Low cost dual monitor card for Vegas

Osotosail wrote on 10/24/2008, 10:37 AM
Could anyone recommend a low cost, at least dual head, graphics card for an HP
box with Q6600 running XP. There is a PCIe and PCI slot, no AGP.
I'd prefer a quite card with no fan.

VMS 9 is the most demanding application on my PC as far as graphics, I don't run games.

I'm po' so price is the most important factor, eBay might be the best bet but I don't know what to look for or if there is some feature that you really want for video editing.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/24/2008, 11:06 AM
For Vegas, the *only* feature you need to look for is enough memory to support the resolution you want. If you're running two monitors at 1680x1050 (my current setup at home) then you need 12MB of RAM on the video card. That's it. Nothing fancier matters. Go shop ebay and look for a card with two connectors. If you find one for $5 buy it.
Eugenia wrote on 10/24/2008, 2:25 PM
I wouldn't go for a $5 card (e.g. an old PCI card). I wouldn't go for a $300 one either. When editing you need 2D speed, and this doesn't come usually with some fancy 3D cards, but with cards that are designed to have lots of bandwidth internally. So never buy a card with half the bus speed or slower VRAM. You can get a good such card from nvidia for about $30 these days.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 10/24/2008, 10:25 PM
The ati radeon hd 3450 or radeon hd 3650 are ok cards with dual monitor and high definition support.
If you opt for nvidia, the GeForce 8600 or their more recent cards will do.
Osotosail wrote on 10/25/2008, 8:43 PM
Are you saying to go for PCIe?

Could you suggest a particular card around $30 price point?
Which seems a reasonable price to get my second monitor up and avoid problems.
Chienworks wrote on 10/25/2008, 9:10 PM
You need to pick a card that will work in your computer. If you have a PCIe slot then look for a PCIe card. If you have an AGP slot then look for an AGP card. They're not interchangeable.

In some computers you can add another single card and use that along with whatever is already there and connect two monitors that way. However, often with cheaper motherboards with video built in, adding another video card disables the built in one.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 10/26/2008, 1:04 AM
the ati radeon hd 3650 is cheap, with dual monitor support and hd support
I don't think there is a dual monitor card without fan....
Chienworks wrote on 10/26/2008, 6:05 AM
There are plenty. I've got an ATI Radeon 9200 at home with no fan. It was pricey, about $240 or so, but i got it for free as a hand-me-down so i'm not complaining.

At work i have a no-name white-box card that we paid about $25 for. It's got dual VGA ports and 64MB of memory on it. No fan on that one either.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 10/26/2008, 7:23 AM
Cin, the cards you mention are AGP cards, while the poster doesn't have AGP.

BTW, what is it with you people like Chienworks and Eugenia: why is it that people GIVE you hardware, while I always have to BUY hardware...
This is a joke, of course, but it also has a serious side to it: if you actually have to PAY for your hardware instead of getting it for free (for reviewing or whatever), it's a whole other ballgame.... 'cause you want it to work for at least a couple of years.