need info about sli graphic cards and video editing

[JerryB]

hi,
I did a search on the board on this subject and I could not really find anything definitive on the board or for that matter on the net... for what i was looking for..

now from everything i read sli graphic cards (a dual configuration) appears to really give high performance in gaming.....

my question though is about does it help you in video editing? Can it really help you increase your editing performance? my thoughts are that it doesn't but I can't say for sure....

does any one have any experience with these sli card and video or imaging editing? and what your thoughts

[yoda313]

My understanding is that a graphics card will only assist in decoding not in encoding. So if you have high def video files you want to playback a faster graphics card will help in that matter to take the load off the cpu.

For video ENCODING - in otherwoords processing a file into a divx or turning a divx/avi into a dvd compatible mpeg file - is mainly a task for the cpu.

If you want to encode faster than you are better off with more ram and a faster processor. If you want gaming than yes a faster graphics card is always wise. But it will only aid in processing playback of files not in encoding them.

I may not know the specifics of the technical nature of this but that is what I have gathered from my readings over the years on this website.

Others are more than welcome to clarify my answers.

[RabidDog]

OP did say editing.. in which case you would have to presume either raw footage or mpeg2. I would say that yes it will help but really the difference is marginal (the card can do hardware decoding of mpeg2) maybe in the order of 5%. For the same money faster and larger hard drives would be a far better solution. This is when RAID drives really show their stripes. Or a dual cpu setup. More ram is always a goer as well and will give far greater bang per buck than Dual gpu's

[steptoe]

What you need is a video editing card, they are expensive and usually work with software directly but do make a vast increase in what can be achieved in terms of time

If software has been written to use the GFX card GPU then yes you will notice a big speed up, BUT only if the software is capable of using it, otherwise you won't see much of an increase


Canopus is a main supplier of video hardware editing and software

[Krispy Kritter]

As noted above, you would need a video editing specific card. Normal cards in SLI mode aren't going to make any difference. Unless you have a budget for an editing card, then your main concerns are your data path (MB, cpu, RAM, HDD).

[rallynavvie]

Actually the hardware editing cards like the Matrox are only going to offer a vast increase if you're working with HDV or HD formats. Most modern systems have enough CPU power to handle the video work on the chip rather than on seperate hardware. For the cost of one of those cards your money would be better spent on a good CPU and platform.

As to the OP the video cards increase gaming performance because they take the 3D rendering off your CPU. Unless you're using 3D effects in the editing process of your video (transitions and such done pre-render) then they may help you out but again the money is better spent elsewhere. Video is 2D and since you are usually (hopefully) working with rough video, likely in DV format, the hardware MPEG2 decoding present on some video cards won't really help you until you've encoded it to that format and are simply playing it back. Besides, most consumer cards with this hardware don't really work with most editing apps, only playback apps like VLC or WMP because they utilize the card's proprietary codecs instead of their own.

[JerryB]

HI,
I just want to thank all you guy's you gave me more info than i have found in the last week or so of surfing...... again thank you very much for your informative information