Confused About Video Cards

[wulf109]

I see new cards introduced,like the new ATI 6850. These cards consume large amounts of power and the reviews talk of nothing but gaming performance. How much video card do I need to run two monitors,encode blue ray,and do some video and image editing?

[jagabo]

Current US$60 graphics card can easily run two monitors, decode h.264 and VC1 in hardware, and handle just about everything you need outside gaming. If you are looking at using GPU based h.264 encoders the better cards will offer you more performance. But in my experience the GPU encoders don't deliver very good quality.

[Moontrash]

this $80 jobby has dual monitor support but needs an adapter to do that...average gaming results but does everything you would need

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102874

for $140..this has everything you would want and great gaming results

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898