Need video card suggestions for two 24" i7 system

[cappaj1]

I'm building a hd video editing - non-gaming - core i7/2.66 Asus P6T/ Vista 64 bit PC.

I will use two 24" lcd monitors at 1920 x1200 as one virtual desktop, and with a single video card having dual dvi outs.

What's the least expensive card I should go with? I'm looking at:

EVGA GTX 260 896MB $188
Asus HD4870 512Mb $165
EVGA 9800 GT 1GB $150
EVGA 9800 GTX 512MB $135
MSI HD4830 1GB $130

Suggestions, please. Thanx.

 

[HendrixFan]

Those cards are way overkill for non gaming. You can get a dual DVI ATI 4650 for $40 off of newegg.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I bought the XFX GTS 250 512MB when it was on sale for $110 for pretty much the same rig/purpose. But I game some. If you don't game, you don't need anything special at all. Just make sure it has dual DVI like you mentioned.

1920x1200 x 2 @ 32bpp is only ~150MB needed for frame buffer, so there is *no need* for a 1GB card, at all, whatsoever. Read that again: the Windows desktop at true color (32bit) on dual 24" monitors will only use around 150MB of video RAM.

EDIT: My math is wrong, I forgot to divide by 8 to get back to bytes -- the above is bits (150Mb). You're actually only looking at around 17MB of video RAM to display the desktop.

1920 x 2 x 1200 x 32 = 147456000 total bits needed for desktop
divide by 8 gives you 18432000 bytes
divide by 1024 gives you 18000 KB
divide by 1024 gives you 17.5 MB

Somebody correct me if I still have it wrong, it's late...

Video RAM is used for textures in games and datasets in GPU-enabled apps. You don't need much to display the desktop (and any programs you run) even for dual 24"s.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: HendrixFan
Those cards are way overkill for non gaming. You can get a dual DVI ATI 4650 for $40 off of newegg.