What Video Card for Editing HD? at DVinfo.net

William N Zarvis · September 8th, 2006, 04:42 PM

I've got the FX1 and now I'm going to build a new rig to edit the HD footage.

I'm building a raid (300 gig Hardrives x2) with 2 gigs of memory and an AMD Athlon 4200+ 64bit X2 Dual Core Processor.

What kind of video card would you guys recommend for editing my HD footage? I don't want to spend more than $350.00 on the card.

Thanks in advance for any info!

Peter Jefferson · September 9th, 2006, 08:23 AM

err.. what NLE are u using? not all support GFX card "assistance"

William N Zarvis · September 9th, 2006, 02:37 PM

I'm using PP2.0

Peter Jefferson · September 9th, 2006, 10:39 PM

for gfx card, check the Adobe specifications on their website.

Theyve done thorough testing and show varying results with different cards.
At the moment an nVidia 6800 (bout 300-400 AUD PCIe or AGP.. i'll be getting an AGP version soon.. ) and above will give you the perforamce you need, as well as the option of cranking Magic BUllet 2 within AE/PP in realtime... well half realtime at least, but even thats ok compared to MB 1

If u want performance and quality, go 256bit as a minimum with 256mb memory.. 512mb if u can afford it.. but the bitrate is far more important, as is your motherboards FSB speed (and of course drive speed)

if your goin PCie the new 7000 series cards with v4 of the card specs (ie dedicated video shaders etc etc) will also offer higher performance.

Just be aware, that if you intend to "upgrade" to a Matrox RTx2 later, check that the card your wanting is compatible with the RT as well..

But to be honest with PP2 on a kick ass machine it really does shit on the RTx2 builds ive seen so far when it comes to bang for the buck.. its a 2k difference in price... 2k can go A LONG WAY when it comes to computers..

As the RTx2 doesnt even support 720p or 108024p/f and even to this day it struggles a bit with 576p...
Hell the RTx100 <sd> doesnt even support progressive scan.. let alone variable frame rates and resolutions over 288 temporal lines.. (ie 576i)

in addition, if u went Matrox, you wouldnt be able to utlise all the PP2 features and tweaks, your audio will be locked through matrox (stereo only) the effects engine IS good, but there is still too much aliasing <3d text, 3dtransitions and filters>, and for HD work.. aliasing is NOT acceptable (not in my book anyway... ) processing is fast though.. so i guess its a speed vs quality thing here.. and of course resolution... colour space support on teh RT2 is good, but again, whats the point of offering a 4:2:2 colour space if you cant take advantage of the DVCProHD 720p or 1080p/f resolutions?

I thnk stick with a high end dual core CPU (or dual dual core) or core2 duo... with a fat ass nvidia GFX card and youll be right.. i wouldnt bother with matrox unless your considering the AXIO

As an aside, i just got myself a Toshiba laptop, dual core 1.73 with 1gb ram and an nVidia go7300 256mb dediucated gfx card
for less than 2kAUD, this unit can handle 4 streams of native HDV on PP2.
It also renders and plays back MB2 in realtime...(not with the 4 streams though.. i wish.. lol)
And this is a laptop... so i can utilise it anywhere.. mainly for my SDE's and slideshows.. so more than likely it will pay iotself off in a job or two..

I had media on the system drive <5400rpm> (testing with USB ext drive later tongiht..) but more than likely performance wont dissipate if my desktop is any indication of how USB is handled these days. In the past USB used to juice out the CPU and PCI FSB/bandwidth but now i can easily run 3 external USB drives with my internal IDE's with no loss of performance.. not that ive noticed anyway...

Also Vegas cranks the shiznit on this thing... totally rocks for CPU grunt only... <vegas doesn use GPU> i'll be using this when im doing my training sessions... :)

William N Zarvis · September 11th, 2006, 06:45 AM

Peter,
Thanks for all that awesome information! I really appreciate it. I'm going to buy a GeForce 7600GS 256MB SLI Ready, 16X, Single Slot, and Fanless video card. It's a kick-ass card that isn't too pricey and I can always add another one for better performance.
Thanks again!

