Which Video Card for Photoshop work?

8800GT

I have heard bad things about the 8600 and since you're going with higher resolutions, I'd say go with an HD3850, HD3870, or 8800GT.

These responses are WAY off. So far off.

For photoshop the ONLY thing you need is a card that supports the resolution you need to run at. And really every $50 card will do this. Note: Anything you spend over $50 will be pissed down the drain, $30 would most likely be just fine.

For a 30" monitor you may need a dual-link card or whatever, that you;d have to reasearch.

But seriously, do a test and throw an old dusty GPU in there and watch how wonderful photoshop works. If you throw a $300 card in there you will not notice any difference. Photoshop speed is not done in the GPU.

I run Photoshop CS2 on a 7300LE with no issues.

All 30" displays require a dual link capable card. If you're going to run dual monitors, both outputs need to be dual link capable. Your best bet is probably the 3850 card, especially if you do any video. If you do video, get the 512MB flavor for a 30" monitor.

Ignore the first few posts in this thread they obviously have no Photoshop experience of note.

GPU power it limited in Photoshop and the thing you should concern yourself most with is the colour channel support with the large enough memory for the size of projects you plan on working with.

I would avoid a GF7 series card as it's limited in it's colour support, but with the GF8 and every Radeon card since the R9000-9700 you have support for 10bit per channel, similar to the Matrox cards that set the standard at the time. Because you want large panel support be sure to get one with at least one dual-link TMDS. Also a good idea to go with passive cooling if you can, for reliability sake.

IMO get an X1550 or GF8400GS or HD2400Pro;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127294

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134030

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125072

Only bother with a 512MB card if you're dealing with stuff like After Effects which can use more than 256MB if you're doing enough things, IIRC the FAQ knowledge-base mentions 300+ MB in CS3.

If you can afford a few bucks more I would go with the HD2600 pro or xt model with a fan. The fans are very silent and as some users of the 2400 wish it came with a fan.

We all know heat = poor performance so might as well avoid that before it can even be an issue.

HIS Radeon HD 2600 Pro Video Card - 512MB DDR2, PCI Express, CrossFire Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, Video Card look at this one maybe http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=1826

You dont need a powerful video card., this video card is powerful enough for photo shop, and High Def playback (GeForce 8400 GS Video Card
XFX GeForce 8400 GS Video Card $53). But you really want a Quad core for this task (Q9300 for $266 available in a few weeks).

While I like the HD2600 and use it myself, if he is not doing any video editing or working with huge layered sets, then the HD2400 will be more than enough and it will easily handle the heat generated.
The only way I would recommend a fan is if it ejected heat outside the case a small fan will simple recirculate the even higher heat load back to the CPU, RAM, MOBO and HDD; passive is virtually unbreakable, thus reliable and stable unlike fans (small fans being the worst due to tiny cheap bearings usually) so unless that fan eject heat out of the case then there's no benifit to it because these cards even passively cooled don't heat up enough to cause failure under such a load.
Heck if you needed a fan it's a buck cheaper, but I would recommend against it, because for the work he's doing it doesn't add any benifit;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161191

Another thing to consider is power draw, which for someone working mostly in high-2D and idle will probably be on the low end of anyways, but if there's no benifit to the additional feature of the HD2600, then why use even 5 more watts if you don't have to, and same about spending an extra $20 for a card that doesn't add much?

I like having the additional power and if he were thinking of video at all then I'd suggest a little more power for the option of NLE acceleration in the future, but for his needs a basic HD2400 will likely be perfect, heck if he wanted a little more from his system, then I might recommend an HD3450;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102724

but only for the minor benefits it brings to the table like Powerplay.