Post Production: Best Video Card for XP and CS3

What is the best video card to use in conjunction with Windows XP and CS3? Currently running an Nvidia 5900xt, and tempted to upgrade the card.

Let me know.

For photo, just about any card will work. Even onboard video thies days are fine. Photo editing is not a high FPS type of action so the extra memory and high speed video processors are wasted. And that is all the extra price is for on top of the line cards. There is no shading polygons and animating multiple textures. Only thing you need in Photo editing is the colors. ANd any video outout will accomidate. Sorry to dissapoint you. But most likely what you have is more than enough.

Mark1 wrote in post #6073062
For photo, just about any card will work. Even onboard video thies days are fine. Photo editing is not a high FPS trype of action so the extra memory and high speed video processors are wasted. And that is all the extra price is for on top of the line cards. There is no shading polygons and animating multiple textures. Only thing you need in Photo editing is the colors. ANd any video outout will accomidate. Sorry to dissapoint you. But most likely what you have is more than enough.

Yep, buy a good monitor. So what you see in photoshop is whats actually being printed.

Its true. The monitor is probably more important than the video card for photo editing.

Makes little difference for XP, but integrated graphics will slow your system. I like nVidia based cards, get whatever's cheapest that has the outputs you need.

Get a decent monitor and a hardware calibration device.

Unless you are doing vector type stuff, or plsying some of the latest games, then get the cheapest card you can find. I would get 512mb on board memory so that the card does not "steal" some of your main memory.

Various Nvidia 8500 cards with 512mb can be bought for around $40.

ATI have traditionally had much better 2d quality. nVidia are very close now but for photo editing I'd go with an ATI every time.

I used to support a lot of high end workstations and the publishing houses and magazines (2d work) would usually have ATI and the cad guys (3d work) would mostly go with nVidia or Wildcats.

I agree with most that a new monitor would be better than a graphics card, but with the price of an ATI 4850 being so cheap i'd get one of those also.