PhotoShop and Video Editing

[ksat]

Question for you all...

I've got a client that does a great deal of Photoshop and Video Editing work. While most of the serious work is done on a MAC (imagine that!), my client would like to do some of this work on a HP PC he has. The only problem is it only has integrated video at the moment.

I'm curious as to which video card or what specification in a video card I should be recommending he look at... Would a basic NVidia 6600 card do sufficiently enough or should I consider a higher-grade/quality video card?? Like I said, majority of the work will be centered on Photoshop.

I would imagine having a great deal of video memory would be key - but, what else should I be looking at?

Thanks!
KSAT

 

[CptCpu]

I also do alot of work in Photoshop I have a 6600gt in my computer and it works great. For these types of programs I think as long as you have a decent card it they will work fine. Having a good processor is what you need. A good processor will allow quick allpies of filters and other encoding work.

 

[ksat]

Thanks for the info... all of the video cards seem to cater specifically to the gaming market and I am still curious what will be the best for the $$.

I don't recall the model/MHz of the processor, but, I am relatively sure it's a P4 2GHz or better with 1GB RAM. To me, this sounds sufficient for the majority of the work. I would guess the bottleneck could be in the onboard/integrated video card - which is probably sharing memory, as it is.


Thanks...
KSAT

 

[Guest]

You forget, that photoshop needs mainly CPU power and RAM; so I think the most noticeable performance bottleneck would not be the GC...

 

[Jak_Sparra]

not sure, but was talking to a mate of mine who does graphic design for tv shows (the title sequence and credits etc), and they use
Nvidia Quadro cards, but he didn't say what kind, after having a look i think it'll be these ones:-

http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadrofx_family.html

 

[pmr]

any card will do the job. He will manage to do the video work with that pentium, but it will take too long!

 

[dkopel]

Yeah you'll be fine with a 6600GT, don't spend any extra money on a better card when you could use it on some more RAM...

That being said, a couple of companies are producing plugins for video editing software that can leverage the power of the GPU.

Red Giant's Magic Bullet is one such set of plugins, and there are some very significant gains to be had in using the GPU to do a lot of the colour rendering work...

I use Magic Bullet a lot, so I would by a 7900GT, but assuming the client won't use it, no need...

Cheers,

Daniel

 

[cleeve]

Take some advice from an old photoshop horse:

The only reason there are no reviews of videocards in Photoshop is because it doesn't matter. Get the cheapest discrete card you can if Photoshop is your only goal - actually, integrated is fine, but a discrete card will usually have less interference and better display quality.

Photoshop doesn't care what videocard you have. It cares about system RAM and CPU horsepower.

 

[p05esto]

Agreed. I've used Photoshop daily for 10 years for a living and only have integrated video here at work. All that really matters is that it can support your monitor resolution. Spend money on system RAM..PHOTOSHOP RAM HOG.

Of course at home I have volt-modded 7900GT and other such gaming excess

 

[TSIllusion]

Wow... some people just have no idea what a MAC can do... i mean, dont make fun of it if u haven't used it for a long time.


MAC = graphic / photo / video / program computer
PC = gaming / hacking / w.e else


MAC will rape PC in photoshopping, but back to your quesiton.

Photoshop only requires cpu power, ur gpu does not matter. A 6600 should be enough. Anything else is overkill, cause its not for gaming, we aren't looking for faster fps,

Imagine this: u are playing oblivion with a comp of 7900gtx sli, and u take a screenshot.... u give to a computer with integrated graphics, the picture will look the same, it is because there is no graphic processing done.

So pretty much, any gfx card should be okay, as long as ur cpu can handle it, no matter how crazy ur gfx card is, it wont matter.

 

[DrBlofeld]

MAC will rape PC in photoshopping.

As far as speed in running Photoshop is concerned, both are similar. Concerning "rape," you must have a very special MAC. I hope you use protection when you photoshop on that MAC!

 

[Guest]

MAC will rape PC in photoshopping, but back to your quesiton.

BS-counter=1

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

All of the comments on this thread are great. Some things were not mentioned though. As you configure PS you will see that it uses SCRATCH DISKS and like your Windows SWAP file to speed things up you move the scratch disk to a different drive and PS will sail.

SMP helps too since numerous running processes and using PS etc will slow you down.

This part is an opinion yet I have noticed that ATI cards do quite well with PS. Since I have gone w/ ATI and NVIDIA in different systems or the same systems I have not found that NVIDA cards look that much different.

My opinion is that your monitor is more important then the video card make. An older monitor or a cheaper monitor will look bad if it is next to a new or high quality monitor!

 

[juvealert]

Well there was period were i used to do some video edit on my current pc setup and through my little experiance i would suggest a dual monitor setup where ...

on one moniter there will be the video time line ( work space )
and on the other monitor use it to display tools, filters , transitions sound editor window etc

hopfully this is a help

ps i used to edit on a single monitor

 

[ksat]

All,

These comments are great! Keep them coming!

But, please - keep in mind what I'm looking for and not looking for. The client has a MAC and uses the MAC for the majority of the work. But, due to limited resources, he utilizes the PC for quick edits and modifications. He's not doing long-term and complex video producing, he's not creating a full-featured media spread and layout. And, we're not looking to make things "look better." Swapping the monitor will not increase the speed of the draw where a video card and more memory would.

