Picking out a video card...... is mini-HDMI as good as regular HDMI?

[True Colors]

I am about to purchase a new video card.

My computer system is a one year old Dell XPS 8500 full size tower with an i7 quad core processor. 12 gigs of ram. On board blu ray burner.

Most of my video tasks are very minimal...... web surfing, emails, Microsoft Office documents, pdf files, etc. etc......... I do no gaming whatsoever.

The only thing that I do which requires any real power at all is High Definition video editing. The files that I work on are approximately 7 gigabytes per hour.

I have traditionally had good luck with Nvidia cards and less luck with amd radeon products.

Budget wise I am in the neighborhood of $125.

It seems like the EGVA nvida has some good offerings.

I prefer a regular HDMI port so that I can connect my computer to my TV set. However, I notice that a lot of these have a mini-HDMI port. Is there a difference between HDMI and mini HDMI?

What do you think of the gtx750? Is this a good card for me?

Many thanks for your help in this matter.

TC

[redwudz]

A mini HDMI socket would work the same, though with the size of most HDMI cables, I wouldn't want one unless I had a very short HDMI run. Otherwise I suspect the socket could fail from the weight of the cable. I think they may use a small connector because of lack of space on the rear of the card. With VGA, DVI and HDMI sockets, not a lot of room left. You would also most likely need a mini HDMI to regular HDMI adapter or cable, just more cost.

The card seems fine for gaming. I'm not sure it will do much for editing, except for display. But's it's likely a major improvement over what the PC came with.

[True Colors]

The cable run is very short - about 3 feet.

Why do you say that this video card will not help with my video editing? Is the video card only used for rendering videos, but not transcoding them?

Also, I do not want to get too sidetracked here, but the Dell system I purchased actually did include a fairly decent video card - the radeon 7770. HOWEVER, after doing some digging, I found out that Dell has their own special version of this card which is not compatible with the standard drivers off of the AMD website.

When I play high definition videos on my computer with the Radeon card, I get a lot of stutter. That is one of the reasons that I am planning on getting a new video card.

Thanks,

TC

[jagabo]

The only thing that I do which requires any real power at all is High Definition video editing.

Make sure that your software uses the Nvidia GPU. And that it won't use the i7's GPU for those same operations. Otherwise it's a waste of money.

[turk690]

The only thing that I do which requires any real power at all is High Definition video editing...

Add another (SATA, not USB) hard drive or two, if you still haven't. This is as significant as, if not more than, all the importance given to the GPU and whatnot.

[nimd4]

Is the video card only used for rendering videos [..]

Boss used to like Canopus, for his studio; now EDIUS I think. In any case, if you'd like to go FAST - you'll need a dedicated card && not just the GPU (although they're "gettin' there"), right?!

http://www.grassvalley.com/products/nlesystems

Make sure that your software uses the Nvidia GPU.

EFI BIOS will do this, once the GPU is plugged in; unless you're pairing them (Intel plans to make it available from the EFI && also there's software 4 it, offtopic)

P.S. (Spelling, lolz )

EGVA nvida

EVGA livin' la vida loca xD

Edit:

Add another (SATA, not USB) hard drive or two, if you still haven't.

Nah, there's USB 3; && if you're adding more than one: you could always RAID 'em 4 speed. =)

[jagabo]

Make sure that your software uses the Nvidia GPU.

EFI BIOS will do this, once the GPU is plugged in; unless you're pairing them (Intel plans to make it available from the EFI && also there's software 4 it, offtopic)

I'm not talking about simply using the graphics card as a display device. The i7's built in graphics are sufficient for that. If the software he's using isn't specifically coded to use the GPU for decoding, filtering, 3d effects, or encoding he will get essentially no benefit, even from the fastest video card in the world.

[turk690]

Nah, there's USB 3; && if you're adding more than one: you could always RAID 'em 4 speed. =)

For two hard drives that would be RAID0, which is well & good & fast indeed, until one of them goes south, then you have nothing.