What is the best PCI-E graphics card for Video Editing?

Question

What is the best PCI-E graphics card for Video Editing? I have plenty of RAM and space but when editing on pinnacle 10 my screen often freezes, i think this is due to my onboard graphics card.

Answer 1

onboard graphics are not powerful enough for any kind of video editing,this is were you need a good graphic card with plenty of good specs
many users think that buying a graphic card si mostly done for gaming but there are actually many cards made specificly for video editing
the nvidia quadro is a powerful graphics card made in pci-express interface and is specificly designed for video editing and c.a.d,its the card of choice for many producers and editors in the media industry
the nvidia quadro-plex(http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/quadroplex.html) is a very powerful unit that is used to produce graphics and editing capabilities unseen in home computers before
it consists of a unit that houses 4 x pci-express nvidia quadro fx4500 basically running in 2 x s.l.i mode,this basically means it will run anyhting you throw at it,with no lagging,however graphics like this are very expensive but qaudro cards are avalible for less than £100
another relatively unknown manufacturer called matrox make excellent cards ,and are particually good for video editing and multimedia work,they speciallize in dual display out put cards and this can be helpful when video-editing,however most modern cards support dual displays,you just need a second monitor
in my opinion for price,features and reliablity the 512Mb ASUS Radeon X1600Pro PCI-E is a excellent budget priced card with powerful specs,including 12 pixel pipelines,core clock speed of 500mhz and a memory speed of 540mhz
although the memory speed is a tad on the little side the core clock makes up for this and you have to remember although the memory speed is slower than you would like,the memory size is 512mb gddr2,
i am gald to hear you have plenty of ram,although you didnt state how much you had,but for video editing 1gb is the minimum you should be using with around 1.5gb recommended
although the graphics and ram are important factors in producing pallatable video editing the processor is probally the most important component,and with the introduction of dual core technology anyone doing video editing should be upgrading to intel core duo,s or the amd equivelent,as the 2 x cores make light work of video editing and similar projects
the freezing of your screen will not be down to your graphics solution,its more than likely be due to either the display driver(most up to date needed) and the direct x runtime files(get up to date files from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en),but the onboard graphics even with these drivers installed would still struggle with basic video editing tasks
also when buying a graphic card try to avoid heatsink only cards as a fan is a advantage with the type of work you will be undergoing,especially in the summer when the days get hot your p.c will need as much cool air to keep the case temp low,as if you card gets too hot system crashes will be inevetable
i hope this helps and good luck mate

Answer 2

I used to have this problem with pinnacle also (but that was back in version 8). Also, if you are using onboard video, then I'm impressed with your patience, as that is no small feat (even with a video card). Of course, it all comes down to what you are willing to spend. I'm an invidia guy, so if you want the absolute best, go with the geforce 8800 gtx (768mb) but of course that one is VERY pricey. If you are looking for an older card/cheaper card, go with something with 128mb or higher video memory, that should be sufficient for pinnacle.

Answer 3

I was using Pinnacle 10 on a Nvidia 7600GT and it still dragged, I recently upgraded to a Nvidia 8860GTS 320Mb and it has made the world of difference.

There does not seem to be a bottleneck. The one thing you do not mention is your processor, what are you running, Im using AMD 4600 x2 and it still runs flat out.