I have an on-board 256mb video card.
I'm running a 2.2 duo core and 2gb ram on XP SP2 CS3.

Will I get better performance and faster render times if I get a new video card, say a 512mb card? Or am I better off getting Cineform for faster workflow?

Currently, I'm working with HDV, and can do everything I need to. But I know, performance can be improved.

On-board video is usually plain S**t. Video is not the major bottleneck while editing, that is more a CPU and disk issue.

Video card won`t help with CS3, Cineform will. But make sure you skim through Cineform section of this forum, it`s not flawless. Nothing is.

Dude, I'm running quads, 4gigs ram, and 500mb Quadro. HDV performance is no better than my five-year old Dual P4, 3gigs ram, 256 Quadro Dell 650. PPro IS the bottleneck.

I use cineform and avoid the hassle of having to wait for mpegs to index and peak file building. Files are 2-3x bigger though. However, with cineform you can split scene files. The supplied HDlink tool is very useful for conversions without having to run PPro.

For the most part, if you have the time, you can demo Cineform for a week or two. v4 is supposed to be a significant step in regards to metadata file editing.

That said, if your just doing cuts and titles, HDV is fine.

Agree with previous comments. Video card is unlikely to improve performance or render time. Cineform might. As you can download and trial it for a couple of weeks that's the best way to find out.