How important is the video card for video editing?

[Research]

Actually I already have an old voodoo5 3dfx card. When I upgraded my old computer to XP I downloaded new private party drivers for it .. the card works okay.

Now I'm making my new computer for mostly for video editing (it's a P4 2.66 with Intel D845PEBT2 motherboard). I don't think I would be playing any video games. I simply import the video using the pinnacle DV firewire card, edit using studio and burn it on a DVD. Would I still need a good video card?

 

[pulse8]

The only thing the video card needs to be good at is 2D quality.

 

[chizow]

Yep, since it seems you aren't encoding when capturing, your editing is software/CPU driven. So its basically RAM and CPU power, and to a lesser degree, HDD speed impacting editing performance.

2D on a V5 is excellent IMO, so you're all set there as pulse8 noted. It should support video overlay as well, and some newer cards like the 9500/9700 have video filters built into their 3D pipeline, although that shouldn't really impact edited DV video.

Chiz

 

[Research]

Thanks Pulse... but is 3dfx voodoo5 a good quality 2D card ? (actually I'd inherited it from someone .. and don't know about its exact specifications or configuration .... I guess it is 64MB card). So what do you suggest about using it?

 

[Research]

Originally posted by: chizow
Yep, since it seems you aren't encoding when capturing, your editing is software/CPU driven. So its basically RAM and CPU power, and to a lesser degree, HDD speed impacting editing performance.

2D on a V5 is excellent IMO, so you're all set there as pulse8 noted. It should support video overlay as well, and some newer cards like the 9500/9700 have video filters built into their 3D pipeline, although that shouldn't really impact edited DV video.

Chiz

Thanks Chiz ... seems like V5 should be okay ... and I should invest more on RAM and faster HD (I've already got a P4 2.66)

Is there any proble I can encounter with Voodoo5 (I'm using the latest private party XP driver amigamerlin 2.5 SE for the voodoo card)

 

[chizow]

You should be fine as the V5 supports video overlay. That being said, some programs out there do some quirky things when it comes to video overlay, so that's no guarantee. If the V5 doesn't do the job, just pick up a cheapo R7500/R9000 or something of that sort for good 2D (not as good as a V5 IMO, but true 32-bit color), which should be fine for any video editing job.

Chiz

 

[TheCorm]

Even something like an ATI Rage 128 Pro 32MB Would be fine as it has excellent 2D, although you may want more than 32mb of memory of course.

IMO I would try the Voodoo but the lack of official support and drivers could pose problems with modern programs....but maybe not.

Corm