Building a new Video Editing Rig-Question...

[ozzfloyd]

I'm currently building a new video editing rig for my business. I am at the point where I'm pricing video cards.

What would be best for editing HD video:
2 Geforce 8800's 256mb in a SLI configuration

or,

1 Geforce 9800 gfx 512 mb

 

[CardFan67]

I don't have one and do fairly little video editing (I do some) but the people I have questioned always say that while they are not the best for gaming and benchmarking the All in Wonder cards are great for video...

http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1900/aiwx1900/index.html

http://ati.amd.com/Products/multimedia.html

They typically have pretty cool connectors and I had just heard Leo LaPorte (from the old "Call for Help" show) telling someone that if video editing was what he wanted then the ATI All In Wonder products were a good bet...

 

[puckhead]

What type of NLE are you looking at? Will you be doing HDV, uncompressed HD, or something like XDCAM HD? All of the above?

Regardless, I'd say you'd be plenty safe with either of the options you have there.

 

[Ryanwb]

If you have an SLI motherboard I would go with the single 9800 gfx, not only will it be cooler and use less power, you can add another 9800 gfx at another time and further expand the graffic power of your machine.

Of course, if you have the same SLI board as I, which is an EVGA 680i , you can't fit two double width cards in it.

 

[KloD]

In my video rig I'm using the 3870x2 1GB. So far it's performed great. But, as Ryan said, if you're using an SLI, stick w/ nvidea.

 

[ozzfloyd]

I will be running Vegas Pro 8 as well as Premiere and Avid.
I am editing HDV as well as AVCHD

 

[KloD]

I will be running Vegas Pro 8 as well as Premiere and Avid.
I am editing HDV as well as AVCHD

I use the same software in my rig. Since building it I've only worked with HD.

 

[Sandan]

We do Avid video editing as well.

A good core 2 duo 2+ GB ram and it runs real well. Get the best non SLI graphics card you can justify. Get fast single video card solution.

I'd get than 4Gb [as its cheap] but Avid runs just fine in 2GB PC-800.

And if Brighteyes system can run Avid well, then pretty much anything else requires far less resources.

 

[Sandan]

I should have added.

Right now we are pending a Video update but Avid is running good on her old NV 7800 GT, so a new card will eat it alive.

 

[Chaz]

There are a lot of good graphics card choices out there. Maybe someone can correct me here but unless you are doing a lot of 3-d rendering with lighting effects at high resolution most "high end" cards will be overkill.

More important for the performance of the system is the disk speed, plenty of memory, and a good dual or quad core CPU with a large cache.

I would save the money on the graphics card and get a good 15K rpm SCSI hdd.

 

[Sandan]

In looking at upgrades the Nvidia 9600 Gt looks like a sweet spot right now at around $140

Graphics cards do make a difference

 

[Chaz]

Graphics cards do make a difference

Did someone say they didn"t?