Great deal on Tigerdirect.com for nVidia 6800 dual DVI PCI-e. 99 dollars after rebate.
Here is the link.


j razz

These cards aren't just for gaming anymore. Applications like Magic Bullet, After Effects, Bluff Titler, Serious Magic Ultra. All take advantage of the graphics card capabilities. The fact that Vegas doesnt benefit from it could actually be looked at as a weakness on Vegas part . But that is a topic for another thread. Nvidia based cards edge out the ATI type for the apps I mentioned but if you dont use any of those your requirements may be less specific. In which case you can go with the less expensive Nvidia based cards.

I echo many when I say that the ATI drivers are the biggest pain in the you know what there is. I have not experienced the Nvidia side of things but there seem to be far fewer complaints about Nvidia drivers than the ATI side of things.

Even if you dont use any of the apps that I mentioned above you should be aware that more and more it is becoming popular to use these cards to accelerate rendering in various applications (not just games)

Unless there is some particular feature on the Matrox card you think you need I would go with the standards. Nvidia or ATI and the preference is for Nvidia right now.

TomE

I got a video card update just because I couldn't stand the noise of my ATI card's fan anymore, even after Dell gave me a totally new replacement (same model). I read about cards with passive cooling (no fan) and decided to go with that -- much nicer! I also agree that ATI's drivers & apps are hyper-bloated. I got the following Nvidia based card:
Gigabyte GV-N66256DP, an AGP since my system's that old; Gigabyte also makes passive PCI-e cards too.

TomE
Thanks for the reply. When you write about Nvidia, are you including Quadro? What's likely to give better 2D, a PNY 7900 GT or Quadro FX1300?
wikksmith

The Quadro card is one that is useful if you are working with 3d content creation. So if you use 3dsmax or other 3d programs that need aid in rendering models you are creating then you should look at those kinds of cards. They are in a class by themselves. It used to be this was the level of card you needed to work with applications. But my point is that they have improved the cards that were originally designed to render low-polygon count 3d as in games. But with advances many of these socalled gamers cards have been found to be useful in rendering other tasks well too. So even stuff like Google Earth will look better with a 7900 GT . The 7900 and other consumer cards are the ones I am referring to and are now more multi=pupose than just for games. So they do 2d well and they do 3d using Direct X or OpenGL. But the other cards like Quadro and Wildcat (can't even think of the names at the moment) utilize a fuller implementation of Open GL so they are what you need if you are building 3d stuff --more sophisticated and complex than games and the other apps that I mentioned earlier.

So, get a 7900 and you will be all set.

I am sure there are others here who use 3dsMAx or similar and could explain this better than I.

-TomE

Thanks to all who responded for the helpful info.
wikksmith