nVidia GeForce FX 5200 XT – ok for PS, illustrator etc?

PT
Posted By
Paul_Tatterson
Apr 23, 2004
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551
Replies
12
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Closed
Hi everyone,

This graphics card is part of a pc system that I’m considering purchasing very soon. The rest of the system is great (Athlon 64, gig of ram, very nice monitor etc), but I’m not sure about this 128Mb card. From what I’ve read it’s a poor performer for gaming, but I won’t be playing games at all.

Will I be disadvantaged by this card while using photoshop cs and illustrator cs etc? The PC will also be my only DVD player (don’t own a TV), so it would be nice to watch movies etc. See any problems here?

Thanks in advance,
Paul

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PT
Paul_Tatterson
Apr 23, 2004
I should have added that I’ve got limited funds for this machine. I’m trying not to compromise on the major things, but I’m not sure how significant the video card is to the performance of this kind of software.
Cheers
Paul
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Apr 23, 2004
Paul,

While I’m not familiar with that specific card, I can tell you that my old Nvidia UltraTNT2 graphics card works fine with Photoshop CS, running my Iiyama monitor at 1280×1024, 32-bit color, and an 85Hz refresh rate. As I recall, that card has only 32MB RAM, but possibly it is 64MB. Using that for comparison to the 5200, the latter is a much newer card with higher performance, and the 128MB RAM should more than adequately satisfy PS requirements even with a larger screen setting than I’m running. So, no, I don’t think the card will negatively impact PS at all. At worst, while performance shouldn’t be an issue, the only remaining question might be one of how crisply it renders text and graphics. I’m guessing you should be OK there too. Again, I’ve never done a personal comparison side-by-side, but good things are usually said about Matrox cards where PS is concerned. I believe Matrox has a reputation for providing very good 2D image and text quality, while also being quite affordable (G400 & 500 series of cards).

As for DVD, again I think you’ll be in good shape. Just make sure you have a good software solution for DVD playback. I recommend Cyberlink Power DVD….it gave me good playback on my Gateway laptop when other software failed to do so.

Hope that helps,

Daryl
MM
Mick_Murphy
Apr 23, 2004
The 5200 is more than adequate for PS and you should not have any problems watching movies on it. Easy dual monitors as well. I put one in a machine for my 6 year old kid to replace an old Matrox 450 and it was way better for gaming. It’s probably poor in comparison to the high-end gaming cards but I’d go for it if I were you.
D
DrJohnD
Apr 24, 2004
I also think that the 5200 should work fine for PS.

BUT, I would REALLY reccomend that you have a system built for you based on what you intend to use it for. You’re wasting money on stuff you don’t need (like a 3D video card processor)

I had both a work station and a game system (two seperate systems) designed for me by the guys at www.CustomPerfection.com

I’d hit them up and tell them what your budget is, and what you want the machine to do and have a quality machine built for you.

I got my workstation built by them on a very small budget, but my game machine rocks and cost me close to two grand, but I’m flying at 3.6 Ghz!!!! YEAAAHHH!!!!!!
SS
Steve_Solomon
Apr 24, 2004
Hi, Paul. I am in almost the same boat…recently got a Dell OptiPlex with a gig of RAM and a nice 19" Flat panel. It came with an nVidia 64 MB video card, but I’m finding that when I do a brush action in Photoshop CS on a large tif file, I must wait about 4 or 5 seconds before the action paints on the screen. (Not too bad with small jpg files, though.) I am debating on getting a digital 128 MB Radeon card, which I’m hoping will speed up actions like this in Photoshop. (I’m not a gamer either, but do watch DVDs on occassion, which run fine with the existing 64 MB card.) My only other concern is heat buildup, and the fact that my system has a 250 watt power supply, and the ATI site recommends a 300 watt supply with this card. (However, the guys at Dell insist that they sell many systems with the 250 watt supply and the 128 MB Radeon card with no problems.) Thoughts?
Good luck to you,
Steve
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Apr 25, 2004
Steve,

I may be wrong on this, but I don’t think it likely that going from a 64MB to 128MB video card will affect the speed at which brush actions are performed in PS CS. I’m on an old Dual 550MHz P3 system with an NVidia Ultra TNT2 graphics card which has only 32MB video memory. Opening a 78MB (4320×6110 px) PSD file, viewing it at low zoom so as to see the full image, selecting a brush size of 180px, and enabling a mix of brush dynamics to make things more "intensive", I found that for shorter, slower strokes, the display of the brush effect was pretty quick….not instantaneous, but the lag was minimal. However, for a large, fast stroke, there was indeed a lag. In fact, clicking at the top left and then shift-clicking at the bottom right, to draw a straight 7490 px diagonal brush stroke, I did measure a time of about 4 seconds to perform that stroke. Given that time is similar to what you cited for a system with surely a faster processor and an obviously faster video card with more memory, I’m inclined to believe the delay isn’t due to the video card but rather just Photoshop processing delays.

