What type of Video card should I get?

[ircswh]

Im in the market for a dual display video card. Dual VGA. What card should i get, to work with Protools? Im looking for something reasonably priced. But besides having the dual display option , Im not sure what else to look for in a card.

I'll probably use this system to edit video in the future, but now I currently use it just for protool M-powered

I have PCI Express slot and PCI slot . My mother board is Intel DG965wh. Its got the Intel G965 Chipset

[sunburst79]

What type of card would depend on what type of slot you have available PCI, PCI Express or VGA. once thats sorted out than you might want to pick a brand ATI, Nvidea, Matrox Etc. If you had a Nvidea chipset or want to run SLI down the road that you might want a Nvidea card, the same holds true if you had a board that supported ATI Crossfire you might what to stick with that brand.


The next question is how large and how many displays are you going to run and at what resolution. What size might you upgrade to in the future? From what I understand if your running more than 2 displays over 1024 x 1280 that its a good idea to have 128MB of memory or more on the card. The max supported displays sizes should be listed at the manufactureers web sites.

Protools Video requirements are quite modest-there are many poeple running Pt on 64MB PCI video cards. If your planning to do some video work in the future look for a card that does video capture. From what I understand a lot of Pro's and Semi Pros use the Matrox. Also if I remember correctly you can not run the DV toolkit 2 in Mpowered... thats something you would want to check into.

Oh unless you really like noise pick a fanless video card!

Any 128-256 MB card from ATI, Nvidea or Matrox should work.

[ircswh]

I have PCI Express slot and PCI slot . My mother board is Intel DG965wh. Its got the Intel G965 Chipset

[mcgirr]

You do NOT want to run a pci card if one exists.
Your only option is a pci-express.

The real question is what is your budget??? The answer is buy the best card you can afford.

I sure almost all name brand, modern cards will run dual monitors. That technology is becoming ancient.(all newer cards will run it.)

Most cards now are coming w/ dual digital outs. They have a plug that will convert to an analog display but... It is best to buy a card that is compatable w/ your monitor.(and vice versa.)

I choose ati all in wonder cards because this was the best way to pipe cable tv into my studio.
Your situation might be different.

Try newegg.com for the best buy on a new card. They have infinite options and price ranges.

Get at least 256mb of gddr 3 ram. The newer ones will have 512 mb or more.(The shelf life for video cards is short and technology is evolving FAST.)

It is probably best to get a more recent card then an older one.

Best wishes and good luck.

[dillon99999]

try to get one without a FAN = NOISELESS.

ATI X300 works good for me.