What's a good video card for film and editing?

[Noissap]

Hello everyone. I'm looking right now at the:

nvida 6600gt 128mb GDDR3/1000mhz corespeed 500mhz

x600xt 256mb ddr/740mhz core speed 500mhz

x700pro 256mb GDDR3/860mhz core speed 420mhz

all have pcie and are 128bit video cards.

I am making this system right now so I'm very flexible however, I am already going to be over my $1,000 limit I wanted to stick to. (which I wasn't including keyboard mouse and stuff with that thousand.)

Do I need a 256 bit video card? what is better, higher amount and better memory or faster core speed?
An answer to this will help a lot! Don't want to go much over $200.00 if possible unless there is some insane benefit to doing it. For my camcorder editing and the ocassional game or two.

I will be ocing my system however I have heard to oc a graphics card you need a good cooler and I will just be using fans. For the moment this is or at least will most likely be what I'm looking at getting for the entire system. If that helps you decided on a video card.


AMD 64 +3200 90nm 939
crucial ballistix 512 mb (2) pc 3200 (ddr 400)
nvida gforce4 mobo (yes I'm waiting for the pcie in the motherboard or should I just wait till the gforce3 comes down even more?
Coolermaster PAC-T01-EK (4 80mm fans)
OCZ 420W PSU with all the silent power stuff
hard drive? (still decieding on two smaller or one bigger.)
Still making choices on the other stuff.

 

[beatle]

You don't need a good video card for video editing, just a strong CPU. RAM is not even all that important, depending on the app you're using.

 

[asm0deus]

yeah HDD speed, CPU and tons of RAM is more important with video editing. Unless you're getting a VIVO model I don't see how you're gonna capture the video. I suggest getting a capture card because VIVO quality isn't that good on most of the cards. Depends on what format you're using so you might want to tell us what camera and software for better suggestions.

 

[Noissap]

It's going to be a samsung digital camcorder. I'm kinda in the process of buying everything. I'm looking at software too. It's kinda a hobby of mine. I do short film festivals and write my own stuff; film my own stuff. If you know of good software for it I would appreciate any advice. I'll also use it for skits and movie clips for a youth group. One game I do want to get is FinalFantasyXI but, I'm not a big gamer

I want to build a computer that won't be obsolete in a year. I also don't want to pay as much as I am. We don't always get what we want do we?

 

[Zucarita9000]

For video editing, you need a pretty strong CPU, Intel P4@3GHz+ or AMD 64. Video is not very RAM dependant, but it'll be nice to have 1GB at least so you can work with, say, Premiere and Photoshop at the same time.

For storage, dual hdds is a *must* for video editing. You'll need one for the OS/apps and another one completely dedicated to A/V capture. If you're going IDE, put each one on a separate channel. If SATA is your thing, there's nothing to configure. Keep in mind that one hour of DV content (straight from your camcorder) will take up 12-15GB.

As for the video card, I found that Matrox is one of the best. I have a G450 and I love it. 2D and video performace is rock solid. You don't need card with pornographic amounts of RAM, as 16MB will be more than enough. You can probably find a G550 for a very good price.

I don't see a video capture card in your setup. You'll probably capture your video with the 1394 port on your motherboard (if any).

Matrox RT.X10 is an excellent choice, but expensive (around $650)

 

[gsellis]

Again, video depends on your NLE. Saying that is does not matter is not always correct.

If you plan on using Pinnacle Studio 9, a good card will speed up some video. If you plan to use Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6, there are some strong requirements depending on what type of video you plan to edit. You need a DX9 card with up to 256MB of memory if you are planning to do 1080i HDV. Pinnacle uses DirectX via the GPU to play video and render effects.

As for mem, I recommend 1GB. My NLE (LE 6) uses about 500MB when working on a SD project. But, you may be able to use 512MB. Check the minimum and recommended configurations for the editor you plan on using.

 

[gsellis]

Mo...

I forgot I had posted this earlier.
Anandtech thread

BTW, added another 250GB to my editor last week. The would be 400+250GB for video and 73GB for OS/Programs. Video likes HDD.