What matters in a video card for 2D windows acceleration?

[SuperFreaky]

I have a co-worker that always wants to upgrade people's video cards to make their systems faster. We work in an office environment that only uses 2D windows applications. I argue that an integrated Intel solution maxes out 2D acceleration as well as the newest ATI/Nvidia solution, but he is convinced that photoshop will benefit from more Video memory!

I know MPEG acceleration can be affected by the video card, but hasn't 2D Windows acceleration been maxed out since the AGP TNT days?

My final question, how can I prove this to him?!

 

[dexvx]

2D is all CPU.

The only difference is that some of the older video card had crappy video quality on VGA-out due to OEM's using cheap componenents. Nowadays, its less of an issue, especially with DVI.

The only proof is to run benchmarks with an identical system but with different video cards. FYI, since an integrated soluition shares system memory, it WILL be a little slower, since it eats some memory bandwidth.

 

[CSMR]

Well Windows XP noticeably speeds up going from integrated to a basic video card in my experience. I don't know if less noticeable with current integrated offerings.

 

[Viper GTS]

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331412.html

Solution 8: Update the video card driver.

Many video card manufacturers frequently update their software drivers. You may have an outdated video card driver even if you recently purchased the video card. Contact the video card manufacturer for an updated driver or download one from the manufacturer's website. (To determine the manufacturer of a video card, view the card's properties in Device Manager.) You can often determine if the video driver is outdated by changing the color depth and resolution of the video card or by disabling graphics hardware acceleration.


Solution 9: If your video card has less than 128 MB of RAM, consider updating it.

For optimum performance in Photoshop, use a video card with more than 128 MG of RAM.


Solution 10: Reduce or disable hardware acceleration in Windows.

Reducing or disabling hardware acceleration may temporarily resolve problems caused by older video card drivers.

To disable or reduce graphics hardware acceleration in Windows XP:

1. Choose Start > Control Panel > Display.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Do one of the following:

-- To disable hardware acceleration, move the Hardware acceleration slider to None.
-- To reduce hardware acceleration, move the Hardware acceleration slider to a setting between None and Full.
5. Click Apply and then click OK to accept the new setting and close the dialog box.
6. Restart Windows and Photoshop.

To disable or reduce graphics hardware acceleration in Windows 2000:
1. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel.
2. Double-click Display, click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
3. Click the Troubleshooting tab.
4. Do one of the following:
-- To disable hardware acceleration, move the Hardware acceleration slider to None.
-- To reduce hardware acceleration, move the Hardware acceleration slider to a setting between None and Full.
5. Click OK to accept the new setting, and then click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.
6. Restart Windows and Photoshop.

Viper GTS