September 8th, 2006, 04:42 PM	#1
William N Zarvis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsfield, MA Posts: 86	What Video Card for Editing HD? I've got the FX1 and now I'm going to build a new rig to edit the HD footage. I'm building a raid (300 gig Hardrives x2) with 2 gigs of memory and an AMD Athlon 4200+ 64bit X2 Dual Core Processor. What kind of video card would you guys recommend for editing my HD footage? I don't want to spend more than $350.00 on the card. Thanks in advance for any info!

September 9th, 2006, 08:23 AM	#2
Peter Jefferson Inner Circle Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Aus Posts: 3,884	err.. what NLE are u using? not all support GFX card "assistance"

September 9th, 2006, 02:37 PM	#3
William N Zarvis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsfield, MA Posts: 86	I'm using PP2.0

September 9th, 2006, 10:39 PM	#4
Peter Jefferson Inner Circle Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Aus Posts: 3,884	for gfx card, check the Adobe specifications on their website. Theyve done thorough testing and show varying results with different cards. At the moment an nVidia 6800 (bout 300-400 AUD PCIe or AGP.. i'll be getting an AGP version soon.. ) and above will give you the perforamce you need, as well as the option of cranking Magic BUllet 2 within AE/PP in realtime... well half realtime at least, but even thats ok compared to MB 1 If u want performance and quality, go 256bit as a minimum with 256mb memory.. 512mb if u can afford it.. but the bitrate is far more important, as is your motherboards FSB speed (and of course drive speed) if your goin PCie the new 7000 series cards with v4 of the card specs (ie dedicated video shaders etc etc) will also offer higher performance. Just be aware, that if you intend to "upgrade" to a Matrox RTx2 later, check that the card your wanting is compatible with the RT as well.. But to be honest with PP2 on a kick ass machine it really does shit on the RTx2 builds ive seen so far when it comes to bang for the buck.. its a 2k difference in price... 2k can go A LONG WAY when it comes to computers.. As the RTx2 doesnt even support 720p or 108024p/f and even to this day it struggles a bit with 576p... Hell the RTx100 <sd> doesnt even support progressive scan.. let alone variable frame rates and resolutions over 288 temporal lines.. (ie 576i) in addition, if u went Matrox, you wouldnt be able to utlise all the PP2 features and tweaks, your audio will be locked through matrox (stereo only) the effects engine IS good, but there is still too much aliasing <3d text, 3dtransitions and filters>, and for HD work.. aliasing is NOT acceptable (not in my book anyway... ) processing is fast though.. so i guess its a speed vs quality thing here.. and of course resolution... colour space support on teh RT2 is good, but again, whats the point of offering a 4:2:2 colour space if you cant take advantage of the DVCProHD 720p or 1080p/f resolutions? I thnk stick with a high end dual core CPU (or dual dual core) or core2 duo... with a fat ass nvidia GFX card and youll be right.. i wouldnt bother with matrox unless your considering the AXIO As an aside, i just got myself a Toshiba laptop, dual core 1.73 with 1gb ram and an nVidia go7300 256mb dediucated gfx card for less than 2kAUD, this unit can handle 4 streams of native HDV on PP2. It also renders and plays back MB2 in realtime...(not with the 4 streams though.. i wish.. lol) And this is a laptop... so i can utilise it anywhere.. mainly for my SDE's and slideshows.. so more than likely it will pay iotself off in a job or two.. I had media on the system drive <5400rpm> (testing with USB ext drive later tongiht..) but more than likely performance wont dissipate if my desktop is any indication of how USB is handled these days. In the past USB used to juice out the CPU and PCI FSB/bandwidth but now i can easily run 3 external USB drives with my internal IDE's with no loss of performance.. not that ive noticed anyway... Also Vegas cranks the shiznit on this thing... totally rocks for CPU grunt only... <vegas doesn use GPU> i'll be using this when im doing my training sessions... :)

September 11th, 2006, 06:45 AM	#5
William N Zarvis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsfield, MA Posts: 86	Peter, Thanks for all that awesome information! I really appreciate it. I'm going to buy a GeForce 7600GS 256MB SLI Ready, 16X, Single Slot, and Fanless video card. It's a kick-ass card that isn't too pricey and I can always add another one for better performance. Thanks again!