Video Card Upgrade

[Bob]

Here's the user manual: http://www.asrock.com/manual/K8NF4G-SATA2.pdf

Interestingly enough, it will disable the onboard video by default if a video card is placed in the PCI-E x16 slot. See page 14.

[momoffduty]

Found the PCI-E x16 cards at Newegg. Starting as low as $29 after rebate, some around $100. Do all of these cards support dual monitor? For some of the low prices it may be worth it. I thought video cards were around $300 to $500 and needed an extra fan to cool.

http://www.newegg.com/product/ProductLi ... -_-NA-_-NA

[Bobby]

Dual monitor:

You have to check. Most these days do support it, but there could be a combination of DVI or VGA connectors, or both. You would want both DVI for best signal, and you can get adapters if you have a VGA display.

[Chuck Engels]

I thought video cards were around $300 to $500 and needed an extra fan to cool.

I don't think you should ever need to spend more than $100 or so on a very nice video card.
As Bob says, most do have dual monitor capability now. Some are one VGA and one DVI, but the adapters are cheap if you only have VGA monitors.

[momoffduty]

Since I do not know how to interrupt the description specs, is there one for a reasonable price that you would recommend? (Around the $100 mark) Would want DVI for the monitor and S video for the TV. Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Cheryl,
You really don't want to connect the TV to the video card, the Pyro will work much better for this.
Since you already have something that will connect the TV with your current setup, do you want to get a second monitor or is what you have working ok?

[momoffduty]

Chuck, guess you are right. Will try the Pyro first. My monitor has plenty of workspace, just wanted to see preview on TV before burning. Overthinking again.

[jackfalbey]

I'm with Chuck on the Pyro-TV setup. Get a dual-DVI video card and run 2 monitors off of it, and use the Pyro for TV preview of Premiere's playback window. I use a 27" TV with my Pyro and it's great for checking color, focus, overscan, etc. And having dual monitors for your desktop is so awesome, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. You can have Premiere on one monitor, and muvipix on the other!

For video card recommendations, you really don't need anything super-powered for Premiere. The $100 range offers a lot of good products. My personal recommendation is the ATI Radeon series; they are better suited for video display whereas Nvidia's GeForce line is more oriented for gaming. Nvidia's Quadro FX line is by far the best for 3D animation, special effects, and other intense graphics and modeling, but they are way beyond what you need to spend right now.

Here's one at Newegg that gives you far more than what you need for $49.95 after rebate, with free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131096

It's the same card I have in my monster video editing workstation (except mine is the 1GB version) but it runs everything I throw at it and doesn't even break a sweat.

[Bill Hunt]

Bob,

Thannks for pointing out the auto disable feature of that MoBo for PCIe cards. Neat! Saves a lot of work. Had not seen this feature, but maybe my workstations MoBo is too old, or I've not done similar. Great feature.

Hunt

[Jayell]

My personal recommendation is the ATI Radeon series; they are better suited for video display whereas Nvidia's GeForce line is more oriented for gaming.

Jack, can you explain how the needs are different between video and gaming. I would have thought they'd both need similar resources.

[jackfalbey]

I don't know the technical reasons (I'm sure someone else can fill in the details) but most of the head-to-head "Shootout" tests I've seen, the Nvidia GeForce cards always seem to edge out the ATI Radeons for gaming performance. Likewise, on many video editing forums I've seen lots of people having trouble editing with GeForce cards and the advice is usually to switch to a Radeon. So my subjective conclusion is that ATI=better video editing and Nvidia=better gaming. I assume it has something to do with different architecture between the brands.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, and I'm sure lots of people are editing on GeForce cards and doing fine. I personally know people who have ATI cards in their gaming rigs. So it's not a hard and fast rule, just an observed trend.

Note: I am referring only to the low-midrange (under $150) Radeon and GeForce cards here. That's all you need to run Premiere, and the top-line desktop and workstation cards from both manufacturers are way out of Cheryl's price range anyway.

[Jayell]

Thanks for the response. I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 (that I've been pleased with) .. and now that I recall, it was a gamer that was ooing and aahing when I first mentioned it

[Bill Hunt]

In the gaming community, it's the "shaders," and other 3-D rendering that is the bottleneck. It's really the same if one is doing 3-D creation/editing. With NLE work, you are dealing with 2-D only (unless you are incorporating a 3-D effect into a Title or Transition and useing one of the GPU Effects for this. Even then, you're not even approaching the heavy 3-D work needed in most current games.). With NLE work, you only need to drive your monitor(s) at the desired rez. Most current cards can do this easily. Only real consideration is with a dual-head setup. You need the adequate outputs (or adapters) and enough GPU horsepower to get your target rez on both monitors.

I do no gaming, any longer, but do some light 3-D stuff. I usually go for more video card, than I really need, but I have the horsepower, should a project require more intense 3-D.

Now that Adobe CS4 (PS, AE and Premiere) will start taking advantage of the GPU's more, things will likely change a bit. nVidia is working on some new cards, and modifying some older ones, to take advantage of this addition from Adobe. I expect to see more cards designed for Adobe products very soon, as CS4 is shipping. Depending on the gains, I'll definitely look into the CUDA cards for my next machine, though I'm hoping that nVidia will offer something for my big card soon. Right now, it's between the "cracks," and is not listed as updatable - maybe, just maybe, that will change in time. Don't have CS4 yet, so it's currently a moot point for me. Besides, when I do upgrade, I'll probably go to Vista 64 and my workstation MoBo can only take 4GB RAM, which is what I've got. We'll see how CS4 performs (still being a 32-bit app.) with more RAM on a system. While I doubt that any of the suite can fully use more now, it should be available for "each" program to use the full amount, rather than having 4GB split over all. I've just got to wait and see - reports are starting to come in from the field.

Hunt

[Jayell]

Thanks, Bill, for the additional info!

[Ken Jarstad]

Here is an interesting new card I am looking at. The Radeon HD 4550 Passive. Evidently the "passive" part is necessary when looking this one up. Brand new offering this Fall, cheap $50 price, designed for 2D performance, passively cooled so adds no noise, and best of all - it has DVI and HDMI ports (also Display Port for those who care) which would make it great for hi-def video editing.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/HD_4550_passive/2.html