Which graphics card for new system?

jerry12953

jerry12953

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Jeremy Moore
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Hi,

Another query before I settle on my new system....

Dell has offered me a ATI Radeon HD4350 for my new setup, but this a bit ancient as far as I can tell.

I know photo-editing doesn't require a powerful card, but let's just suppose I get a 5D mk2 and start doing videos, would a more powerful card help to process the results?

I'm planning to go for a Quadcore Q9400 processor, btw....

Power consumption is also an issue for me as well, but I don't do any gaming...
 
I reckon any modern graphics card will not have any trouble doing what you ask of it, remember the card only displays the results, it does not have anything to do with processing.
 
Anything with at least 512MB memory onboard should do the job for you. For photo editing you want a good processor and a LOT of RAM :)
 
photo editing doesnt touch the GPU, although i seem to remember something about CS4 utilising some maybe?

ive got a ATI 4550HD 512Mb Fanless PCI-E and its perfectly capable of hardware accelerated blu-ray playback so isnt too shabby.
 
That card will probably be fine. Any reasonable graphics card with at least 256mb ram should do you.

For HD video editing you want as much CPU power as possible definatelly quad core. I personally wouldn't get a Qxxxx now, if I was building a new system I would go for an i5 or i7 system with at least 4gb ram.

If you did a lot of hd editing then I really would recommend an i7 if you can stretch to it as they are really beasty and ideal for this kind of task. However a Qxxxx or i5 will suffice if you can't stretch. It really comes down to budget and need. Qxxxx is old tech now, I definatelly wouldn't be building a top end system with one now, only upgrading if I had existing components.

I can't stress how CPU dependent HD video editing is. More horsepower the better.
 
neil_g said:
photo editing doesnt touch the GPU, although i seem to remember something about CS4 utilising some maybe?

ive got a ATI 4550HD 512Mb Fanless PCI-E and its perfectly capable of hardware accelerated blu-ray playback so isnt too shabby.
Click to expand...

I've read that the 4550 is fine, do you know anything about the 4350?
 
InkZ said:
That card will probably be fine. Any reasonable graphics card with at least 256mb ram should do you.

For HD video editing you want as much CPU power as possible definatelly quad core. I personally wouldn't get a Qxxxx now, if I was building a new system I would go for an i5 or i7 system with at least 4gb ram.

If you did a lot of hd editing then I really would recommend an i7 if you can stretch to it as they are really beasty and ideal for this kind of task. However a Qxxxx or i5 will suffice if you can't stretch. It really comes down to budget and need. Qxxxx is old tech now, I definatelly wouldn't be building a top end system with one now, only upgrading if I had existing components.

I can't stress how CPU dependent HD video editing is. More horsepower the better.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about an i5, but Dell only seem to do them in their gaming machines. I'll have to look into it further but I saw one comparison chart which suggested that the i5 wasn't that much faster than a Q9400.

Thanks for your help....
 
jsut a little hi jack, if a 32 bit OS can only use 4GB memory and you have lets say 8GB installed, can programs like CS3 etc utalize the other 4GB. logic tell me no... just hope its a yes!
 
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