How To look For a Video Card

Sonisfear wrote on 11/6/2005, 12:12 PM
Know that Vegas can preview to a secondary display (good work guys) how do I make the right choice in buying the best video card for HD preview?

What criteria is most important, Ram amount or speed?
GPU speed?
Multithread capablilities?
Does the highest price mean the best for Vegas?
Does 3D algoritums help 2D preview render?
Does a more power card mean less or greater drain on the motherboard and CPU?
Which is better anaglog RGB vs DVI outputs?

Is there a video card or up-and-coming card that is the NEO of all cards for Vegas preview purpose only?

Thanks
Sonisfear

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 11/6/2005, 12:38 PM
Sonisfear,

You should be able to run two screens at 1280x1024x32bpp plus an HDTV output or overlay all within 32 MB. Where the additional memory comes in is for 3D acceleration (Storing textures, doing calculations, etc)

(Get a card with at least 64 MB to run your two wide screen displays plus a video overlay on one of them)

Speed is somewhat important in that you want to be able to view your data displays at up to 85 Hz. I think this can become limited if you are using more displays.

Vegas is doing some 3D work these days so I'd assume that a card with 3D processing horsepower is a good thing. You should check the Vegas specs and also I'm sure other users can chime in on this.

A more powerful card could take some CPU load off, but only in the 3D realm as far as Vegas is currently concerned. As far as I know Vegas doesn't use any hardware mpeg encoding from the graphics card.

Generally, the DVI ports on a graphics card are also capable of outputing analog if you need it. You would get a DVI-VGA adapter for this. So, DVI would be more flexible since it outputs both digital and analog signals. For your HD screen, digital should be better.

I don't know of any upcoming cards that will be better for Vegas. The general trend, and it'll take a little time, is for software to leverage card GPUs on PCI Express x 16 cards. The potential advantage of PCI Express x16 is that the throughput is high in both directions. (AGP was largely outgoing).

I get the impression that Matrox's Axio system is making use of GPU power but of course this system doesn't do anything for Vegas. I have a feeling it would be up to the Sony folks to write Vegas to hook into Axio rather than Matrox writing for Vegas. Matrox sounds like they're very commited to Premiere Pro.

Rob Mack
Sonisfear wrote on 11/6/2005, 12:49 PM
found some interesting info on the nVidia Quadro 4400/4500 from previous threads.

Trying to find the cost on one of these puppies. It seems that Magic Bullet coded their plugs to utilize the GPU.

Hi Sony Programmers. Please get on this GPU utilaztion thing with HD the way it is an Vidoe cards as powerfull as they are these days its a waste not to code for them. But I understand easier said than done.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/6/2005, 2:55 PM

For the nVidia Quadro 4400, the cheapest one I found was over $1,700! Kind'a steep, don't ya think?


Coursedesign wrote on 11/6/2005, 4:09 PM
You can get about the same performance in nVidia 7800GTX for $300 and change.

The professional workstation are low volume so very expensive. Different priorities.

I recently asked a tech at Newtek (Lightwave) for graphics card recommendations. He said to use nVidia "consumer" cards for LW8.5 and 9, offering about the same performance for a fraction of the cost.
Sonisfear wrote on 11/6/2005, 5:54 PM
thank you for the info

does the bullet magic render off this?
Coursedesign wrote on 11/6/2005, 6:11 PM
MB: Realtime with GeForce 7800GT
Sonisfear wrote on 11/6/2005, 6:18 PM
Wow this is a serious card and the funny thing is...My pc salesman said that this was the card I need and I thought he was trying to make some commision. Maybe I should trust him more.

Okay now I gotta save...

Anybody else recommend anything different?
Coursedesign wrote on 11/6/2005, 8:30 PM
Yeah, a 6600GT.

The performance is less (perhaps half for MB 2), but it also costs less than half, it makes a fraction of the noise and it doesn't generate nearly as much heat.

I bought an eVGA GeForce 6600GT recently for just over $150 at Newegg. This card has OpenGL 2.0 drivers and DirectX 9 shaders (the latest and greatest), and even an HDTV output. eVGA has also been a reliable manufacturer with solid products (the latter is no joke with these hot rod cards). You can also overclock of course, works well if you replace the stock VGA fan.

The 6800 is much hotter and noisier than the 6600, but it is easier to accommodate than the 7800.

Sonisfear wrote on 11/8/2005, 9:36 AM
http://www.videoguys.com/DIY3.html

...and they said the same thing about Vegas and the video cards:

"We've been getting lots of emails ever since our DIY2 article when we strongly urged going with a Quadro card over a 3D gaming card. We still stand behind this recommendation. Yes, you can get a good 3D gaming card with twice the RAM for about the same price, but we feel the added OpenGL performance of these cards makes them a better choice with Avid Xpress DV/Pro/HD, Adobe After Effects & Premiere Pro, Canopus Edius, Boris FX/Grafitti/Red and other NLE software.

Videocard Notes:

Sony Vegas software does not see any benefit of OpenGL at this time, or a really fast 3D graphics card. Vegas relies on pure CPU processing power for it's performance."

It is a little perplexing to me not being a programmer on how a plug-in can easily code for a GPU and themain NLE can't.

These render times are significant increase that I/most people who use professional would pay real money for.

It makes me feel like I may be growing out of Vegas, hence my resent research in other NLE and other platforms.

Don't get me wrong I just need power. HD has changed the whole game.

I don't mind spending serious dough on a high end 7800GTX video card if it could provide a better preview which prevents edit errors that have me going back and fixing little issues wasting more time. With multicam preview, HD and insane amounts of footage I could use all the help that is available.

I believe the at Sony should realize their product is a lot more valuable to us now than version 3 and 4. What I mean by this is is you hafto to raise the price to give us multicam and access to GPU processing 64bit float point then raise the price. The type of serious users that are into Vegas now will pay it if it increases quality and productivity. Vegas 7.0 PRO.
Coursedesign wrote on 11/8/2005, 9:45 AM
[Videoguys:] you can get a good 3D gaming card with twice the RAM for about the same price

The 7800GTX "gaming card" is perhaps closest to a Quadro FX4400 "workstation card". The 7800 GTX goes for just under $400, the FX4400 goes for just under $2,000 discounted.

Even Newtek tech support recommended me to go with gaming cards rather than the very pricey workstation cards for Lightwave. It's all about volume.

It is true that workstation cards are more focused on OpenGL, but if you look carefully you'll find gaming cards that do very well with the latest OpenGL shaders too (shaders are the most demanding use, and are used also for video processing by MB).

GlennChan wrote on 11/8/2005, 10:40 AM
Apparently the workstation and the gaming lines are based on the same hardware except with a different BIOS (and maybe some other minor changes). Some of the gaming cards can be flashed into a workstation card.

The workstation cards have drivers that aren't crippled at OpenGL performance. It may be that the nvidia gaming cards aren't that seriously crippled at OpenGL that they are worth buying. Or that Lightwave has designed their product so it works well with gaming cards / you don't need the workstation card.