compatible with the CPU you listed.

11

Sorry - I haven’t had a chance to address other responses yet. I’m headed off to bed and wanted to respond to at least one.

The graphics card is more of a concern mainly for doing the 4k monitor - not R. You are correct that R is normally single threaded. There are packages that use the multi threading - and to be honest I haven’t gotten into them yet. However I will often run more than one instance of R. I like your thinking of the GPU packages for R, but that isn’t what I meant (although I can see why you’d think that). That right now is beyond my ability.

Usually I am running a single thread - and can already hear the fan pick up speed now when I run even using one core. I was manly indicating the two main uses. There will be occasions where all four cores will be running. I use excel as well - and I think that (but don’t know) - some of the photoshop ad dons can use 4 cores and such.

The graphics card is also a concern - since it is what I know the least about. To the best or my knowledge - I’ve never run into an issue where the graphics card was the limiting factor, but I’m not sure.

I do realize 4k isn’t mature yet. I’ve heard of people having issues - than you for your response and I will read it in more detail when I awake up and check out the links and such. I really want the 30 bit color. I realize I might not need it, but it is hard to tell - as right now - all I can see is 24 bit. I really want to try the 4k and will consider the bigger sizes, but I really don’t think I need that - and will possibly run into space issues if I have extra monitors and such.

Also – I haven’t looked as hard as I could, but some preliminary spec checks on graphics cards didn’t show me what bit depth they supported - which confused me. Maybe I just didn’t see it.

I will consider the liquid cooler. I have seen the exact one you mentioned recommended, but was concerned - basically cause I’ve never done liquid cooling before. I didn’t want to worry about leaks (but don’t recall hearing many complaints about that). So basically I think it comes down to fear of the unknown and worries about size considerations.

12

Thanks - don’t think I’ve seen that before - and looks useful. I will check it out tomorrow

You are correct - I haven’t mentioned the power supply - I will make sure I get one more than adequate - as it will be important in this case.

And as far as SLI or CrossFire - I do not know. I know very little about graphics cards and those things always seemed targeted to gamers - so I can’t say if they’d be useful in my case.

Not sure I’m following you exactly (I’ve been up a long time), but the reason I picked (or am leaning to an Ivy Bridge E processor - is it is - other than Sandy Bridge E (I think) - the only non XEON processor that will support 64 GB. I didn’t want to go Xeon basically cause I think the motherboards end up being more expensive and well - basically cause I have little experience working with them.

I don’t think I need to over clock. Although speed is an issue - it is usually memory that is more. I can run multiple threads - for example - while running randomForest in R - even without knowing how to use snowball and stuff - I can run 250 trees on data set X on core one - and another 250 trees on thread two - and there is a simple command to combine the two sets of 250 trees into one 500 tree forest. Even if I don’t do that - there are other hacks I can do. Of course some of these hacks mean that I am basically loading data set X into memory multiple times - which is one of the reasons that I need more memory.

Even if I wasn’t using hacks - I often would still be using more than one core - as I often am doing multiple things at the same time.

The Sandy Bridge E and Ivy Bridge E both have 8 slots for memory.

It is kinda old technology in a way, but I think it will suit my needs

13

Thanks for this. I had toyed with the idea of going with a server board, but have set that aside for the time being - mainly to due my lack of understanding of what the differences are and what I need to be concerned about. It looks at first glance that there isn’t as many differences between the Xeon/non-Xeon as I might have thought, but I am going to probably stay away from non Xeon until I absolutely need to due to its ability to support more RAM.

Thanks for this - everything you mentioned as a selling point is - well things that I want - so I’m definitely going to check it out.

Thanks to everyone who posted - this was starting to overwhelm me. A friend/lover of mine was murdered last month and I promised her family I would help put together/edit pictures we all have of her and get them professionally printed in a book.

So I’ve been a little overwhelmed in making decisions. You’ve all helped me and feel free to make any other suggestions. I’ve been a little unmotivated lately - so I’m using this incident to help get me back on tract with my supercomputer and pour my heart (or what’s left of it :slight_smile: ) into making a piece of art that I think will help me in my healing process.

14

My regrets for your friend. That’s horrible for you.