Do I need a new card?

[pvrbulls]

I am trying to put together a new system and need help picking a video card. First....I do absolutely zero gaming. Besides surfing the web, email and accounting my main applications are Photoshop for photo editing and ProShow for creating slide shows. My present rig is just too slow for rendering even standard video; I want to be able to do HD shows without the painful waits for rendering.

I'll be going with a Q6600, or possibly the new Q9450, in the new system with 4 GB of ram; initially, I will not be overclocking though that's an option I want to keep open. I plan to keep my two HP LP2065 monitors that are presently driven @ 1600x1200 each. In my ignorance, I am happy with my Matrox card but would like to know if there would be improved performance in my applications with a different card. The problem is that I know nothing about the different cards that are available other than(I think) most of them are aimed at demands of gaming. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Zane

 

[IlllI]

here is my suggestion. if you dont do any gaming, perhaps you can look for a motherboard that has integrated graphics.

however, buying a dedicated card might be beneficial b/c a lot, if not all, of graphics cards today do the hd rendering to help offload some of the work on the cpu... you could probably just buy a really cheap, current generation graphics card and be happy with that as well.

 

[error8]

I'd get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127336 , it has 720p, 1080i video decoding ,it's very cheap and has a passive cooler.

 

[ther00kie16]

Another option would be the 2600xt from buy.com
It is on par if not slightly better than the 3650 and does HD as well.

 

[pvrbulls]

Thanks, all, for your suggestions.

Do most all of today's cards with dual DVI ports fully support dual monitors? What about "independent mode"? I believe that is the term Matrox uses to describe, among other things, the ability to control the resolution of each monitor independently. Also, if a card claims to support a maximum resolution of say 2560x1600, is that for each monitor or for both together? Most of the time my present setup is running at 3200x1200 for the two monitors combined. I am trying to determine what, if anything, my Matrox card does for about $200 that some of the much less expensive cards cannot. If these cards really do fully support dual monitor desktops, it would seem that the Matrox card is way overpriced.

I apologize for my obvious ignorance. While I have basically,sorta, kept up with improvements in processors and motherboards, I have not done the same with graphics cards.

Thanks for your help.

Zane

 

[Slugbait]

Your Matrox is fine for what you need. As I recall, rendering (authoring) is always done on the CPU, you cannot offload it to the GPU. Above replies are specific to decoding, not creating. OK, perhaps something has changed recently and I have been caught unawares, but c'mon...do you want a single processor to render your HD, or four processors? Let the Q6600 handle the load and save gobs of time.

Yes, all cards with two outputs fully support dual monitor. For example, I have a vanilla 6800 and an 8600GTS, both running dual monitor, each monitor at a different rez (same monitors...I have a KVM switch + BNC).

Max rez applies to each monitor, no math involved.

 

[pvrbulls]

Thanks, Slugbait

That is very helpful.

 

[stepone]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
Your Matrox is fine for what you need. As I recall, rendering (authoring) is always done on the CPU, you cannot offload it to the GPU.

The ATI 3450 & 3650 cards do assist with hardware decoding & encoding of HD video.
3650 specs inc:

Integrated AMD Xilleon? HDTV encoder
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding
Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time

Two integrated dual-link DVI display outputs
Each supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)

(info Taken from sapphires info page for the card listed below:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/uk...iew.php?gpid=229&grp=3 )

If you need dual dvi ports then the cheapest 3650 is the:
SAPPHIRE 100236L Radeon HD 3650 512MB - $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102726

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: stepone

Originally posted by: Slugbait
Your Matrox is fine for what you need. As I recall, rendering (authoring) is always done on the CPU, you cannot offload it to the GPU.

The ATI 3450 & 3650 cards do assist with hardware decoding & encoding of HD video.
3650 specs inc...

I think we're still talking about two different things. I believe the benefits of Xilleon is for the purpose of capture, content playback or transcoding. For example, you need an HDCP encoder on the card in order to play back protected content in HD resolution from a source such as Blu-ray or HD-DVD players...if you don't have that encoder (such as all 6000 and 7000 series nVidia cards, which "claim" HDCP support), you can't watch your HD source in HD resolution.

I still see nothing about project rendering being offloaded onto a GPU.