Thanks Daryl,
I'm not a gamer, but I do want to be able to do good quality 3D work as well.
What twist does that add to the equation? Does that mean I would need a much better monitor (something above 1280x1024?) to see any difference?

First off...none of these high price cards with gobs of RAM will give you ANY benefit within the Vegas environment.

"I'm not a gamer, but I do want to be able to do good quality 3D work as well."

Describe what you mean by 3D work. Apps like Maya, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD? If you are indeed leaning this way then you could really benefit from the added horsepower...but NOT a gamer card for these kinds of apps....look at a card specifically designed for CAD applications...which are big $$$

I still use my trusty Matrox G450 and for Vegas - it's still as rock solid after all these years. I tried a P650 as a demo about 6 months ago - couldn't really tell the difference between it and my G450...so I took it back.

Spend your big bucks on the monitors themselves. I mean - what do you stare at all day long? May as well make it worthwhile...

Cheers!

VP

The main thing that the card would do for 3D would be in the "playback", for example if you put "fog" in a 3D motion graphic, some motion blurred actions, things like, well, like you might see in the newer video games. As for the rendering of the 3D, again the card doesn't really play into that, just the playback.

I'd look at even more than the screen resolution, if the images you want to see are as accurate as possible. An RGB monitor, plasma screen etc., look at the specs too, like dot pitch, and controls, how much variance can you make on color, contrast, tint etc.

When possible, a good comparison can be made if you can see a series of monitors displaying the same source, usually you can see very distinct differences from monitor to monitor, even though it's the same signal.

What you see on screen is only as good as the weakest link, be it video card, monitor, calibration, even the lighting in the room itself. But for what creates the images/video, the card and monitor really don't play into that, that's the software, and the speed that it is created is the system hardware, CPU, type and amount of RAM, bus speed etc.

I think that's the bad news/good news of computers, you're just as strong as the weakest link, but you can ugrade that weak link as you go.

Hope this rambling makes some sense.

D

I guess maybe I don't know what I'm talking about when I say "3D". Do apps like AE, Boris, Photoshop benefit from a better card? Do you have a recommendation on TFTs? A certain brand I can't go wrong with?

Yes, that sheds some light on the subject...thanks Daryl. Am I crazy to think I can work with 3D motion effects well on a TFT? You're scaring me when you mentioned plasma...I drive a minivan, not a Carrera.

Brock

... I have three 19" LCD monitors setup .... I didn't want to stare at the crack between a two monitor display ... LCD monitors today are relatively cheap ... to bring them all together, I use a Matrox Parhelia card ... best in the business for clarity and the 2d apps you're using .... it's designed for multiple displays and will place your taskbar across all three screens giving you plenty of room to add new toolbars .... otherwise, you'll need two graphics cards to handle three montors on any of the others ...

In my opinion you can't get a better video card than any of the better quality Matrox. I've had many over the 25 years I've been messing with PC's and the colors always seem just a bit purer, more natural compared to other brands probably because Matrox makes some of their own chips and they tweak them differently.

If you're a gamer then maybe you want to look at something else that may be a little faster or loaded with RAM. If you're not a gamer and do medium to high end graphic work, you can't really do better than Matrox.

IF you're going to use the system mainly for Vegas and have no need to split your workspace over two or three monitors as in a virtual desktop, the cheaper Matrox cards should be fine. Remember, if you're using just your computer monitor AND a external monitor to check levels/color then that is feed through the firewire cable and it makes no real difference what you're video card is.

Thank you everyone for your input....

Brock

The Matrox cards were superior in the days of CRTs and analogue connections, they used better filters on their outputs. With DVI I doubt there's anything to be gained going down the Matrox path.
nVidia are getting pretty serious with their efforts. I'm not talking about the stuff they pitch and the gamers, they're now getting into serious kit for CGI etc, even developing software.
They do make some quite reasonably priced dual DVI cards but you don't see them sold by the typical PC stores, the one I'm putting into my new system is the Quadro FX 1300.
Bob.

nVidia cards are rock solid.

Think twice before buying a PNY card though. Their "lifetime warranty" is only valid for the lifetime of the card. When their 1300 card is replaced with a 1301 ditto, the warranty expires and you are on your own.

Not so with the other manufacturers of nVidia-based cards.

You know I've just given up worrying about warranty apart from the DOA situation, if it dies I just buy a replacement, I figure the time I waste chasing these things down costs me more than it's worth.
OK, I'll exclude high cost capital items like my VCRs but things like video cards, nah.
Bob.

Some apps, like Boris Red, benefit from Open GL capable cards. IF that is the case with your apps, you might want to look at that specification on any card you use. Another card worth looking at is the ATI FireGL V series; they are the 2100, 3100, 5100, and 7100. and come in both AGI and PCI-X cards, though I think the AGI cards have a slightly different name.

I'd certainly go with the PCI-E cards, not much use is being made of what that offers at the moment but I expect that to change in the medium term. PCI-E means apps can finally use the GPU power for things other than rendering for display. With AGP the downlink bandwidth is limited, 16x PCI-E has symetrical up/down link bandwidth.
Bob.

Thanks guys, every little bit helps....

Brock