Need Video Card Advice, Please

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited January 2007 in Hardware
I really don't keep up with video card options/technology as well as I do in other hardware areas, so your advice would be appreciated.

What do you think about this ATI brand X1650 PRO card?

Intended usage:
  • digital photography (1 - 3+MB each) editing, sorting -- thousands of images
  • Folding@Home - GPU
  • movie viewing - infrequent
  • 3D gaming - probably none

So, what's most important is color fidelity, quick 2D accurate rendering, color and light shading, and ability to execute the GPU Folding@Home client.

What attracted me to this card was that it will support the GPU Folding@Home client and it's quantity of GDDR2 - 512MB. Seems to be a good price. I'm thinking that quantity of RAM is more important for my needs that RAM speed and video throughput? Right? Wrong? The limitations I have with my current card, nVidia Quadro FX-1400 is that it can balk or crash my viewing programs when I scan rapidly through many large resolution photos. It just can't keep up with my inputs. Other than that, the 2D imaging and color management/rendering is superb.

What do you think of the price? (If comparing to Newegg or other online shop, keep in mind that shipping will add about $20 to the price.)

Also, the 1950 I linked is DX 9.0 (obviously). 9.0 is not compatible with Windows Vista Aero, is it? Not planning on moving to Vista right away, but then, many of us stated we wouldn't move to WinXP from 98...but we all did.

EDIT: I may have answered the last question. Windows Vista incorporates DirectX 9.0L, which allows DX9 cards to run GUI Aero Glass. Do I understand this correctly?

Comments

  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Windows Vista Aero will run on DX9 cards, maybe not full functionality or full glory, but it looks great to me on a DX9 setup.

    As for the card, if you’re looking to run folding on the card and the CPU, than your hopes for extra points are shot, the GPU will end up running very slow as will the CPU as it needs to be feed the data through the evil CPU. And with the CPU feeding the GPU both will be slowed down 

    I work in a 3D and 2D space daily Leo and can say both ATI and Nvidia cards offer huge advantages in today’s cards.

    The biggest issue with the card I see is it still has a Memory Interface: 128-bit, while most newer cards that won’t break the bank have 256-bit, which comes in handy with Image files... "Trust Me" But you have to also note system memory comes into play also and not just the memory on the GPU when it comes to opening images. I am use to opening a handful of 30-120MB files and my system memory hates me for it… causing the PC to run slow and glitchy…

    In all honesty the X1650 is not much better than your current Quadro FX-1400. Your card may only have 128MB of memory but the floating point is 256 bit which is a awesome thing to have on a graphics card.

    In all if your going to buy a new card and want to make it last, pick something up like the Nvidia 7950GT or a ATI X1950.. Both have the 512MB or memory the faster GDDR3 and 256 floating point memory interfaces. For about $90 more than the X1650 Pro, if you can't spend that much I would hold off on any purchase, as lower end Dx10 cards that will be more powerful than the cards above are on there way out. And will be in the sub $150’s to $300’s…
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Very instructive, Sledge! Thanks. You answered questions I didn't even know to ask. Maybe I just need to tune the page files on my hard drives. The system has 2GB DDR2 5400 (PC2 667).
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Page filing is also huge! with images programs.. I have 3GB of system memory, and have a 1.5GB Page File, and it is still slow :(

    Did I mention the tower has Dual Nvidia 5500 Quadro FX Cards with 2GB of GPU Memory :) and yes it is still slow :(
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Oh wow! And I thought it was just my system needing a more powerful vid card. What I had done previously that speeded things up considerably was changing the OS partition's page file to 2-50 MB only (custom). The D: (programs partition) on the same drive is set to Windows XP managed and likewise for the second hard drive, which contains many GBs of data but nothing else. (All of the partitions are have a lot of free capacity.) The pagefile tweaks made an immediate improvement for all virtual memory intensive applications. I also used the 'rule of thumb' method by making the page files on both D:\ and data drives twice the size of physical memory. It seems that Windows managed pagefiles works better.

    But anyway, looks like I'll wait a few more months before I upgrade the video card(s). Guess it really wouldn't make much difference at this point. Might as well wait for DX10 before I reconsider upgrades.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    Page filing is also huge! with images programs.. I have 3GB of system memory, and have a 1.5GB Page File, and it is still slow :(

    Did I mention the tower has Dual Nvidia 5500 Quadro FX Cards with 2GB of GPU Memory :) and yes it is still slow :(
    Wow!!:eek2:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Did I mention the tower has Dual Nvidia 5500 Quadro FX Cards with 2GB of GPU Memory and yes it is still slow
    OK, I just noticed that. Holy cow. And it's still slow? I tell you, there's no hope!
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    wel that statement was to prove to you that the GPU's have nothing to do with opening a ton of files. Sure the cards are used a bit, but the actual images are loaded into Physical system memory and not the Graphics memory.

    I have these cards for 3Ds Max which allow me to work in files with 5 million+ polys with no lag. They als allow me to work in Multi instances of the program with huge files.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Thanks. I continue to learn. So, if opening large image files is a task of system memory, what's the primary purpose of the video card's onboard RAM, to buffer the flow of frames from movies and games?
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    The GPU by all means isn't doing nothing... but again it is not using the full memory on the card to show your images. The memory is caching 3 to 5 frames ahead for what you’re going to see, along with keeping all those boxes and things looking pretty on your screen. When gaming you can see how the card will use more memory as it has more objects to render and is using all the tech built into the card, such as Pixel Shaders and AA & AF Filters, so when it pre renders frames there is a bunch more data to think about.

    The memory also comes into play with programs like 3ds Max, where it stores the geometric data of the objects in the view port, along with keeping them looking crisp and clean, so you’re not looking at a bunch of horrible jargon.

    Also your GPU is heavily dependant on what the CPU can send it… so if your CPU is sending data to your HD and memory and is thinking of these massive images, it is also talking with the GPU telling it what to do, and how to do it. It than intern takes that data pushes it out so you can see it. Honestly the entire architecture on how it works is mind boggling to say the least. But reading about it always amazes me… on how the CPU has to assemble the pixels and tell the GPU where to put them...

    I could start to use crazy terms but I don’t feel like writing a 50 page report on what a GPU is really doing and why it is important  but it could be a great article to think about for the future.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    I could start to use crazy terms
    Your explanation was perfectly understandable without being condescending. Great! I love threads like this where the 'ohhh!' factor comes into play. It's like the first few tech articles I started understanding when I was preparing to assemble my first homebuilt machine several years ago.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Glad I can be of some sort of service :) I am not the Graphics Guru for no reason :)

    I love good graphics, so I have always been intrigued on how it all works. How a man was able to make little metal things move electric currents to think about something and than make an image with it... there is just something very cool about that.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    Glad I can be of some sort of service :) I am not the Graphics Guru for no reason :)

    I love good graphics, so I have always been intrigued on how it all works. How a man was able to make little metal things move electric currents to think about something and than make an image with it... there is just something very cool about that.
    You're the go to guy re: graphics in my book from now on! I'm w/ Leonardo. Your explanation was clear and written well for the uninitiated. I found it intriguing myself and would gladly read an article you presented on the subject. :thumbsup:
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    I don’t feel like writing a 50 page report on what a GPU is really doing and why it is important  but it could be a great article to think about for the future.

    This was a great read. Hopefully that article will be out sooner than later :thumbsup:
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