Video Cards and Photoshop/Lightroom

[alteredform]

I am still in the process of putting together a new computer. I was wondering... If I were to remove the gaming equation from my build and strictly focus on photo editing, what would my video card requirements be?

For the sake of argument I am/was going to build:

i7 920
6GB ram
x58 "brand name motherboard"
single radeon 9870.
WD 640 GB Black HD
Corsair 650W PSU
24" monitor

I guess my question is, would I be just as well off to use on board video or a less expensive video card if I remove my desire to play any games?

Thanks...

 

[RESmonkey]

Make sure that monitor is IPS and not TN (panel type).

And from what I know, video cards do not have much of a hand in photo editing, although the newer Photoshop uses GPU acceleration (somehow). Any card should be fine, I think.

 

[jae]

I believe that GPU acceleration in PhotoShop only work for Nvidia cards, dont quote me on that though.

 

[elconejito]

Are you using Photoshop? CS3 or CS4?

CS3 doesn't really do any GPU acceleration (that I know of).

CS4 does GPU acceleration through OpenGL, so you can get Nvidia or ATI doesn't matter which. There is a list of "tested" cards on Adobe's website, but I'm pretty sure almost any recent video card should work just fine (Nvidia 9 series and newer, ATI 4000 series and newer). For photoshop, you don't need a really heavy duty video card (doesn't hurt though) since it is mainly used for display stuff like zooming, panning, etc. None of the default filters use GPU acceleration (that I know of), but if you use 3rd party filters they may use CUDA or something so you'd have to check with the 3rd party.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html

If you are using other CS4 apps like premiere or after effects then the GPU becomes more important.

So to answer your question, you can definitely get a low-end video card (check the list, some are ~$50). Not sure if integrated video would work. I doubt Intel's integrated would work, but maybe AMD or Nvidia integrated *might* work. But if you're going i7, I'd just pickup a discrete card on their list that around ~$50 and call it a day.

If you're not using photoshop, obviously the answer will be different.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Get a HD4850 512mb for $55 here and you can have your pie and eat it too.

 

[heyheybooboo]

An e8400 or Phenom 720BE
(plus 6Gb of RAMs and a 'couple' 640Gb disks)

I'm thinkin' you are probably a year or so from seeing significant gains from GPU acceleration of certain operations - closely investigate today's options to see if they will benefit you.