Video card for a new PC

[Ealdric-1379]

I am considering building or buying a new system. I don't play games, but I do intend to do some video editing. I have some home movies on VHS which need portions re-arranged and captions added. Also I may do some clips and caps from DVD. I don't plan on the computer being my primary place to watch movies.

I am presently leaning towards an Intel based setup. What are your recommendations for a graphics card? Do I want two cards? Two monitors?

Thanks!

[MOVIEGEEK]

All ATI Radeon videocards(>9200) support dual monitors,I recommend at least a 9550(~$60USD).If you go nVidia get at least a 5500.
If you get a new motherboard most likely it will have a PCIe slot so expect to pay a little more,AGP 8x is still good enough for working with video.

[waheed]

Video cards are mainly for game playing, and contribute, if any, very little to video editing. Video editing will be more CPU intensive.

[Cobra]

Video cards will have no bearing on the speed at which you can edit/encode your video. I have always used nVidia cards because they have proven themselves to be rock-solid, but I read in this month's Custom PC magazine that ATI cards offer slightly better image quality.

As for the Intel-based setup, that would be a good choice for video encoding as long as it is a P4. However, Intel's new Core 2 Duo ("Conroe") CPUs are coming, and the 2.66GHz version of that blew the AMD FX-62 out of the water in nearly every test. Maybe it would be worth hanging on?

[Faustus]

Get a low end card but if you want to run Vista in the future make sure it has 256mb of RAM as that is one of their suggested specs with 128mb being the min.

[Cobra]

Good point - I forgot about Vista. It requires a DirectX 9 card, doesn't it?

[Faustus]

Pretty much, but any new or newer card is DX9.

[Ealdric-1379]

Thanks for the advice!

Do I need a special capture card, or should I use a separate device?
Mostly concerned about the stuff currently on VHS.

Thanks!

[MOVIEGEEK]

I recommend using a analog to digital device(eg. ADC-100) or camcorder with passthrough,then transfer via firewire.

[FulciLives]

I recommend using a analog to digital device(eg. ADC-100) or camcorder with passthrough,then transfer via firewire.

The Canopus ADVC-100 is a highly regarded analog to digital video capture device.

You can't buy it new anymore and it goes (used) on eBay for far too much money if you ask me ... but not to worry ... Canopus now makes a slightly updated version ... the Canopus ADVC-110 ... which is very nearly identical to the old 100 model.

Another popular option is the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 (internal PCI) or the Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 (an external USB 2.0 device).

The Canopus does DV AVI capture only whereas the 2 Hauppauge cards/devices I mention only do MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[wingrider62]

I wandered in here also looking for recommendations on a video card. Like the originator of this post I don't play any games on the machine I use for my video editing. I am looking for an upgraded video card as I notice some editing software lags in their preview windows and I don't believe it has anything to do with my base system. I currently run an AMD 3000 Venice core I am clocking at approx 2.5 Ghz with 2Gb (2X1Gb) of ram. The motherboard is an EPOX 9npa Ultra. The video card is a Visiontek (ATI) 9200. The system hard drive is an 80 Gb SATA 3.0 G/s drive. The system is completely stable running a fresh WINXP Home install with all updates current. I have no problems either writing DVD's or with the basic DVD creation with the exception of the afforementioned lag in the preview window when fast scanning. I generally am using a stand alone DVD recorder and decrypting the recorded disk onto the hard drive and importing from the result to programs like Nero or DVD Author Pro. I tried Premiere Elements evaluation download but couldn't get it to work, horrible audio sync problems.

It is possible I will use this system as the basis for an HTPC if I upgrade, which will be within the next 6 months so I'd like something not to expensive yet not the bare minimum that I'll end up replacing if I decide to use it for an HTPC.

[harley2ride]

ATI claims their 1800 and 1900 cards along with their new software allow for encoding at fast speeds and allowing great gaming abilities, but I have not seen any hard evidence (as far as comparison tests) to prove that yet.

[ROF]

For your situation I recommend either of these GPUs:

GeForce7300GS

or

Radeon x700SE

Both can be found with 256MB OnBoard in PCI-Ex16 configuration for under $70.

Either will be more than sufficient for your needs.

[wingrider62]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds about what I was thinking. I see a lot of different specs on the GeForce 7300 which is where I was leaning. I've seen pixel pipelines ranging from 4-12 but I don't know if it's variants on the 7300 or advertising ploys by online retailers (especially on ebay) trying to make it seem as if you're getting more than you actually are.