We've got a machine that is reasonably suited for the task but is a bit slow. The thought was to purchase a video card to potentially speed things up a bit. From what I'm hearing so far, this would be a waste of money. This money should be spent on more memory and, potentially, another HDD for SWAP files.

I know we all have our opinions on what makes a great Photoshoping box - but, please keep it simply and on the "quick-hit" performance boosters!

Thanks all!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

For such rush/cut jobs, I'd agree with Cleeve integrated is fine. I've used alot of imaging software in my time, and really it depends on your level of pickiness. As for the Mac vs PC thing it's ridiculous, not the same as it used to be. Heck Mac is less proffesional now than Pro-sumer. But that's a debate for forums who give a rats A$$ about such drivel.

If he's more anal abot ImageQuality then a solid cheap discrete card would be slightly better for less signal interferance and for support of things like larger panels (if he wants to use a large Mac CinemaHD [like 30"] in the future) then dual-link DVI is a good choice.

Really IMO the cheapest X1300 with DVI would be perfect for that. Otherwise and X300SE or GF6200TC would be more than adequate (I'd recommend a middle line FX but the ones guaranteed with 400MHZ RAMDACs are a little more than the TurboCache GF6s).

I'd get the X1300 not only because of the dual-link DVI, but also for the AVIVO software and the fact that it's brother (the X1600) is the staple of the new MACs, so potential re-use in the future (I would need to talk to my dad about swapabitility sice he's a MAC-nut [X-IBMer no less 8O ] and would know).

 

[cleeve]

MAC = graphic / photo / video / program computer
PC = gaming / hacking / w.e else


MAC will rape PC in photoshopping, but back to your quesiton.

Circa 1998, maybe...

This is 2006 man, get with the times. A Mac isn't going to rape anything nowadays, even if it were anatomically possible.

Apple's only hope is the Ipod.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Apple's only hope is the Ipod.

Well they still own the 'I don't know anything about computers, what should I buy?' market.

I'd recommend one for my mom, and I'd do so for my sister because she likes the look/feel and has become familiar with it after long leaving the 'I don't know' stage behind. And I'd recommend them for about 30% of the people I know (who have more disposable income than brains IMO), simply because they are very plug and play.

But really, pro-sumers, it's only the ones who have no idea what they're doing but want to start editing video/pictures that are still die hard Apple folks, or those that have a mint already invested and don't want to re-learn software, not people making decisions based on current situations. Heck Adobe now launches their new/updated tools in PC first, what does that say about Appple's influence nowadays? But powerusers, not anymore. Heck there's nothing in their lineup that could compete with a Quad Tyan boards with dual Quadros in SLi for raw power under Windows or Linux. The age of the G5 is dead, and Apple's got nothing to replace it with.

I'll admit one thing, I love their OS (Unix with a good GUI), but the hardware is overpriced and too FisherPrice Yuppi. Sell the OS for the same price to PC users and I'd buy it first thing tomorrow morning. But I won't buy an Apple to run Windows. That's like Buying a Lada/Skoda/Yugo, just because they decided to put a good motor in it for a change.

I'll give them props for pushing FireWire, but beyond that, meh. Boutique.

 

[CptCpu]

I think the only reason why mac does so well is becuase of their programs like finalcut.

 

[pmr]

Long life to finalcut! Long life to mac design! Long life to mac flat panels! Long life OS X Panther.

Oh crap, I´m broke!
I have to agree, these babies are overpriced

 

[bitsbytesandboolean]

Why do you hate your motherboard? Seems like a solid board to me...

 

[Jak_Sparra]

Why do you hate your motherboard? Seems like a solid board to me...

Because the manual is very poor, there are option in the BIOS that are not even mentioned in the manual, as if they dont exist.

And i only found out recenty that you have to press ctrl + F1 (or something similar) to bring up more options in the BIOS (again not mentioned in the manual)

Also the space between the PCI-e slots is to small, i can only fit one graphics card in so cant upgrade to SLI. (not that i was going to, my 7800gtx is fast enough)

 

[ksat]

OK - Everyone .... Just Stop.

This is NOT an APPLE VS. PC discussion. You can take that elsewhere. This is a discussion about graphics card support of increased Photoshop performance.

Talk about going on out on a tangent! You folks need to FOCUS on the questions instead of trolling for discussions.

 

[cleeve]

We answered your question.

Now we are having a related discussion about how the MAC is incapable of violating a PC.

 

[pmr]

OK - Everyone .... Just Stop.

This is NOT an APPLE VS. PC discussion. You can take that elsewhere. This is a discussion about graphics card support of increased Photoshop performance.

Talk about going on out on a tangent! You folks need to FOCUS on the questions instead of trolling for discussions.

Like Cleeve said, we already answered that.

"This is a discussion about graphics card support of increased Photoshop performance"

And we already said that the videocards don´t increase performance in photoshop.
But if I were u, I'd buy two 7950 and sli them. U can apply a gaussian blur in a 200cm x 200cm picture in 5 seconds.

Now, do us a favour and fu*k off.