Need Web, Graphic & Print Design Graphics Card

[RedRabbit]

In the process of buying parts to assemble a new pc for my media business. I was at a store this past weekend and seen many cards but just confused about what would be the ideal card for me. I have the Intel i7 2600k, Asus P8Z68 - V Pro MB. I want to be able to run 3 - 23"+ monitors, the computer will be used heavily for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, graphic & web design, video editing, movies, etc. I will not be doing much gaming but would like it to be able to run them if I would like to play. Money is really not the problem, I just want the best card for what I will actually use it for and not some big expensive card that I'm not even using to its potential... And do I have to use 2 cards for the 3 monitor setup, I'm not sure? Thanks!!

 

[gorobei]

a radeon 5770 or 6850 would probably be enough. amd cards support 3 monitors on a single card, but you need a displayport capable monitor or you'll have to buy an adapter.

in your case 2d @ 5760 x 1xx0 res, a card with 2GB ram even if it is only ddr3 may be more useful than 1GB of ddr5. if your images are large enough, more video ram and a fast harddrive swap space become more important.

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah, none of that stuff is really graphically intensive. Id probably say if youre looking ati, a 5670 or something like that, maybe even less. That card is only like $60-70. You can even game somewhat with that. A 6770 on the high end. It would probably come down to getting a card with the features you want rather than speed.

 

[rockyjohn]

You have some decisions to make.

Many of the activities you list require little video card power - Illustrator, graphics and web design, movies, etc.

Upgradevideocards.com has a page dedicated to non-gaming video cards that provides helpful information and recommendations for non-gaming videocards:

http://www.upgradevideocards.com/nongaming.html

However Photoshop and Adobe Premier, particularly in CS5 - benefit greatly from nVidia's CUDA engine. But since nVidia cards only support 2 monitors, you will need to SLI two cards to support 3 monitors. Does your system support SLI?

How much of your work is in applications that would benefit from the nVidia acceleration?

Here's more information than you probably want - just pick the ones that seem interesting:

CS3 did most processing in the CPU. Starting with CS4, Photoshop started offloading part of the processing from the CPU to the GPU. Both nVidia and ATI graphics cards could accelerate performance.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405445.html

Overclock.net provides a good description and benchmarks for video card acceleration in CS4.

http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/389996-cuda-significantly-accelerates-photoshop-cs4-premiere.html

Adobe CS5 added acceleration for multiple applications with the Mercury Playback Engine which is designed specifically for more recent nVidia cards with the CUDA feature set.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html


VIDEO CARDS

Adobe official list of supported cards. Note that the only mainstream video cards (as opposed to the more expensive workstation cards) are from nVidia. Since the last nVidia series listed is the 400 series, I suspect the list is woefully out of date.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/831/cpsid_83117.html?PID=3350462

Third party review and recommendations for use with CS5 (the card list starts about half way down the page)

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

CUDA (see more info below about CUDA) supported graphics cards (note that the GeForce or mainstream and gamer cards (for desktop and laptop PCs) are listed near the bottom of the page:

http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus


CUDA

nVidia provides information touting how much their cards accelerate Adobe CS5.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_home_new.html

General description about CUDA with internal links to more info for advanced users:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_home_new.html

And that's all I have to say about that,