Graphic Card

[extrememc]

My current pc is
HP Pavillion a1400e
Sempron 3200+ (1.8GHz / 1600MT/s); 128KB L2 cache
1 GB PC 3200 Ram
OEM 256
160 SATA
Integrated Graphics (nVidia GeForce 6150 LE)

I am looking to convert this to my editing machine. I am using adobe design premium for editing. On board card for display and a Acer 19" LCD Monitor. I want to upgrade my graphic card with a budget of 150.00 max. What would be a good card to buy?

[Paul Tinworth]

First off you need to identify whether your graphics card is an AGP, PCI, or PCI-E connection (someone correct me if I'm wrong!).

[extrememc]

First off you need to identify whether your graphics card is an AGP, PCI, or PCI-E connection (someone correct me if I'm wrong!).

Well that current is one board and I would prefer recommendation on AGP or PCI-E.

[Aaagogo]

then you'll have to see if you have a slot for a standalone VGA card.

judging from the sempron chip and the pc3200 ram, I would say that it's an AGP slot if there is one.

are you talking about photoshop, still image editing?

you would be better off doubling your ram

photoshop, still image editing does not depend a whole deal on the display card. it's more of a ram intensive software

[aximrocks]

Photoshop is a 2D application. Your graphics card has very little to do with performance in Photoshop. All the work is done by your processor. The onboard nVidia 6150 is good enough. You don't need a new card. But you would benefit from more memory. Just add 1GB DDR RAM.

[Citizensmith]

As others have said, better photoshop means more RAM not more a new video card.

That computer would support up to 4Gb of RAM, and has for slots for adding it. Definitely head over to Newegg and get yourself 1Gb more.

Oh, and it has a PCIx16 slot for video cards. If you really want one something like an 8600GT is good now its under $100.

[Aaagogo]

the computer would support up to 4gb, but the 32-bit XP OS would not, max ram it would recognize is 3.12GB

Doubling your ram would be good,

depending on what setup you have, if you have 1 stick of 1GB, get another 2GB and make it 3GB, don't worry that much about the dual channel thing.

it's like pixel peeping.

[Citizensmith]

You've got 2 512Mb sticks in there, and 2 empty slots. I'd just get another 1Gb. It'll set you back about $55 from the egg (http://www.newegg.com).

Use the rest to get an external hard drive. You can never have too many backups once you start keeping all your photos on computer.

[extrememc]

Thanks for the advice. Why I want a new card is because I have a blue cast on all my photos or even browsing online photos and I want correct that. How can I? Can I create a profile for my monitor to match my HP 8250?

[cyber_m0nkey]

Does your monitor have the capability to adjust RGB and/or colour temperature? IF so then you can get rid of the blue cast by calibrating your monitor.

[Matthew62024]

One thing about getting a graphics card, it would free of that much more RAM. For instance my computer here at work is telling me that I have 504 GB or RAM. I know this isn't a big difference in this case, but some PCs are set up to use 128 or even 256 MB of your RAM for your onboard video card. I would add a video card but it can be something cheap and add RAM as others have suggested.

[Citizensmith]

Correct, the 6150 does use shared RAM, and is borrowing 256Mb of system RAM. However, for improving RAM its much more economical to spend $55 on another gig, than $100 on a video card that frees up 256 but then offers no other benefit outside of gaming.

The 6150 is an OK video card, so there is no point in spending less than $100. Otherwise all you are achieving would be a step sideways.

[Faolan]

Quick point: Photoshop CS 3 has made a lot of changes under the hood.

It's now using the gfx card for some functionality and also it's now recommended to have at least 128Mb Graphics RAM and preferably 256Mb...

You can see this under Edit -> Preferences -> Performance -> GPU.

As to RAM, get as much as your system can handle you can afford. The minimum is 1Gb for a modern dSLR and if you work in 16Bit then you should be at around 2Gb +.

If you use more than 2Gb and XP you need to enable the 32bit switch for Windows as 32Bit OS don't see it natively.

[extrememc]

Ok so I have decide to add 1GB of ram. Looking thru my monitor settings I can adjust my RGB. Would it be best to buy huey to calibrator? I know that calibrating can bring on a world of trouble if you don't understand exactly what is going on. What would actually be nice is to calibrate my monitor to a profile from my local lab then try to get my house print to match.

I have been editing all my work on my laptop and it matches my printer pretty good would out it being calibrated. I just don't want to end up creating more learning curves as I have been on a curve rode for sometime.

[cyber_m0nkey]

The hardware calibrators available all come with pretty straight forward wizards which guide you step by step through the process. Pretty hard to get it wrong. The harder part (that I've found) is to calibrate my printer to my monitor (although to be honest, I haven't really given it much time yet).

[gcogger]

Quick point: Photoshop CS 3 has made a lot of changes under the hood.

It's now using the gfx card for some functionality and also it's now recommended to have at least 128Mb Graphics RAM and preferably 256Mb...

You can see this under Edit -> Preferences -> Performance -> GPU.

At the risk of going off topic...

That's really strange! I can't imagine how Photoshop uses the graphics card functionality, or its RAM, for 2D processing. Does anyone have a link to some info on this? I'd be interested to find out more about what is going on - but I suppose I am a geek :)