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I'm currently using an NVIDIA GeForce4 TI 4600 with 128MB of RAM for my video card on a 1.7GHz Athlon and have 1 gig of DDR 2400 for my main memory.
I don't do many games but I do a lot of Photoshop stuff and more and more 3D (Lightwave, Bryce, Poser). I may also start dabbling in video editing.
I'm thinking up building a new computer from components, upgrading to a P4 3.0 GHz with 2 GB of 3200 DDR SDRAM and am wondering if I should spend the money to upgrade my video card as well to the new NVIDIA FX5900 Ultra with 256 MB.
The questions I've got are as follows:
1. Since I'm doing mainly Photoshop (I use a lot of filters and layers) and 3D (and like fast rendering) will this new card give me any noticeable improvement or will the upgrade to the P4 and more and faster main memory give me 90% of any improvement?
2. What does increasing video card memory from 128MB to 256MB actually do for you. Does it only help playing games?
I guess I'm really asking if buying a bigger faster video card is going to do anything for me.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Brian
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I'm currently using an NVIDIA GeForce4 TI 4600 with 128MB of RAM for my video card on a 1.7GHz Athlon and have 1 gig of DDR 2400 for my main memory.
I don't do many games but I do a lot of Photoshop stuff and more and more 3D (Lightwave, Bryce, Poser). I may also start dabbling in video editing.
I'm thinking up building a new computer from components, upgrading to a P4 3.0 GHz with 2 GB of 3200 DDR SDRAM and am wondering if I should spend the money to upgrade my video card as well to the new NVIDIA FX5900 Ultra with 256 MB.
The questions I've got are as follows:
1. Since I'm doing mainly Photoshop (I use a lot of filters and layers) and 3D (and like fast rendering) will this new card give me any noticeable improvement or will the upgrade to the P4 and more and faster main memory give me 90% of any improvement?
2. What does increasing video card memory from 128MB to 256MB actually do for you. Does it only help playing games?
I guess I'm really asking if buying a bigger faster video card is going to do anything for me.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Brian
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You can use your old card (unless you want to sell it with your old computer), and see how it works with the new CPU etc. The new cards can only get cheaper too. The latest video cards are 8X AGP so make sure the motherboard you get has an 8X AGP slot. The new MB also have serial ATA Hard drive interfaces and RAID controllers.
It's all sometime to much to keep up with.
Just do some google searchs for the components you are thinking of getting and there will be tons of hits.
+++"Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won."+++
The Duke of Wellington
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Wow, all these monster parts and pieces... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif What ever is current, economical and reliable I would suppose... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
My mind just boggles at the power of systems today. I still work with a 400 celeron and a 128 bit pci card (yikes)... then again, it's only 24 bit color or less that I works with... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Ok, anyways, for using larger apps like Lightwave etc it is always good to have as much power as possible... for some this means buying the fastest Celeron to be had at the best price... usually about three or so down from the very current speed the prices really start to drop... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
From my somewhat limited experience with 3D apps I would venture to suggest that any system over 1ghz in speed, 512 megs ram or more, any 256 bit or better (512) vid card known to perform well, a quick hard drive setup (raid) and voila... terrific 3D and video performance...
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Graphics card RAM is of absolutely no use for any 2D program, and will not make Photoshop run one iota faster. The extra RAM can only be used by 3D programs - games and 3D apps - to store textures. But this only pertains to your working previews, NOT to the final rendering: only CPU power counts for that.
K
www.klausnordby.com/xara (big how-to article)
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/ (I was the first-ever featured artist in the Xone)
www.graphics.com (columnist, "The I of The Perceiver")
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Klaus Nordby:
Graphics card RAM is of absolutely no use for any 2D program, and will not make Photoshop run one iota faster. The extra RAM can only be used by 3D programs - games and 3D apps - to store textures. But this only pertains to your working previews, NOT to the final rendering: only CPU power counts for that.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I couldn't have said it better Klaus http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
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I am going to have to read up more on this GPU tech... seems to me that I recall reading somewhere's that the GPU and vcard ram would handle the bulk of the rendering with this latest tech... and it was at another site other than the MadFX I posted here... hmmm,I will get back to you folks on this.. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
[This message was edited by gidgit on July 07, 2003 at 22:31.]
