HELP with which card for editing

honestly, i am no expert in the field, but i would recommend getting a current generation card like a x1600 or 7600gs. they may be out of your price range, but they will give you good performance.

speaking of which, i will ask the question to any of you who know, can a video card help in RENDERING (video or 3d animation)? i know it can help in stuff like autocad when scrolling around looking at your model, but does it help in rendering?

If you're focus is 80% video editing and 20% gaming, the X1600 XT is the easy choice.

Ati's X1x00 generation of cards have excellent DVD playback features as well as accelerated video rendering capabilities with the Avivo software...

Cleeve wrote:

Yeah but it is more expensive then a 7600GT and 850XT. Are the differences in video rendering etc really that much better then those cards?

Cause it isn't like the 7600GT, X850XT, X800GTO etc, have horrible video rendering capabilities, or do they? I'm just saying if you aren't doing like near-professional level stuff, would you really need the extra features, power, of the X1600XT.

ok maybe you should look at an ATI AIW?

I may not be the right person to be answering your question, but is video editing really that demanding?

Personally I would say get a 7600GT. However as Cleeve said the X1600XT is probably more suited to your needs. It is really hard to say as these kind of comparisons rarely attract the attention of Review Websites or people.

I think you should go ahead and get an X1600XT, you won't be dissapointed. I would try and get one with an active cooling solution though, not that passive one you posted the link too. Sounded like it ran really hot by the reviews there.

Quadros are not the best for video editing, in fact the X1600 would be better.



It is true that the X1x00 series can use AVIVO drivers and the previous Radeons like the X800 cannot.

The real bonus of the X1x00 series with AVIVO is it's ability to speed up video renders, it can make a big difference... say 40 minutes to render a video instead of an hour, from what I've seen. Other than that, Avivo won't be that helpful except for DVD playback (which AVIVO has some really nice features for, too)

But the big feature is video rendering. If you do alot of ripping and re-encoding of video, it's pretty damn useful.

If it's Avid Xpress DV or Xpress Pro, then you'd better get an nvidia card. If it's Avid Edition (or whatever they call the ex-Pinnacle software) then you should get an ATI card.

Yeah, I've seen nothing to confirm the architecture difference. The only difference is Avid has agreements (like TWIMTBP) with nV.

Of course they also acknowledge that it's nV's cards that have a problem with Mitsubishi CRTs (now the best in the Biz with their Diamondtrons since Sony left the biz), so I don't know how much I'd value that stamp of approval.

As for prefering one or the other HW acceleration works on more than just nv's cards (BTW only their Quadros are 'officially supported for 'Avid Warkstations' but you and I both know that means nothing to pro-sumers).

I'd say you're spot on with the X1600XT, that's be my rcommendation too from what's currently avaialable at current prices, or an HIS Pro for the HSF advanatages (but the heatpipe on that XT is intruiging, but likely to get the case warm after extended use even for mildly stressful 2D).

Main reason because the passive one had VIVO.