Photo editing (7300 or 7900?)

[allon]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a new (Dell) system, mainly for the purpose of photo editing (I will not use it for games). In my configuration options I can only choose between
- 256MB nVidia™ GeForce 7300LE Turbocache
- 256MB nVidia™ GeForce 7900GS (for an extra € 200 / $ 250)

I work with photos professionally and I would value enhanced image quality if the more expensive graphics card would provide this. However, in most reviews that I've been able to find about these and other graphics cards, most predominantly games are used as benchmarks for a card's performance. So is which kind of video card (apart from I suppose its memory size?) really relevant when photo editing is concerned? Can I go with the cheaper 7300 card? Or would my image quality (I will also use extensive color calibration tools and an Eizo LCD screen) truly benefit from the more expensive 7900?

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Allon

[edit: clearified options]

 

[dougie_boy]

the 7300 will do fine for photo editing...

the 7900 will be better for games tho.

 

[runswindows95]

The biggest probelm with the 7300 is it uses system memory. Turbocache cards have 64MB of VRAM, and when they need more, they take it from your RAM. Granted, it's a step above integrated graphics, but you're better off spending the money on a 7600. Photoshop relies more on CPU than GPU anyway.

 

[waylander]

I second that, there has to be more choices than just the pos 7300LE (waste of silicon) or the highest agp card 7900gs. If it's available I second the notion of the 7600gs.

If they don't give an option for the 7600gs then don't get a video card at all with them (if it comes with onboard video) and order one from newegg.

This one is good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130036

 

[joefriday]

You'll want the 7300. Turbocache can be disabled, I would presume, to make it a standard 64 MB discrete graphics card, which will be more than capable of performing photoshop work. Hell, even Intel's GMA 900 integrated graphics performs almost as good as a 7900 GTX in photoshop. Photo editing really only cares about two things: CPU power and system ram.