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Video Card Selection - Digital Photography

Discussion in 'Audio and Video' started by Carter, Mar 1, 2009.

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  1. Carter Newcomer, in training

    My first post...

    I have only basic computer knowledge and I am not a gamer. However, I do work with digital photography and I am in the process of selecting a new computer system. I am looking at these two video cards:Both are Cross-Fire ready.
    ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB PCI-Express x16
    ATI Radeon HD 4850 1 GB PCI-Express x16

    Opinions please. The rest of the system will be:
    Intel Core i7 Processor 940
    Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 Chipset
    6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1333
    1 TB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]
    Carter, Mar 1, 2009
    #1

  2. raybay TechSpot Addict

    You must realize that if you are using Windows XP, you will not be able to use more than 3.5 GB of that memory... and if using VISTA, you cannot use more than 4 GB. But if you are planning for Windows 7, then you "might" be able to use all 6 GB, though the finals are not yet out.
    Most of the 1 TB hard drives are noticeably shower than a 250 GB drive, which will make a difference in photo editing. I would use the 1 TB for storage, and get a Seagate 250 GB drive for Photoshop CS3 or CS4.
    The video cards will be fine, but for photo processing, you might want to take a look at the video card reviews at www.tomshardware.com or Adobe Photoshop Magazine.
    raybay, Mar 1, 2009
    #2

  3. LinkedKube TechSpot Project Baby

    Why go for the 940, its 5%~ performance for almost twice the money as a 920

    Spent the extra 200ish usd on a new ssd drive or something useful.
    LinkedKube, Mar 1, 2009
    #3

  4. SNGX1275 TechSpot Special Forces

    Are you dealing with editing several hundred meg RAW files? No? Then I would say there is 0 difference between those cards.

    Probably FAR better off buying a faster hard drive and a 64bit OS.

    Also I may be wrong here, but why 3 sticks of RAM? Don't you need an even number for dual channel? Maybe that doesn't apply to ddr3..
    SNGX1275, Mar 1, 2009
    #4

  5. Technochicken TechSpot Paladin

    The corei7 cpus support triple channel ddr3 ram
    Technochicken, Mar 1, 2009
    #5

  6. SNGX1275 TechSpot Special Forces

    Good to know. I thought that may be the case, but didn't feel like looking it up.
    SNGX1275, Mar 1, 2009
    #6
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