In the market for a new video card...
 

I've been looking around for a new video card that caters both DV video and game play, but can't seem to find one. Every card I come across is either dedicated to DV work or game play. I do more DV work than playing games, so it would be great if the card was better for DV, but was still an OK card with games. Can't a guy blow off some steam by playing 007?

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Ryan Krga

Get a dual head card from Nvidia or ATI.

Why dual head? (dual head as in supports 2 monitors)
If you're doing video editing you want to use 2 monitors. 2 monitors is cheaper than one large one. For color accuracy, you want to use a NTSC monitor (or TV) hooked up to your deck (or camcoder) which is hooked up to your computer via firewire. That kinda gives you 3 monitors.

Check that the card has the right connectors (DVI, VGA) for your monitors. Gainward makes GeForce FX5600 cards that have dual DVI.

Why ATI/Nvidia?
These cards are the best for playing games. You can go with a Matrox card but its 3d performance simply isn't close to ATI/Nvidia cards.

Nvidia seems to be a bit better with two monitors. see http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2...n/index.x?pg=1 ATI cards tend to beat out Nvidia cards, but it depends highly on the game you want to play. A good budget video card is the ATI 9100. More expensive but better cards are the GeForce Ti4200/4600, Radeon 9600, Radeon 9600 Pro, and the Radeon 9800Pro 128MB. These recommendations from the Ars Technica Buyer's Guide http://arstechnica.com/guide/system/hotrod.html
The naming conventions for video cards are really confusing as the higher numbered card are not always better.

Use a firewire card to capture video.

Thanks for the response Glenn.

I'm thinking about picking up a Radeon 9800 Pro very soon, but had a question about the dual monitors hook up.

http://www.ati.com/designpartners/me...ARD_SIL_lg.jpg

There is the image I got off of the ATI site.

My question is, how would I hook up two monitors to the second connection. I'm familiar with the first blue connection, but wouldn't I need to buy an adapter to hook up a second monitor? Is there any card similiar to this that has 2 VGA connections? What exactly is a DVI connection?

Ryan Krga

Hey Ryan! A DVI connection is designed to hook up to digital LCD dislpays. It's a digital connection which is different from analog which comes out of the blue connection. If I'm not mistaken, the card should come with a dvi-analog connector so you can hook up to regular monitors!! Hope this helps :]

Alright, thanks a lot Randy. I think I'm going to pick up this baby today.

I just picked up a Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB and am about to install it. There was not a DVI->VGA adaptor inside the box. Where could I pick one of these up?

That's a shame!! They really should pack one of those in there since not all of us have an lcd flat display to work with. Anyways, you can buy a DVI-Analog converter at a Frye's electronics near you (hopefully near you). That's where I bought mine! Or you can TRY to get it online from their website at www.outpost.com. Good luck :]

The Radeon is a great card. You should see how fast it runs After Effects previews. Fundamentally real-time for reasonably simple stuff.

You can buy it from their web site but the shipping cost is quite high. Fry's is a better bet.

Wow Mike, I didn't even think of previewing in AE when I got this card. I just put a couple small time effects on a clip and it previews much faster. Another plus to the purchase.

Thanks for the Fry's suggestions, I think I'm going to order the adapter tomorrow.

cablewholesale.com could be a better place to get the adapter. (search for DVI on that site I think) I don't have any experience ordering from them. They give around the lowest prices for cables though. At least print out the prices so you know if the retail stores have huge markups.

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller4368.html <-- their 8 reseller ratings