need help on graphic card for art and animation, video

External Since: Apr 10, 2006 Posts: 2

Hello, I got a new computer and needed a graphics card mainly for the
s-video out cause I watch a lot of movies through the tv so I decided
I might as well get a decent one. I picked out the visiontek 512mb
x1300 because they only had 2 pci-e cards at the store in my range
(100-150) and this one was on sale.

I really know nothing about cards even after reading up I can't seem
to find much about how the different features would make any
difference in what I do. I don't do gaming at all, but I watch a lot
of videos from the hd, do a lot of photo editing, graphic editing and
computer art, tons of 2-d animation and editing them in movie
programs. Some 3-d rendering and also want to get into 3-d animation
soon. I could use some suggestions. Some questions on my mind are,
would I be better of with a smaller mb card with faster engine more
pipeline, wider bus etc, is this card (or any in this range) overkill
for what I'm doing.

As far as just turning on the computer and messing around a little
now, can't say I see any difference on the screen at all from the on
board graphics so wondering if I should just get a cheap 50 dollar
card, or if I'll be glad I got this when I start rendering the 3d
animation. Some stuff I read said you don't even use the card cache
when doing 3d animation, other stuff said movie production workers
have extreamly high end cards, I'm lost. Thanks!

External Since: Jan 28, 2006 Posts: 19

"bandi" <no.TakeThisOut@spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:rxx_f.44136$Un3.17064@fe10.news.easynews.com...
> Hello, I got a new computer and needed a graphics card mainly for the
> s-video out cause I watch a lot of movies through the tv so I decided
> I might as well get a decent one. I picked out the visiontek 512mb
> x1300 because they only had 2 pci-e cards at the store in my range
> (100-150) and this one was on sale.
>
> I really know nothing about cards even after reading up I can't seem
> to find much about how the different features would make any
> difference in what I do. I don't do gaming at all, but I watch a lot
> of videos from the hd, do a lot of photo editing, graphic editing and
> computer art, tons of 2-d animation and editing them in movie
> programs. Some 3-d rendering and also want to get into 3-d animation
> soon. I could use some suggestions. Some questions on my mind are,
> would I be better of with a smaller mb card with faster engine more
> pipeline, wider bus etc, is this card (or any in this range) overkill
> for what I'm doing.
>
> As far as just turning on the computer and messing around a little
> now, can't say I see any difference on the screen at all from the on
> board graphics so wondering if I should just get a cheap 50 dollar
> card, or if I'll be glad I got this when I start rendering the 3d
> animation. Some stuff I read said you don't even use the card cache
> when doing 3d animation, other stuff said movie production workers
> have extreamly high end cards, I'm lost. Thanks!
>
Bandi:

Games is where it's at. If you would like to know what all those pipelines,
wider busses and ram are for, take a look at the specks for DirectDraw v8,
v9a,b,c, and v10. It tells allot. It's all about eye-candy, realistic
emersion of the player. Shading, blending, texture, speed, light bouncing,
effects, and more. Most of your computer and gaming web sites offer
performance write-ups on the newer boards and specks of DDv9c and v10. Read
and learn.

If you are going to stay simple in your 3d renders, then speed is all you
need. But if you want to get into realistic rendering, where you use bitmap
skins, complex objects moving over backgrounds, multiple avatars, and more -
then you cannot purchase too much of a board. No matter what you get, you
will want more.

The big memory is used to park bitmaps for object drawing on the fly. The
first time a graphics engine sees a new object, it has to fetch the bitmaps
and info from the HD, it is then parked in high-end memory for future use,
over and over and over. Much faster.

Pipelines and buss width is used for realistic rendering of the scene. Are
you going to make cartoons, or people? Is complex detail important to your
work?

From my point of view, you can not purchase a fast or big enough of a board.
I wish I had a CRAY under my desk. I purchase a new graphics board each
year. I go for the sweat-spot, one generation back from the front line unit
saving a bundle. Next year I will have to swap out my mother board, CPU and
ram if I want to keep up. What an expense for liking graphics...... and
games.

William