___ Video Card (dual monitor Output) ___ (Fill rate or Memory bandwidth)? ___

[Blain]

[Edit]: Which is better for a dual monitor setup... Fill rate or Memory bandwidth?

Thanks again!
______________

I know nothing about this topic, but...

Are video editing machines best setup with...
A. 1 AGP card, dual monitor capable
B. 1 AGP card and 1 PCI card (both same brand - ATI - nVidia)
C. 2 PCI (just to have a C. option)

I'm thinking for performance & cost, option B. might be better (cheaper AGP card selection). But like I said, I no nothing about this topic.
Any input?

Thanks


WoW, I visited The Video Guys and ran across this XP SP2 warning for VE rigs (scroll down just a bit)...
"We do not recommend installing the new SP2 on your existing NLE machine!
We are getting numerous reports from our customers, vendors and user groups of problems created from SP2. Issues seem to be mainly in overall system stability and video playback from many NLEs. We do not yet have a clear understanding of why NLEs are running into issues. Our vendors are working with Microsoft to resolve these issues. My guess is that the boys in Redmond have added some tweaks and improvements to the multimedia and DVD playback capabilities of XP. Unfortunately these "improvements" are creating conflicts in NLE systems that were running perfectly prior to SP2 being installed. Interestingly, it appears that folks installing XP, then SP2, then their NLE are running into less problems than those installing SP2 over an exisitng NLE machine. Hopefully we'll see patches posted quickly to fix these issues.
DO NOT INSTALL XP SP2 if you are working on time critical projects!"

 

[EULA]

my suggestion is that you find an input card, such as the AVerMedia PCI TV Tuner Card with some sort of onboard encoder to free up your cpu for other tasks...

 

[mauiblue]

I posted somewhere else in this forum that I had a problem with Premiere Pro not being able to export to DVD. I did a google search on the problem and found that SP 2 was the culprit. I uninstalled it and Premiere Pro didn't hang when exporting to DVD.

Until there are some fixes for SP 2, I'll wait to install it again.

 

[airfoil]

Just to broaden the view...

 

[Blain]

I wasn't thinking about input/capture. I'm asking about output to dual monitors, if that helps.

 

[airfoil]

If its dual monitors you're after, then a dual monitor capable card is best, IMO.

 

[Blain]

For a non-gaming setup like this, does having more MBs on the card help deal with dual monitors any?
Or would more MBs only help in gaiming applications?

Thanks

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Blain
For a non-gaming setup like this, does having more MBs on the card help deal with dual monitors any?
Or would more MBs only help in gaiming applications?

Thanks

No. Video cards have absolutely zero impact on video editing applications. ZERO! Once you're beyond ~8MB of RAM on the card, 2D performance doesn't improve with more memory.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Blain
For a non-gaming setup like this, does having more MBs on the card help deal with dual monitors any?
Or would more MBs only help in gaiming applications?

Thanks

No. Video cards have absolutely zero impact on video editing applications. ZERO! Once you're beyond ~8MB of RAM on the card, 2D performance doesn't improve with more memory.

Sorry Matthais99, but this is not entirely true. Pinnacle Liquid Edition and, to a smaller extent, Pinnacle Studio 9 both are impacted by the video card. Liquid uses the GPU to render about 40-50% of its effects. 64MB is a minimum, with 128MB enabling some features. 256MB of memory allows Hollywood FX 5 to render more in real-time. Liquid Edition 6 doing High-Def recommends 256MB of video memory.
Linkage to PCLE features/requirements

OP, as for output to a screen, also consider that what you see on even a dual monitor system is not what you get. With the advanced editors, some support hardware to allow you to use a NTSC external monitor (in real-time) to review the results as it would be on a TV. That usually requires additional hardware beyond the video card. The example would be Pinnacle's Pro versions of Liquid. I think the Matrox may do the same, but I do not have any experience with it. This would be important for both color correction, size of the resultant display(overscan vs underscan), and pixelation.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: gsellis

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Blain
For a non-gaming setup like this, does having more MBs on the card help deal with dual monitors any?
Or would more MBs only help in gaiming applications?

Thanks

No. Video cards have absolutely zero impact on video editing applications. ZERO! Once you're beyond ~8MB of RAM on the card, 2D performance doesn't improve with more memory.

Sorry Matthais99, but this is not entirely true. Pinnacle Liquid Edition and, to a smaller extent, Pinnacle Studio 9 both are impacted by the video card. Liquid uses the GPU to render about 40-50% of its effects. 64MB is a minimum, with 128MB enabling some features. 256MB of memory allows Hollywood FX 5 to render more in real-time. Liquid Edition 6 doing High-Def recommends 256MB of video memory.
Linkage to PCLE features/requirements

Interesting. However, it *seems* from the description that you only need that to do real-time effects (so you could still edit and do effects offline without such a video card). I haven't used Pinnacle's software, so I'm unfamiliar with its capabilities.

But, barring specific newer programs, generally the speed of the card and amount of RAM is not important. If you're building a system with a particular NLE in mind, though, you should definitely pay attention to what they require or support.

 

[Blain]

I was planning on an ATI 7500 64mb PCI card with VGA, DVI and TV-outs.
Would this card have the "horsepower" to drive a dual monitor or monitor and TV setup? I see the card has setup options for multiple outputs.
The bonus is that I already have the card and wouldn't have to buy one. But if I need to I can. :thumbsup:
If I need more power, I was thinking along the lines of an AGP 8500.

Thanks for the feedback, it's been very helpful.

 

[Blain]

Fill rate or Memory bandwidth?

 

[PumpActionWalrus]

Well, the higher the memory bandwidth, the higher the fill rate will be. If you are going dual monitor, go with nvidia if you plan to run multiple cards, ati doesnt support cross card spanning and whatnot. At least get a 5200.

 

[gwag]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Blain
For a non-gaming setup like this, does having more MBs on the card help deal with dual monitors any?
Or would more MBs only help in gaiming applications?

Thanks

No. Video cards have absolutely zero impact on video editing applications. ZERO! Once you're beyond ~8MB of RAM on the card, 2D performance doesn't improve with more memory.

nivida 6600's(broken on current 6800's) are supposed to a built in hardware mpeg encoder.

 

[Blain]

Thanks, but I'm only concerned about "output" to the dual monitors, not "input" at all.
The input/capturing task will not be done with the output video card.

 

[uOpt]

If you want high-performance 3D you need two cards, and since PCIe boards are not ready that means one AGP and one PCI card.

But for video editing it doesn't matter.