Regards,

Daryl
PT
Paul_Tatterson
Apr 26, 2004
Thanks all for the advice. As it happens, over the weekend I’ve placed an order for a slightly differently configured PC from the same company (Mesh – in the UK) , which comes with an ATI Radeon 9600XT card as standard, which is apparently considerably better than the 5200. So according to your wise words it seems than I’ll be fine with this for PS. This will be my only PC and I doubt I’ll be doing any upgrades for quite some time, so I’m happy paying for a decent card now that will cope with 3D apps/games if I choose to (I have been known to in the past!).
As far as the rest of the the PC goes, I have customised it quite a lot, so I’m getting the best I can afford in the areas that are important to me:
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930SB 19" crt (.24 dot pitch) Athlon 64
1gig RAM
160 gig SATA HD
Audigy 2 ZS sound with decent 2.1 speakers
Sony DVD and CD burners

I’ve only been in the UK for a couple of months (from NZ), but from what I’ve found out Mesh are very reputable. If anyone has bought from them before, feel free to reassure me that I’m buying from a good source! (no money paid yet…)

Cheers!
Paul
MM
Mick_Murphy
Apr 26, 2004
I’ve not bought from Mesh but I’ve not heard anything bad about them. They usually come towards the top of the reviews in the PC mags. I considered buying from them when I got my last computer but went to a local dealer instead and had it built to order. Another good company is Evesham. They use high quality parts and have decent customer service. I would never buy anything from Time. I did years back and would never do so again.

In relation to the graphics card, that ATI will obviously be better than the NVIDIA 5200 series for games. However, see other recent posts in this forum about ATI and Adobe Gamma. The equivalent NVIDIA would be the 5600 or 5700 (not sure, don’t follow this closely) which has no problems with Adobe Gamma. I got that ATI and it burnt out after a day (not sure why, maybe something to do with the first power supply I had which I also changed) so I swapped it for the NVIDIA 5600 and have had no problems.
PT
Paul_Tatterson
Apr 27, 2004
Thanks Mick – I had no idea about the ATI issue. I’ve contacted Mesh and they will swap the card for the NVIDIA 5900. By all accounts it’s total overkill for photoshop, but hey, it can’t hurt! (can it?) I haven’t been into gaming for the last, well, 5 years, because I haven’t had a suitable PC at home. But I’m becoming increasingly suspicious that with this new system I’ll be tempted, on occasion, to blow stuff up.

With regards to Evesham, I was tossing up between them and Mesh. Mesh gave me a better price for what I want, and with a better warranty.

What are the potential power supply issues? I’m getting 360W.

This forum is proving very helpful – only discovered it a week ago. I don’t actually own my own copy of PS yet, but the full Creative Suite will be on it’s way some time soon. Thank God (and Adobe) for education pricing.
MM
Mick_Murphy
Apr 29, 2004
Paul

Didn’t reply on that because I’ve been away for a few days. The 5900 is probably total overkill. You’ll need some heavy duty 3D games to do justice to it I guess. I don’t know much (anything?) about power supply issues but I did read somewhere very recently, and I can’t remember where, that too little power can damage some of these higher-end graphics cards. I have no idea if this is true or not. I ‘m sure that Mesh knows its business so they would not sell a machine that is not fit for purpose. Unless they have a deal with the magazines, they do seem to be one of the top companies in the UK.
D
DrJohnD
Apr 29, 2004
The power supply is a very important issue to consider when designing a computer!

At least, that is what the guys at <http://www.customperfect.com> told me. The explained how most hardware blue screens (windows crashes or freezing up) can be attributed to the flow of power.

Granted, most crashes are caused by software problems (thanks M$) but the power supply has to have enough power to run everything connected inside and sometimes even outside (keyboards, wireless mice, etc). Not only that, it has to deliver perfectly smooth and even flow of power or with todays high end CPU’s you will crash all the time.

The more hard drives and or CD ROM drives you put in the more you stress the powersupply. The faster your CPU and the more memory you have also add stress to it, and as Mick Murphy said, a high end 3D card can put an awful drain on a powersupply. They usually run so hot themself that they require a heatsink with a fan (more juice) right on the video card chipset itself.

When I had my first computer built by the customperfect.com they told me to stick to a name brand powersupply (generics are no where near as stable, you get what you pay for) and that since prices are so good there really is no point in going under 500 watt.

BTW- if you have an AMD system (or P4’s now) you need to make sure the powersupply is certified to work with that CPU. Just because some computer maker put’s it in your case and it works at first (the first 3-6 months usually) doesn’t mean it’s a certified powersupply or even UL listed.
C
carolrh
May 5, 2004
Paul,
I found this thread while researching the same topic – what video card to buy for a new system which I primarily use for Photoshop CS but also use for viewing DVDs. If it’s not too late, I would recommend you have a second hard drive installed in your new system, to use as the PS scratch disk. While the default scratch disk is the hard drive which your OS is installed on, you will get improved performance if you wet the scratch disk to a different physical drive.

Good luck,
Carol

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