What video graphics card should I get?

wcoles · Post by **wcoles** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:42 pm

I currently have a NIVIA GeForce FX 5200 video card installed, but my video locks up during editing in VS 10+. It occurs in long projects with several ovrlays and transitions. I checked "The Tech Report" on the FX 5200 and find it with a low rating. Any suggestions what I should get for better video editing?

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:17 am

Depends on if you plan on using it for gaming or not. Also depends on if it's PCIe or AGP. Judging from your post it's AGP.

Mixed editing/gaming: an ATI X1xxx series card. They're blistering fast and have a decent theater mode (TV out) for previewing on aTV/production monitor with a composite/S-video input. They can also use ATI's AVIVO Video Encoder, which is extremely fast at encoding MPEG, WMV and other formats,

The ATI All-in-Wonder is a good mix for editing, having analog capture & a TV tuner plus a DVD player and several other useful utilities.

Editing with no gaming: a Matrox Parhelia or P-750 (economy model of Parhelia). Excellent display quality, 3 display heads and an excellent TV-out. Being a triple monitor card that can mix/match monitor types gives excellent flexibility. ex: 2 VGA's + a TV out, 3 LCD's with the desktop spread over all 3 monitors etc. etc. etc.

Matrox also makes the PCIe 16x APVe which also has HD out, SD out + SD capture and the other P-card features noted above. The APVe is also not a gamer, but a card for media production.

A lot of event/pro videographers use Matrox cards for their high display quality, multi-monitor capabilities & TV out features and they work great with Ulead products.

Of my 10 systems 7 have Matrox displays. The rest are ATI's.

wcoles · Post by **wcoles** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:07 am

Thank you Terry. I am interested mainly in video editing, no gaming. Your suggestions are very helpful. I'll take a close look at each and make a decision.