Video Card Recommendation

[Angela]

I am looking for a recommendation for a new video card.

I am running both photoshop 6 and Bryce 4. Is there any specific card better than the rest?

I was thinking of a Ge Force 3 but am unsure if this is better suited for gaming.

Any ideas??

Thanks.


Angela914@hotmail.com

[Erik Heyninck]

Hi Angela,

On one hand one could say that it isn't necessary to buy a Ferrari when speed is limited to 70 miles an hour, but on the other hand computers are evolving at such a pace that what's the top today is middle class in three months.

I mean: in my opinion you can well do with a less impressive card, but of course Elsa's Gladiac for example must be wow. Do you want to make animations or not? For animation you need something impressive, like GeForce3.

When no animation is involved, you can go for a cheaper one.

Me, personally, I make a curve of different apps and their prices. And somewhere you'll see that the price goes up like a rocket. The card you find at the base of this is the best value for your money. But I think you should always buy the best thing you can afford.

I have a cheap NVIDIA 32MB, and really big images, like the big Hubble TIFFS from 40MB and more deform when I scroll, but they never freeze. But I do not work with animation and I never play games.

If you don't work against time, time often works for you.

[The_Spectre]

Video card reccomendations are a tough call sometimes, but Erik's guidelines are on target. You have to compromise price for performance, but you also have to consider the lifespan of the card, in terms of how long it will last before you deem it necessary to get a new one.

The card reviews at MaximumPC would be my first stop. I've subscribed to the magazine for years and I've always found their reviews to be very useful, and concise.

http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/videocards.html

Personally, I've been using a 32MB Matrox Millenium G400 for about 9 months, and I've found that it handles very well for graphic apps, like PS6 and Bryce, and for gaming (albeit with a little room for improvement with OpenGL support)

[Dr-MuX]

The asus card with geforce 3 technology
is amazing im using it and it was worth every penny i play games make graphics nd everything its got a lot of tols and settings

[Erik Heyninck]

Meanwhile I'm being told that Matrox cards give the sharpest images. DualHead (using two monitors) seems to be far ahead of TwinView, the same principle, but from NVIDIA. But: Matrox is completely out for 3DGaming. Then a Geforce2MX, that is appr. in the same price-range, is much better. But Geforce with twinview is really "blurry" compared to Matrox. So it depends on your preferences, more speifically the fact whether you want to play games or not.
If you're only running graphical and other software, Matrox seems to be good value for your money, and is much cheaper than GeforcePro, or 3.

If you don't work against time, time often works for you.

[Thelonious]

I've been wondering this for some time. I'm using a mac G4 with Photoshop 6 and other bitmapped progs.

My main ineterest is that I can get a card that is best for 2D. I don't mind if it plays games well as long as it doesn't compromise it's performance of 2D.

I'd like filters like gaussian blur to work as fast as poss. Also I use Corel Painter and applying a bevel to a 300ppi image can take a very long time. But it is very hard to get specific information on questions like this.

It seemed to me that the Proformance III card from Formac was looking good and I'm waiting for their new one which should be out soon

T

[Erik Heyninck]

Have you considered adding more RAM to your system? Because as far as I know, the problem you describe is not caused by a video card that is not up to date, nor by a processor that is too slow, but by a lack of enough RAM. Doubling your RAM gives you 50% more speed.

[Thelonious]

Thanks for your reply

Which problem are you referring to? If you meant gaussian blur in Photoshop, that is not really a problem as I don't use it all that often it was more to make a point about this being more important than running games.

However if you were referring to the slow bevel in Painter then this is a problem as I use it a lot. I have tried allocating 1gig of ram to Painter but bevel rendering is not improved. If I want to work on a bevel I have to save a part of the image at 72 dpi and test on that then write down the settings.

In reports I've read the Proformance card itself will render a gaussian blur 4 times faster than the 128 rage pro that came with G4's. Although I do understand that something like gaussian blur is best done in ram.

T