Video Card suggestions
 

Hello,

not sure if this is the right place to post it, but it seemed the most obvious..
I am looking to build a new PC (either amd or intel dual core) and i am a bit confused on video card selection.. i will probably use a PC!-Express type card, and traditionally i have used NVIDIA chipset based cards.. I am interested in a card that will drive 2 monitors, looking for any suggestions/recomendations??

thanks,
Mike m.

I see that you use Vegas (as do I) so as far as that goes you can use any ol' card you wish. I'm not saying this is "the best" or whatever, but when I built my present system I picked up an ATI All In Wonder PCI Express card for less than $200 at NewEgg. You can watch yourself a little TV in a small transparent window while doing other tasks, or just kick back and full screen it while avoiding work altogether. It also drives 2 monitors.

Avid Xpress Pro HD recommends nVidia
 

I am just setting up an Avid Xpress Pro HD box and they recommend and support nVidia. I now have an ATI All-In-Wonder PCI Express card but am planning to upgrade to an nVidia PCI Express card. So I think it all depends on your editing software and your time consctraints. The cheaper the card the slower the render.

All recent ATI All-In-Wonder cards have a feature called Theater Mode that allows you to output your video previews to a TV so you can get an instant preview of what you are editing and how it will look on a TV before you commit it to DVD.

In Mediastudio, I can even view filter changes on my TV as I make them. I think this would be standard for all Directshow driven applications. Even WinDVD displays full screen to the TV, if I drop it down out of sight on my monitor, so I can work on other things.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I have this http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstatio.../p650_pcie.cfm

I've been happy with it. I have a dual core AMD 3800. This I use for my NLE. I have a couple of ATI cards and such, but I went with the matrox card for my NLE because I wanted something built by video people.

just my too sense.

A very good starting place is to look at recommended specs... many programs only need a basic ~$50 video card, preferably dual monitor.
If you want dual DVI (for driving two high res LCDs) then look at something in the range of a Nvidia 6600... those $50 cards will only do DVI/VGA + VGA.

Card
 

Mike,

I spent quite some time going over all the various cards that are available.
I considered the matrox 650 mentioned already. In the end I ordered an invidia 6600 as the cost was quite a bit less than the more expensive cards.
I use dual montiors and adobe pro. I have no problem doing any work on the programs.
I ordered mine through tiger direct.ca for much less than over the counter. I think it was about 160 dollars canadian.
If money was not a concern I would get a matrox card.


Gus