OT: Graphics card

Jessariah67 wrote on 8/10/2011, 6:14 AM

Hey All,

I'm building a new system (have finally had it with XP 64 limitations) and was wondering what graphics cards you might recommend. I'm looking at the Radeon 6950 right now, but wonder if that's too much card for primarily basic editing (no AE, very little 3D work...)

Thanks in advance for the input.

K

Comments

TomG wrote on 8/10/2011, 6:47 AM

I did a lot of research and decided on an
EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
from NewEgg for $95 for my new build.

BTW, I'm still trying to decide on the best HDD for my system drive. Do you have any suggestions?

TomG

LReavis wrote on 8/10/2011, 11:15 AM

Regarding that nVidia, looks like a winner. Works OK with Vegas 10 plugins, such as BCC7? I have an nVidia GT240 and it works great with BCC7. It cost me $40 on sale at NewEgg.

Might as well get a cheap card. At present, a fast card only benefits those who use the GPU in Vegas to accelerate sorry-looking .MP4s (use Handbrake instead). If the next version of Vegas uses the GPU for preview acceleration, then it might make sense to get a fast card that is compatible with that version of Vegas.

nVidia generally seems more compatible with more programs than ATI. Some of my animation programs specify nVidia chips.
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Boot disk:

I'm sure you've looked at SSD drives. When my Intel X25 failed, I could hardly stand to use my system; it probably was the best upgrade I've ever made. Boots are really quick, programs open in an instant, no heat, no mounting needed, no defrag ever needed, etc.

However, they are not terribly reliable. Always keep a backup of your OS (I use Paragon Hard Disk Manager). My Intel died in a spectacular thunderstorm. Intel replaced it - no questions asked, and very quickly. Nothing else in my computer was affected; and yes - I do use a 100% full-time UPS.

My Bane-elect also died for unknown reasons later (it carried my old WinXP OS). No warranty - the pits.

80 GB is more than enough if you get rid of the PageFile and hiberfil.sys (read my previous posts on the procedure to do that). PageFile especially should be moved, for it is constantly writing/re-writing data, and will shorten the life of the SSD.

My old Win7 installation had more than 100 programs (upgraded from WinXP with all programs intact), and still I used only 57 GB. Currently, I'm using 63 GB, but much could be cleaned and it probably would be around 45 GB after a disk cleaning. That's with fewer than 100 programs.

Still a bit expensive per MB, but well worth every penny, IMHO.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/10/2011, 11:40 AM

I do cuda processing and the GTX 260 has a 448bit memory interface which is very helpful with the cuda processing tools I use. (216core version) ( it's very large though ). I got my 2nd one used on eBay for 83 bux with shipping.

That being said, a single 460 or 560Ti might be a better way to go for a single card.

500series nVidia cards use vapor cooling where liquid actually evaporates and condenses inside the heatsink, allowing them to be smaller and cooler than their 400 series counterparts.

john_dennis wrote on 8/10/2011, 12:14 PM

I have and nvidea GTS460 from EVGA that got on a Black Friday sale for $60. I am happy with the card but have not stressed it with any work that I do.