Need Help on Recomendation

JB
Posted By
Jayme Berry
Aug 7, 2003
Views
555
Replies
13
Status
Closed
I am a graphics/website developer. Does anyone have a recommendation on what the best graphics card is. I am getting a new computer and want to load it up. I run photoshop and illustrator constantly and find that I am short on video performance and ram. Any help on what to look for out of a new computer would be helpful. I really want to load it up but I want to make sure that I am loading it up with good quality product. Thanks.

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BL
Bill Lamp
Aug 7, 2003
Jayme,

I’m not an expert, but from reading comments here, the Matrox line seems to be highly rated. I bought my G-400 a few years ago based on what was being posted. I’m happy with it.

If you do a series of searches here for things like "video card", "RAM recommendations", etc, you should find all the information you need.
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Aug 7, 2003
If you aenrt a games player, and dont do any 3-D you will only need a 2-d card.
V
viol8ion
Aug 7, 2003
I use the Radeon 9700 with a Viewsonic G810 monitor. No video problems whatsoever, and I have acceloration on high. Seems Radeon has fixed the driver problems they had earlier this year.
KV
Klaas Visser
Aug 8, 2003
I use a Matrox Parhelia, which, if your primary focus is 2D work with Photoshop and Illustrator, and you only occasionally do 3D work, or play games, is a good compromise – the 2D performance is outstanding, and the 3D performance is average.

I’ll also mention that it has excellent dual monitor support, and has DVI connections if you decide on a DVI monitor.

cheers
Klaas
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
Aug 8, 2003
sata, just went over to this myself, super zippy. With small cables to help air flow.
D
DOMTEK
Aug 8, 2003
sata not yet all its cracked up to be. Most of the sata drives are just eide drives with a serial interface, and the average seek times are only slightly better than the ata 133-7200 RPM, even at 10,000 RPM. Also check the warrenty; a one year warrenty doesn’t inspire much confidence in me. Get one with the 5yr warrenty.

As for the pata drives, I find it hard now even finding an ata100 drive. Get ata133 if youre gonna go eide. The price is the same or less and they’re real cheap.

In the next year to 1 1/2 years the sata drives will really come into their own, stop using the ultra/ata 133 interface and then you will see the really significant performance increases.
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
sata not yet all its cracked up to be.

yes they are. loving my Seagate Barracuda 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM. $160. at googlegear. (free 2nd day shipping!). might get another and set up raid.
D
DOMTEK
Aug 8, 2003
It’s just an ultra/ ata133 with an eide interface. I haven’t seen benchmarks on it yet but I know that only the intel 875p chipset uses a native sata controller. I hope it has a longer warrenty than 1 yr.

I’m not saying they aren’t faster, I’m just saying they haven’t come into their own yet and I’ll stick until they do.I am interested in any new benchmarks and reviews if you have any though. Here is one of the many I’ve checked out.

< http://compreviews.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SataHDComp.ht m>
RH
r_harvey
Aug 8, 2003
You go, Dave!
DM
dave milbut
Aug 8, 2003
you go intel! 🙂

I’m VERY happy with the performance of that board so far!
D
DOMTEK
Aug 9, 2003
OK, I stand corrected…

< http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/articles.hwz?cid=10&amp ;aid=817>

Hadn’t seen reviews for this drive yet. Nice MB too.

I’ll still wait till the higher bandwith SATA drives come out though, since it means a new MB, new ddr and new hard drive for me. Damn it’s hard to keep up with everything these days; expensive too.
DM
dave milbut
Aug 9, 2003
buck a gig. why wait?!! 🙂
D
DOMTEK
Aug 9, 2003
Still using pc133 sdram (3 sticks of 512), have 2 80GB hard drives and a 120GB hard drive that are ata/133.
When I do my next upgrade it will be to a new MB that supports DDR memory and SATA Hard drives. I want to get dual parity ddr and all that adds up to more or less a new system. I’m excited about building it but it just isn’t in the budget at this time.

Always building…

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