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I am buying a new video card. I have roughly a $200-300 budget. It will be a PCI express x16.
I am thinking of just going to BestBuy and pick this up. Actually that is a little on the high price end for me.
I will be using my computer for some light video editing. I will make DVDs of family. My comp has great Ram and a decent processor.
I will also use my comp for video games. I don't have much time for video games and I am not into first person shooters. I like Guild Wars and an occasional role playing game. I may get Never Winter Nights 2. I am not someone who is tweaking my system to get the absolute best possible frame rates.
I am tempted to get Dark Age of Camelot again for or the new Lord of the Rings MMORPG. Hmm..maybe I will just get ATITD.
I bet with Hatracks help I could get a better video card and/or a better price. If I do more video editing then gaming, should I favor more video card ram or better speed? How do I decide what to get?
Any recommended cards and/or places to buy it?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Newegg is great. They're shipping is fast, though that may be because I'm only a hundred miles from where they deploy. They always have great deals. I just bought a 200 GB HD and it works like nobody's business. They're always having sales and special offers, which is nice.
Edit- I guess Ero already beat me to it
Posts: 213 | Registered: Jan 2007
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Actually, for that price, I'd recommend the Geforce 8800 GTS 320 MB. It's only slightly more money, but it offers more than slightly better performance.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Ooo, the 8 series does look stellar! My cpu and ram are plenty fine, but I am worried about my power supply. It is only 350Watts, however, I only have 1 hard drive and 2 cd/dvd roms.
It looks like a monster beast. Would I need to get additional fans?
I am still trying to figure out if memory is better for my needs or speed. the $309 8 series from the link has a higher clock speed but less memory then the $374 one.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I don't know if you'll need extra fans. Luckily the 8800 series cards all exhaust out the back of the case, so the heat doesn't end up elsewhere in your case.
And as for power, I've seen a couple different benchmarks that show power consumption right around 300 watts under load. If you have a high-quality power supply, you should be okay. This power supply calculator can help you determine what you'll need.
Also, if you can wait a month or so, the 8600 series should be out, and according to rumors they'll be priced between $150 and $220. Just in case you want something a little cheaper.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Wow...I might wait. That site said I need 668W if I get the 8 series. I think I need to upgrade my power supply regardless of what video card I get.
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Wow. What have you got in your computer (besides the hypothetical 8800 GTS) that sucks down that much power?
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I would wait until this fall, if possible. Vista has DirectX10 with it, and it looks to be a real leap when using DirectX10 cards (of which the 8800 series is the only supporting model). Also, very few games are using DirectX10, and the driver support has been a little buggy. I'm hoping once ATI gets their DirectX10 cards out there, the price wars will restart in earnest, just in time for, say, Age of Conan.
quote: Also, if you can wait a month or so, the 8600 series should be out, and according to rumors they'll be priced between $150 and $220.
I am going to wait for the 8600 series. That way I can afford to upgrade my power supply.
It is not as if I probably need 668W like the site recommended. When I filled out the information I filled it is as if every hard drive, Pci slot, et cetera was in use.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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PC Gamer claims that DirectX 10 is Vista only, so unless you've upgraded to Vista (or plan to in the near future) DirectX 10 support is something of a non-issue.
You mentioned video editing: Do you use a digital camera/camcorder that can feed through a Firewire or USB port? Or do you need a card with some kind of analog video feed option?
Be warned that I've heard some of the newer cards may not physically fit into a smaller tower case. And, yes, the power consumption of said cards is ridiculous. But I just replaced the power supply on my wife's computer, and it wasn't nearly as beastly an operation as I'd been led to believe. Just make sure to keep track of what everything plugs into (and what all needs to be plugged in.)
P.S. I'll second (or third, or fourth) that Best Buy tends to be 10-20% costlier than New Egg for high-end hardware components. Unless you have to have it *NOW* for some reason, like your old video card bursting into flame in a computer that has to remain functional for work, go wit' de Egg.
P.P.S. I've generally discovered with video editing that system RAM is more important than video RAM. (And having a 'uge hard drive to hold all that stuff may trump 'em both.) My wife continues to do most of her video editing on a system with a Radeon 9200 with 128 MB of RAM. Not exactly a lightspeed system by today's standards.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I think I will buy the card online. It is good to know that video card ram is not that important. My video editing is mostly going to come from my digital camera with it's usb port.
I do have a camcorder, but it does not have usb or fireware and can only export mono-sound. It is older. I never use it because my 5 mega pixel camera is so small and portable.
Mostly I use it for short clips of my son. I want to upload them for family. I want to practice with effects, music, and editing. If I get halfway decent I will get a better camera just for videos.
I am thinking of upgrading to 4GB of Ram, but someone told me 32bit XP can only use 3GB--despite Microsoft's claims. I have looked at forums and it seems a lot of people have problems with windows only seeing 2.5 or 3 GB.
I can't find conclusively if that means Windows only utilizes that much ram, if the missing gig is for hardware and core windows functions, or that missing gig is being used because bios/cmos sees it.
That is the only thing stopping me from upgrading my ram one step further.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I have 2 GB of RAM myself, so I can't say for certain. But for most video editing, that should be plenty.
I *have* heard vague things about the expanded amount of RAM that can be accessed being a selling point of the newer 64-bit processors and operating systems.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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