What would be the best consumer videocard choice for multimedia/graphic design

[peterjansma]

Hello,

My last videocard dates back to the period that 2d still mattered (matrox millenium). But these days the focus seems to be purely on 3d performance with ATi and Nvidia going head to head.

As a multimedia designer (photoshop, flash, after effects, video editting, 3d modelling) and only occasional gamer, I am actually more interested in crispy top image quality and excellent color reproduction then brute framerate power.

I am looking for a PCI-Express card that can handle 2 flatscreens (so dual DVI) in a Intel DuoCore 6600 PC.

Which videocard would you recommend me?

 

[IlllI]

budget?

 

[peterjansma]

between $125-$225,-

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: peterjansma
Hello,

My last videocard dates back to the period that 2d still mattered (matrox millenium). But these days the focus seems to be purely on 3d performance with ATi and Nvidia going head to head.

As a multimedia designer (photoshop, flash, after effects, video editting, 3d modelling) and only occasional gamer, I am actually more interested in crispy top image quality and excellent color reproduction then brute framerate power.

I am looking for a PCI-Express card that can handle 2 flatscreens (so dual DVI) in a Intel DuoCore 6600 PC.

Which videocard would you recommend me?

Photoshop, flash, video editing requires no 3D accleration, and therefore even any onboard video would be sufficient.

In terms of color reproduction, I don't think it has much to do with the video card since everything is digital nowadays (including the connection between the video card and monitor). It probably has a lot to do with your monitor instead of the video card.

 

[happy medium]

I'd recommend a 7900gs with duel dvi. Cool, quiet, good performance cheap. 150 bucks or so.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: toattett

Originally posted by: peterjansma
Hello,

My last videocard dates back to the period that 2d still mattered (matrox millenium). But these days the focus seems to be purely on 3d performance with ATi and Nvidia going head to head.

As a multimedia designer (photoshop, flash, after effects, video editting, 3d modelling) and only occasional gamer, I am actually more interested in crispy top image quality and excellent color reproduction then brute framerate power.

I am looking for a PCI-Express card that can handle 2 flatscreens (so dual DVI) in a Intel DuoCore 6600 PC.

Which videocard would you recommend me?

Photoshop, flash, video editing requires no 3D accleration, and therefore even any onboard video would be sufficient.

In terms of color reproduction, I don't think it has much to do with the video card since everything is digital nowadays (including the connection between the video card and monitor). It probably has a lot to do with your monitor instead of the video card.

For the most part, yes.

The OP also mentioned "3d modelling", and things like generating realtime previews of models or scenes does use 3D acceleration (doing final renders or raytracing is all CPU and does not use your video card at all.) Often these kinds of apps run significantly better on a 'professional' 3D card like a FireGL/Quadro/Wildcat. Depending on how complex the things you want to model are, you may be able to get away with very little in terms of a video card, though I would stay away from onboard solutions.

VGA output quality can vary somewhat, especially at extremely high resolutions. Cheaper low-end video cards cut costs by using cheap DACs, which can make things get fuzzy at 1600x1200 or above, and/or affect color reproduction. Low-end GF4 and GF5 cards were notorious for this. However, if you don't have a reasonably high-quality monitor that you intend to run at 1600x1200 or higher, almost anything (even onboard) is probably going to work fine in this regard.

If you run an LCD monitor via DVI-D it's all digital, so any color reproduction issues are up to the display. 6-bit LCDs are really not great for fine color work, since they have to dither a lot of shades. The ones with LED backlighting are supposed to be fantastic, but they're not cheap...

 

[peterjansma]

thanks for your replies so far.

some good points. I have heard that ATi has a slight advantage when it comes to image quality (i have a very good CRT screen and will buy a good flatscreen, so I do expect the videocard to perform well in that area) over nVidia, while nVidia performs better at the field of OpenGL and its drivers. Do you have any experience with this or are these just 'old wives tales'?

 

[IlllI]

in the past, ati used to lag behind in OpenGL compared to nvidia. supposidly, they've gotten better.. but i've no idea by how much.

 

[peterjansma]

according to the Rage3D forum (http://www.rage3d.com/board/) ATi is still having issues with OpenGL, apart from having so so Catalyst drivers. Mind you, this is a 'dedicated' AMD forum... so I don't know if i should steer clear from ATi?

 

[Cookie Monster]

IQ issues are often 3d app related, i.e games.

But looks like your looking for a workstation card. The downside is that they excel at the stuff you do, but not so much at 3d acceleration. Expensive as well, so you are probably better off with consumer level graphic cards.

7900GS? 7950GT? X1950pro?

 

[peterjansma]

Yeah, because of the problems ATi seems to have with the x1950pro and the Catalyst drivers, I am looking now at nVidia... they seem to have better drivers..

 

[Rottie]

i heard nvidia driver is not good with windows vista but i could be wrong

 

[peterjansma]

yeah, the 8800 seems to have some issues in that area. Lucky me that the card is in any case beyond my budget