FirePro driver adds 30-bit Deep Color to Photoshop

Bobby Miller 25 Nov, 2009 at 1:12am ET Article published in Tech

The recently released FirePro 8.663.3 graphics driver comes bearing gifts in the form of colors; the driver has added support for 10-bit color channels in Photoshop, provided you have the display to render it.

Most digital displays on the market today cannot surpass 24-bit “True Color” depth (meaning eight bits per channel, or 256x256x256 RGB), and oftentimes this is cheated by use of dithering. Thirty-bit color (10 bits per channel, or 1024x1024x1024 RGB) expands the gamut into the “Deep Color” territory of more than a billion hues–1.07 billion to be precise. Though the human eye can only reliably perceive about 10 million colors, content creators spare no detail or expense.

As we mentioned, displaying 10-bit color channels depends on having the proper monitor. Currently, the only digital display on the market capable of rendering Deep Color is the HP DreamColor. The display is the proverbial holy grail for professional artists and printers, or industries in which color purity makes all the difference in the world. The DreamColor will cost you a significant chunk of change however, as it retails for around $2,000.

The addition of Deep Color support to the FirePro is another perfect example of how a workstation GPU can give an artist the upper hand over desktop hardware, even in 2D graphics applications. Aside from performance gains specific to application optimizations, the user is given access to technologies like 10-bit color channels that cannot be had on any desktop-grade GPU.

Comments

25 Nov 2009 ~ 2:39am photodude Just think to get a fully 30bit display @ $2000 with a 30bit capable GPU $1000-$1800

Your looking at $3000-$3800 plus shipping and tax, to get the upper hand on color control. That's some serious dough to drop to get the top color control.

I remember hearing once that even though the human eye can only see 10million colors; the more accurate the display the more likely we are to see the color as it is intended. Rather then as an interpretation of the color, reinterpreted by our eyes.
25 Nov 2009 ~ 3:15am primesuspect Print shops, ad agencies, graphic designers, take note.

This would have been pure gold when I was a production manager at a print shop.
25 Nov 2009 ~ 8:15am drasnor Just think about getting that monitor calibrated....

-drasnor
25 Nov 2009 ~ 9:01am photodude

primesuspect wrote:

Print shops, ad agencies, graphic designers, take note.

This would have been pure gold when I was a production manager at a print shop.

I agree Pure Gold!!!
25 Nov 2009 ~ 4:28pm UPSLynx Yes, for a print shop, this is going to make a world of difference. This actually brings 10-bit in an affordable realm - from a business standpoint.
31 Jan 2010 ~ 7:22am Tomas Do they say how diplaying 30-bit color depth in Adobe Photoshop is achived? Because its a little bit weird. Convert whole PS application to display 30-bit requires reprogramming all the display routines and lot of other works. Adobe itself claims that even Photoshop CS5 will not yet support 30-bit viewing.

Also there is lot of other LCD displays with DisplayPort which are capable to show real 30-bit content. For example Eizo SX2462W etc.

I failed trying to download PDF documentation from ATI site :-(((