What videocard to get? 1

[steve2540]

I am assembling my own desktop. Researched everything and mostly get it, except when it comes to the videocard. Let me first explain what I want out of this computer. The computer will be used for business and multimedia purposes. Basically, we use a lot of quark, illustrator and photoshop. Besides that we use MS office and Internet Explorer. We will also stream a lot of music and music video's through it. We never play games on our computers and are not planning on changing that. What I do need is the capability to have two monitors attached. Another aspect is that I am willing to pay if it makes my computers more stable and the computer should last for a few years.

Now back to the video card. There are different issues involved and I would love if someone could explain to me what they are good for and which one I should get.

a. How much memory do I need? Why get 64MB instead of 128MB. I know why people get more memory, I am just looking to see if a regular business user is fine with 64MB or would be better of with 128MB.
b. What about AGP 4X versus 8X. Does that make a difference?
c. What about Data Width. Should I get 64 bit, 128 bit or 256 bit? Why get more bits?

I was thinking about getting the ATI 8500 Radeon multimonitor card. Is this a good option? Or is there another card that you recommend?

Lastly, my wife wants to be able to watch television on the computer. Should I get a card with built in TV tuner or should I get that seperate. Recommendations?

Thanks you all for you help,

Steve

 

[dakota81]

What I would do is get a Matrox G450 or G550 off of eBay, these cards are still unmatched in 2D performance & quality.

All the current cards, like the GeForces & Radeons, are built for 3D accelleration with applications that use OpenGL or Direct3D programming; stuff that is not used in 2D apps like Quark & Illustrator. And actually the 2D speed & quality has gone down over the years becuase for the vast majority of users, this is okay in their cards, as long as it can boast the top numbers in 3D performance benchmarks.

For the memory; given that you are not going to be running 3D apps and instead have the 2D display up all the time, the amount of memory needed is simple math; say 1600x1200 resolution at 32bit color is 7.4meg. Double that for each monitor and you will see that all you really need is a 16meg card. The Matrox G450 comes in 16 & 32meg versions, the G550 I think the lowest it comes is a 32meg version. The rest of the video memory on the card will go unused.

For a tv tuner, I think you'll need to get a separate card because I think ATI's All-In-Wonder's cannot do dual monitor. Regardless, I think ATI's tv tuner quality is quite poor and you would be best to get a Hauppauge WinTV card or alternative, I know they are stocked at Circuit City if you want to check them out.