Which video card to use?
 

I want to get a dual video card so I can run two monitors. I run XP with 1 gig DDR memory.

ATI, nVidia, Matrox all make dual-head cards.

Which editor? Your editor and additional components like After Effects will narrow the field (each company has their strengths with certain hardware).

look for something with purevideo acceleration, if your editing software supports it.

The ATI X1xxx series do similar acceleration and have the addition of AVIVO with recode accel. that is really impressive ;)

Avid Legacy, Adobe, Sony like nVidia. Adobe also likes Matrox. Pinnacle, Avid Liquid like ATI. Avid higher end likes Quadro (nVidia) even better. It is all mixed up based on the what is using it.

I'm using Vegas 6 for editing.

supports open GL?
 

Hi,

I'm setting up a computer for Adobe production studio, and it takes advantage of openGL on a video card. NVIDA has several, and I think so does ATI. What I don't know is if your NLE software takes advantage of it. Just a thought to check!

Older versions of cards out there also have one analog and one dvi interface for two monitors - not great if you have only dv monitor and want to take advantage of it I believe.