Do I need a video card?

[Alex K]

I am building a new computer that will be used for video editing. I have 4 GB of RAM and a good motherboard. I am good with using computers, just not building them... So my question is, will I need a video card? what does the video card do? and what are some good ones? Thanks!The Motherboard has a FireWire port, therefore, I assumed that it would be somewhat of a video card in and of itself.This is my motherboard-http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130081

[Planetgaming_org]

If you're into movies / videos then i think you should get a card with hardware HD movies decoders. This way, in future of HD videos and movies these cards can take the workload of the CPU since they have hardware decoders.

I am giving links for the minimum in both ATI and Nvidia corners that can do the above described things. I am also telling the names of bigger brothers of them.

Nvidia 8600GT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127286

Nvidia 8800GTS 320 / 8800GTS 640 / 8800GTX / 8800Ultra

In order of their performance

ATI
In the ATI corner, you will have to go with an HD 2900XT , their current high end part.

Although they do plan to make lower models, these are not already out and nobody know's their release dates. Here are they anyways
HD 2400
HD 2600

HD 2900XT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127289


Hope this helped

Planetgaming_org

[Deepak]

i guess u wont need anything but u could hav mention ur onboard graphics and i prefer u to adjust buffer level to 512mb in bios and still if ur not satisfied try Nvidia 8800GTS!

[Cody C]

Yes you need a video card video cards is what displays images on your screen this is what I have and reccomend. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A0428577

[Andrew C]

Oh yes, you will need a video card, and a very nice one at that. If you are putting in 4gigs of ram, you obviously have a nice budget. Even so, you can get some great cards at about 200$, such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130084

[Majikku]

Video editing doens't really depend on your graphic card, sure it uses it to process the images and to show the correct colors and all. But you don't need a high end graphic card if its only used for photo editing, you'll want a card that support dual monitors and a price range about $200, i'd say ATI Radeon X1650 would do the job or the ATI Radeon X1950 but the x1950 is a bit more expensive but its worth the investment. Anyways, just make sure to get a lot of ram, a lot of processor speed like a duo core 2 or a quad core ^^, and of course lots of HDD space for your photo's.

Getting a dual monitor is a good choice if your going to edit photo's a lot. Having the extra desktop space will really come in handy when your moving photo's and editing more than 1 photo.

Sincerely Kira