Upgrading my system, should I get a new video card too?

[IceNineJon]

Hello all.

First of all, sorry if this has been asked before. I tried searching around and couldn't find an answer that really satisfied my question but if one is already out there, please just point me in the right direction.

I'm thinking of upgrading my old system and getting an A7N8X Deluxe and an Athlon XP 2600+. Here's my question. I currently have an ELSA Gladiac 920 GeForce 3 card (with 64 MB of RAM). Should I get a new video card? Unlike a lot of people on here, I don't do very much serious gaming (I do some but it's not worth paying a ton of money for high frame rates for me). But, I do a lot of graphic work in Photoshop and video editing and like to run at a high resolution.

Thanks for any help!,
Jon

 

[modedepe]

Stick with your current card. I don't think you'll see much improvement in photoshop or with video editing.

 

[Bateluer]

I'd stick with your current card. Take a look at the next generation of mainstream cards.

 

[IceNineJon]

Would I see much of an improvement in overall speed (in WinXP and graphic apps) if I had a card with more RAM?

Additionally, I may give my old mobo and CPU to my brother so he'd need to buy a new graphics card anyway. Are the bottom of the line GeForce4s or GeForceFXs better than my GeForce3?

 

[Schadenfroh]

1 no
2. geforce4 TI is, MX is slower. geforcefx 5600+ is, 5200 slower
3. stick with your current card for photoshop

 

[selfbuilt]

Agreed .... stick with your graphics card, and get more system RAM if you do photoediting. I'd recommend 512MB+ of at least PC2700 (should be able to run sync with the FSB of your processor). 1GB is a good amount. That will make the greater difference for you.

 

[IceNineJon]

Okay, thanks. Just out of curiousity then, what does the amount of RAM on your video card really do if it's not really worth upgrading to one with more RAM? Also, since the computer is running at a faster FSB and can utilize 8x AGP (I know I've read on here that 8x isn't that much greater) that wouldn't be an incentive to upgrade either? I just want to fully understand

Also, if I'm not upgrading, what type of video card do you recommend for my brother? He's just going to be using general apps (surfing the net, etc).

Thanks for the help!

 

[selfbuilt]

RAM on the video card is required for work (computations) that need to be performed on the card to keep the fastest possible speed (i.e. keep everything within the card). Intensive computer games (e.g. FPS) require this, since if you need to go to the rest of the system for memory, you will drastically slow things down.

Photoediting programs, like every other application you run, benefit from more general system memory so that you don't have to swap to the hard drive (which is comparatively slower than system RAM). More system RAM, the better for running memory-hungry apps in Windows.

As for the FSB, that refers to how fast the CPU can talk to RAM (basically) ... it doesn't affect the PCI/AGP card speed (which is locked to 66MHz). And as you've discovered here, 8X AGP speed is irrelevant since 4X bandwidth isn't even saturated under normal usage. Recall again that the goal of fast graphic cards with lots of memory is to avoid having to leave the card to do work ... so such high AGP bandwidth is kind of irrelevant anyway.

For general purpose 2-D work (i.e. non-gaming), the cheapest card on the market would serve you adequately. It comes down to other features (e.g. DVI ports, VIVO, etc.) in making that decision.