What Graphics Card and why?

[xeberdee]

Jerry - Kenneally, that's exactly why I brought up the subject of overkill.

Aside the issues that some cards are better for other things, and that some people might also use the bundled Xplode (can't think why?) my point is that there is no reason to 'over-buy' a gfx card for Edius. I am specifically trying to establish what softwware/hardware is responsible for what, with ref. to Edius - not Edius with AE, Edius with Microsoft Office or Edius with cherries on top - just Edius - and the formats and features it supports.

We agree, there is absolutely no need to buy an Nvidia Quadro FX series, even the FX370, as something like the ATI HD PRO 2400 can handle a 1080p signal on a [email protected], so it is more than overkill for Edius work at $60. Not cool, not luxury, not nice - just functional.

In my experience Nvidia drivers and hardware tend to be very picky about which systems they live in. Spending $10.000 on a powerful Nvidia will not give you peace of mind or guaranteed errorless performance. On my color grading sytem I'm running the FX4500 with SDI - the drivers for that thing constantly drive me nuts, but it is necessary for grading in realtime on that system. A Quadro FX1500 is not necessary for doing HD on Edius with no specific software written to use the features on the harware.

[gdame]

Jerry - Kenneally, that's exactly why I brought up the subject of overkill.

Aside the issues that some cards are better for other things, and that some people might also use the bundled Xplode (can't think why?) my point is that there is no reason to 'over-buy' a gfx card for Edius. I am specifically trying to establish what softwware/hardware is responsible for what, with ref. to Edius - not Edius with AE, Edius with Microsoft Office or Edius with cherries on top - just Edius - and the formats and features it supports.

We agree, there is absolutely no need to buy an Nvidia Quadro FX series, even the FX370, as something like the ATI HD PRO 2400 can handle a 1080p signal on a [email protected], so it is more than overkill for Edius work at $60. Not cool, not luxury, not nice - just functional.

In my experience Nvidia drivers and hardware tend to be very picky about which systems they live in. Spending $10.000 on a powerful Nvidia will not give you peace of mind or guaranteed errorless performance. On my color grading sytem I'm running the FX4500 with SDI - the drivers for that thing constantly drive me nuts, but it is necessary for grading in realtime on that system. A Quadro FX1500 is not necessary for doing HD on Edius with no specific software written to use the features on the harware.

xeberdee,

I have built dozens of low end systems as well as high end and I have dozens of ex Storm edit users that have migrated to Edius. Some are at 3.xx, while others are at 4.5x. In these systems most are running the GeForce FX 5200. This is an AGP card with 256MB and has dual VGA. Works great with Edius and all other apps. It's a $60-80 card.

My preference for Nvidia over ATI is purley because I like the dual desktop management software better and all the system that I sell come with dual monitors.

As for PCIe choices, there are plenty Nvidia based cards out there at less than $50. It has been a long time since I have tried to build a system at the lowest cost possiable, but I bet that some of the low end components would work. I will tell you what. I have a rather high end system on my bench right now. I am going to test out an Asus EN8600GT tomorrow. It is dual DVI, 512MB, PCIe 16x and even has a component output cable. It's a $125. card.

If it works, would you consider that a reasonably low cost solution that you would buy?

[xmanflash]

I am going to test out an Asus EN8600GT tomorrow. It is dual DVI, 512MB, PCIe 16x and even has a component output cable. It's a $125. card.

If it works, would you consider that a reasonably low cost solution that you would buy?

This is an excellent card series (8600GT) for general and Edius use, and a little 3D game and Vista interface thrown in on the weekends :-)