I have all the components selected for my new computer but one (1). The Graphic Card. Question 1: Does the Graphic Card affect the quality of the printed output. Question 2: I read in "Photoshop System Requirements" that 256 megs of memory in the card is recommended. Is that important? Question 3: Can anyone recommend a specific card that will perform well w/ Photoshop? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Computer will have; AMD Athlon64 2×4400 Dual Core Processor. 2 Gigs of Ram. All PCI-E. (if that makes any difference?) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At that spec I’d be tempted for some of the matching hi-range spec cards.
For some stuff that is in the Windows pipeline I seem to recall reading somewhere that an ATI X800 is minimum level (GPU rendering as opposed to CPU based)
Robert; Danged if I know where I got that 256megs idea! Here’s where I thought I got it… System requirements Windows
* Intel® Xeon, Xeon Dual, Intel Centrino, or Pentium® III or 4 processor * Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2 * 320MB of RAM (384MB recommended) * 650MB of available hard-disk space * 1,024×768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card * CD-ROM drive * Internet or phone connection required for product activation (NOT THERE!) Oops, my bad! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ deebs; CS (for now). Thanks, I’ll check-out that card. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here’s more specs on the system if anyone cares to critique?
Case: Cooler Master Praetorian Aluminum Mid-Tower Case w/No PS (4 Fans) Power Supply: PS 550W – Enermax Motherboard: BFG BFGRNF4U NForce4 Ultra Audio/GB-LAN/USB/PCI-E/SATA/DDR/ATX 64 939 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 1MB Per Core 90nm (939) Heat Sink Fan: Thermaltake A1770 AMD Opteron/64 Heatsink Memory: DDR (400) 3200 – 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) Corsair Hard Drive: Maxtor (6B250S0) DiamondMax Plus 10 250GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2nd Hard Drive: Maxtor (6B250S0) DiamondMax Plus 10 250GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB Cache CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW: DVD-RW – Asus DRW-1608PBLK 6x-DVD+R DL 16x8x16-DVD±RW Drive (Black) 2nd CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW: Asus DRW-1608PBLK 6x-DVD+R DL 16x8x16-DVD±RW Drive (Black) Modem: QuickConnect 56K V.92 PCI Modem Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/Service Pack 2 Video Card:???
Firebird
EDIT: I see my tags from notepad don’t work here. oh well..anyway.
Yeh, I thought the tags changed when I pasted them from notepad, but I just opened Notepad and they are bracketed there. Just another "goof of the day"! 😮
I just noticed a component that I’ll eliminate. The sound card. The Mobo has sound on board so I would just be overriding it. (I’ll never use the sound anyway.)
What’s PCI-X deebs? If they don’t mention it they don’t got it…right.? (heheh)
I’m about ready to order now. It’s hard to be patient but it’s been fun learning and a lot of credit to you all.
Have a look at ATI, nVidia and what’s that other one? Matrox?
Have a look at their spec n stuff.
<drool>
With the kit you have specced up I guess it could possibly run a couple of graphics cards?
Be aware that that there are indicators that Windows will soon send rendering options direct to the graphics processor (GPU) as opposed to the CPU or CPUs
In the wee hours of morning I did a switch on my Mobo & Gfx crd. (Hey, I can’t help it!)
ATI (Connect3D) Radeon X700 PRO 256MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/DVI (Retail Box)
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Audio/GB-LAN/USB/PCI-E/SATAII/DDR/ATX 64 939
I hope that’s it! I really need a faster computer so I want to get this order in…soon. I use a LOT of plugin filters and some crawl on my present system.
Firebird, not to throw a wrench into the works, but here’s a recent experience of mine:
I have the Asus A8V Deluxe (not the "E" model). It’s my second Asus mobo and, overall, I’ve been very happy with them. I’ve used Matrox G450 and G550 graphics cards in both of them, and up until a couple of weeks ago, never had a problem of any kind.
For reasons unknown to me, the box with the A8V Deluxe suddenly started randomly booting up without recognizing the Matrox G550 drivers (it would just boot to the standard Windows VGA drivers). I went to the Matrox Support Forums, and the tech there told me that there was an "issue" with the A8V mobo and the Matrox drivers. He emailed me a patch, which didn’t help the problem. I don’t know if the fault was with Matrox or Asus (Asus had no comment on the situation), but after struggling with it for many days, I picked up a Matrox P650 on ebay. Problem solved. I will say that the tech at Matrox was very prompt and tried to be helpful; kudos to him for that. That, and the fact that I’ve never had a problem with Matrox before, is why I chose to stick with Matrox. (The P650 is working beautifully.)
I only bring this up to alert you to a problem that may lie with Asus and the G550 graphics card. If the fault does lie with Asus, I don’t know if, or how many, other cards may be involved.
That’s coming w/ Vista I see. My computer "guru" told me I should never buy the first offering of anything, but to wait for the bugs to be worked-out of it.
But in this day & age by the time the bugs are worked-out (some anyway) another offering is on the table.
PCI-X is a wide PCI bus (66, 133 and higher) on server motherboards, typically used to support SCSI arrays. Electrically and physically compatible with standard PCI (33).
PCIe is the new bus architecture for graphics cards and, eventually, everything that runs on the old PCI bus now. Not backward compatible. Supported speeds are 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X and 16X (32X is on the drawing board). Most motherboards now have only 20 PCIe lanes, so after the graphics card gobbles up 16 of them, you get a couple of 1x slots and maybe a 4X that runs at 2X.
I just found this program (I was curious about what was in this computer I use for Internet) and this tells me everything. You probably have something like it but here it is anyway.
No install required (ZIP) and no virus or spyware. Tip: Don’t click the icons in the display window. (just images) Use the menu on left side. Nice looking interface too.
Actually I live in Ahwatukee, AZ. A suburb of Phoenix. Phoenix = Firebird. I sign my works ‘Az’. We have a Company (my wife and me) ‘Firebird Graphics’. Ahwatukee is Casa de Suenos in Spanish (House of My Dreams). Crow Indian has it ‘Magic Place of My Dreams’. If you want to see a picture of The Ahwatukee Ranch that stood where the City of Ahwatukee now stands, go here:
