GPU Upgrade?

[Caimen1]

Guys, I could use some help.
My PC has on-board graphics(G43/G45 Chipset). *See PC info at right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I'm wanting to upgrade my system to handle HD video editing and I'm under the assumption that installing a better video card would be a logical decision. I currently have a 400w PSU so I would likely upgrade that also to accommodate the new card and overall system.

How do I determine the best video card for my system that will give me maximum performance without causing a bottleneck in the system as I've heard others describe during my GPU searches on the net?
I have 1ea. pciE slot avail and 2ea. pci slots.
Would like to cap my expense on the card alone at no more than $250.
Thanks.


Kurt~

[teknisyan]

Hello Caimen1,

If you are upgrading your GPU, then the best thing to check if the system requirements. But if your motherboar can handle it, you can use NVIDIA® CUDA™ GPU.

[Caimen1]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I'm sorry for my ignorance but I'm trying to wrap my head around all this video & editing stuff as It's all new to me.

Here's my situation...
I downloaded a file shot by the Canon HF S21. When opened in Windows Media Player, it plays absolutely beautifully on my PC.
From what I can tell, It also plays just fine when dragged into the timeline in X3 and played without adding any edits whatsoever.
However, I tested the file (and my system) by splitting the clip about 6 times and inserting 6 transitions and a stock title straight from the library. The clip barely played at all. Extremely choppy playback.
I fully expected the famous "Corel has stopped working" pop-up but I didn't get that msg. The clip would eventually finish but again, the playback was ridiculously poor.
Here are the properties copied from the timeline...


I've had my eye on this particular camera (Canon HF S21) but I want to be sure that my PC and editor are up to snuff before I buy.
Hence, my original post questioning my graphics card. Judging by my PC specs, does this choppy playback sound like something that would be caused by an inadequate graphics card? From what I gather, these on-board chipsets, like I have, are typically mediocre at best.
FWIW, I can edit 1080 x 720 MP4 .H264 all day with X3 and get smooth playback.

Again, I appreciate your help and guidance with this.

[Black Lab]

I think you would gather more attention by having this in the VS forum, so I will move it.

[DVDDoug]

I don't know what the problem is, but I don't think it's the GPU. The acceleration provided by the GPU speeds-up rendering. That is, it speeds-up the creation of things like transitions, and it speeds-up compression/encoding, but once the transition is rendered to a video file, you don't need any special processing power to play that video file.

It should only affect the speed, not the video quality. When you're playing games, and the graphics are rendered on-the-fly, speed and quality are related... because the video needs to be rendered now! But when you are rendering a video file to be played-back later, the CPU/GPU can take as much time as needed to do the calculations/manipulations.