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ATI

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  • Radeon
  • ATI
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 25, 2008 8:02:00 PM

Hi i want to run two 24" monitors at 1920 x 1200 i don't play games but do a lot of photoshop work and video work so want something able to handle these. I don't know a lot about graphics cards and wondered about a 512mb ATI 4850 or a 1gb ATI 4870. Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
John

More about : ati

October 25, 2008 10:16:31 PM

Ok, I would go for the 1GB HD 4870 because of your resolution.
October 25, 2008 10:55:01 PM

Doesn't matter, because you aren't doing 3D work at that res. Any cheap $50 card will work, no need for any 48xx card. PS depends on your CPU and ram, video doesn't really come into play.
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October 25, 2008 11:09:21 PM

Quote:
Doesn't matter, because you aren't doing 3D work at that res. Any cheap $50 card will work, no need for any 48xx card. PS depends on your CPU and ram, video doesn't really come into play.


cs4 supports gpu acceleration so the 4870 might help.
October 25, 2008 11:12:12 PM

Ok, allow me to rephrase. Most photo and video programs don't need high end video cards. Check the programs that you do use, to see if they can take advantage of GPUs. For example, if they support CUDA apps, you'll need an Nvidia video card, the 48xx won't do anything for you.
October 26, 2008 2:33:39 AM

I would cut back on the video card and get a good Quad core CPU..
October 26, 2008 10:04:37 AM

4745454b said:
Ok, allow me to rephrase. Most photo and video programs don't need high end video cards. Check the programs that you do use, to see if they can take advantage of GPUs. For example, if they support CUDA apps, you'll need an Nvidia video card, the 48xx won't do anything for you.


You should probably re-re-phrase that since nV has limited their current CS4 support officially to Quadro cards, however you can make it work on others, especially in the photoshop segment itself where it's limited to OGL driver recognition, it's Premier and After Effects though has this artificial requirement like other NLE software.
The question was specific to 'photoshop work and video' which would give you a hint to what app he's focusing on, and for CS4 and the previous generation of AfterEffects do benefit for OGL acceleration, and it works just fine on ATi cards just fine, and the 1GB HD4870 or HD4850 would be better than it's 512MB counterparts in this case for that reason, which in turn would be better than something like my HD2600 or a GF9600.

IMO the best choice would be to save a little money, get the HD4850-1GB and then put the savings elsewhere like a better scratch disk or better CPU or more RAM, or even towards other software. I would say the HD4850->4870 difference would be rather small.
October 26, 2008 5:56:17 PM

Thanks for the varied answers to my initial reply. My setup is as follows and at present i am using CS3. Intel quad core, 4gb memory 250gb boot disk 750gb program disk. And a crappy video card that i need to replace once i have decided on the new card although it is looking like the 4870 will be the one.
!