Image & Video editing

[deepakvrao]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum but need some help please. I have a P4 2.4 with 512MB RAM and no AGP card. I do most of my work on Photoshop 7 and premiere 6.5. Would adding a graphics/AGP [what is the difference?] help either speed of editing/rendering? or quality of editing/rendering? I always thought that these video cards were mainly for gaming. Will the card only improve the image displayed on the PC monitor or also improve the quality of the rendered file which I view on a television?

 

[HendrixFan]

The cards 2D output would differ from one type to another, and that would impact visual quality with Photoshop and Premiere. You wouldnt have any increased performance with those programs though. A Matrox card with a nice monitor will look so much better than a crappy video card (output-wise) coupled with a generic monitor.

 

[Duvie]

Whether it is a card or software rendering going on it likely wont make the quality look better in a rendered file but it should help speed up rendering as it offloads that portion onto the cpu....

I think a nice GF4 mx440 lwith VIVO (video-in/video-out) and support for multiple monitor and TV out function....I have a nice one for sale in forums!!!! shameless plug????

 

[deepakvrao]

Thanks for the info as well as the offer but I cant buy from you as I'm in India and there is a bit of a logistic problem involved.

 

[oblius]

The video card will NOT speed up rendering times (e.g. outputting video or scaling images in Photoshop). What it will do is speed up display times on your monitor, and give you better performance for MPEG & video playback (most newer cards have hardware acceleration for video playback). This process is completely independent of the calculations / processes required when rendering video & graphics to disk. To speed that up, more CPU / cache, more (faster) RAM etc. For Premiere it isn't a bad idea to get 1-2GB of RAM and turn on "Preview to RAM". You get pretty fast processing / playback. I have 1GB here, and for shorter video clips it helps quite a bit when editing.

If you work in 3D (3dsmax, lightwave, etc), a new video card it will speed up your views and OpenGL rendering displays (shaded, wireframe, etc). It'll let you work faster, but again, rendering is dependent on CPU primarily.

I'm definitely not discouraging you getting a video card - if you're a graphic designer / video editor it's a good thing to have all 'round. But just know that it does not affect rendering output (unless you have a heavy-industry type card with specific support for Premiere / Autocad / 3DSMax, there are some available out there, but be ready to shell a couple G's for em).