PC upgrades... Video Card Advice

[MMarz]

It's time to update some PC Hardware.

Looking to increase the size of the primary and backup drives, but of more value, I want to replace my generic Intel Q35 Express video card with something that will better suit LR. The machine is pretty much used exclusively for editing though I do run some tutorial videos in iTunes occasionally.

I have my catalog, previews and the LR app on the primary drive, and all images on secondary internal drive with backups going to various external drives.

We've had discussion here about video cards and I am hoping for some suggestions as to what to buy. I don't use dual monitors now, but would like to. My system specs are in my profile (HP Compac dc78''p, Vista Business, INtel Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.83GHz, 4GB RAM, 32 bit). What additional information would be useful and what card would be suggested to maximize LR performance?

 

[MMarz]

bump for the monday crowd... any suggestions?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

At this point in time LR doesn't make use of the graphics card power, although CS4 does, so probably worth looking for PS recommendations on that one.

 

[MMarz]

[quote author=Victoria Bampton link=topic=7956.msg5435'#msg5435' date=1254134684]
At this point in time LR doesn't make use of the graphics card power, although CS4 does, so probably worth looking for PS recommendations on that one.
[/quote]

I'm confused (not unusual)...

Wasn't there a series of posts a while back pertaining to the best settings for NVid graphics cards?

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/index.php?topic=2137.'

 

[RikkFlohr]

Lightroom doesn't require incredible amounts of video power. That doesn't mean that certain video settings don't affect performance. Those posts were about specific settings that caused LR to operate more slowly.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Specific settings on old (legacy) nVidia card/driver combos.

I'll second Rikk's advice. Any modern video card, or onboard mother board video, will likely suffice for Lr. Who knows if Lr 3+ will take advantage of [acronym= Graphics Processing Unit]GPU[/acronym] capability. I'd guess it's not hugely likely, given the user base clamoring for other features. However, if it should happen, I'd also guess it would be along the lines of the PS integration.

So, again as Rikk recommends, don't shop for Lr video, shop for PS video.

 

[Evan]

Depending on how much available RAM you have, it might be worthwhile to consider a low-end dedicated card. Most onboard cards reserve some of your RAM for their memory while a dedicated card will usually have it's memory on-board freeing up your system RAM for lightroom and other apps.

Generally speaking though, I agree with everyone else. There are probably better ways to spend your money if you are only your machine for lightroom.

 

[James_N]

Take a look at this list published by Adobe: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/4'5/kb4'5711.html

I don't know where you live but I built the computer shown in my specs for less than $5''. I picked up an nVidia 88'' GT Alpha Dog Edition graphics card with 512 MB memory on Craigslist for $7'. It used to be a top of the line gaming card and its more than enough for Lightroom and Photoshop work.