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1. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Steve Grisetti Sep 23, 2010 8:41 AM (in response to Ed.Macke)64-bit operating systems, for the most part, only take advantage of pro software at this point. And, although Premiere Elements 9 should work on Windows 7 64-bit, there are occasionally driver issues (some people can't burn BluRay discs, for instance) or other problems and, since the program itself is 32-bit, it doesn't take advantage of the advanced technology.
In upgrading to the Creative Suite, you certainly won't be sacrificing anything, except some simplicity and several hundred dollars. Many pros do use Premiere CS5 as well as its supporting products (including DVD/BluRay authoring program Encore). And you can use it on a very low level if you'd like. But at well over $1000 for the suite, it's your call whether or not you'd be getting your money's worth.
A good graphics card can give you access to some of Premiere Elements more advanced GPU functions (some of which have been removed from Premiere Elements versino 9 anyway) -- but it doesn't play a big role in the overall performance of the program. That's much more processor and RAM specific. A simple 256 or even 128 card is probably good enough. And I know of no advantage or ATI or nVidia or vice versa.
As for computer brand, you'll probably be fine with either a Dell or HP. (I would stick to one of them though for serious PC functions.) Dell's quality has been an issue lately -- but both are excellent machines that usually use top of the line hardware and well-tested operating systems.
In short, if it were my life, I'd go with a 32-bit Windows 7 HP quad-core or maybe i7 running Premiere Elements 9. But that's just my personal opinion.
I've also been testing Premiere Elements 9 on my iMac and I'm slowly transitioning projects over there. You don't get nearly the hardware power for the price with a Mac -- but you do get a predictable operating system that runs the program very stably.
All of this is just my personal opinion of course. Do what you want with it.
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2. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
John T Smith Sep 23, 2010 9:16 AM (in response to Ed.Macke)I built my own computer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/652694?tstart=0 but for ready made, look at these two vendors
Ready Made Video Editing PC http://www.adkvideoediting.com/
Laptop Video Editing PC http://www.sagernotebook.com/Premiere Pro has Encore bundled, so you do not lose DVD authoring... the current "sweet spot" graphics adapter for PPro is the nVidia GTX 470
You may look at the user guides... CS5 User Guides - online and PDF
http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2010/08/help-documents-for-creative-suite-5-pdf -and-html.htmlAnd P-Elements 9 http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/index.html
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3. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Ed.Macke Sep 23, 2010 9:48 AM (in response to Steve Grisetti)Steve, thanks so much! That's exactly the kind of real-world advice I was looking for.
I'll most likely be going with Win7/64-bit, barring any showstoppers like Program X won't work. Lightroom and Premiere Elements are my 2 workhorses, so they are #1 and #2 on my list of "Make Sure These Things Will Work". If for no other reason, it's actually harder to find systems that have Win7/32, maybe just because I'm looking at the more powerful machines?
I love Macs, but unfortunately I need Windows for working from home, etc. and can't afford 2 machines
I've bought Dell forever, but I've been having issues lately, as well. For example, my daughter's laptop screen died after 13 months (yes, 1 month after the warranty ran out); the replacement screen was almost the cost of a new laptop. Not happy. I've also never really liked how they sometimes have "Dell" versions of things like graphics cards. But whatever I get, it'll definitely be an i7 stuffed to the gills with memory.
And I know of no advantage or ATI or nVidia or vice versa.
Wasn't there was an issue with nVidia cards under PRE8? I thought I saw something about that, and out of that discussion was some talk about ATI was a better match? Or something? I can't remember, maybe I made that up in my head
But at well over $1000 for the suite, it's your call whether or not you'd be getting your money's worth.
Luckily I can get the student discount, so the CS5 Production Premium that includes Premiere Pro (and Encore and much more) is only $448. I also want the full Photoshop instead of Elements, so I'm definitely salivating over that package. Despite not being a pro, I think I would trade the simplicity of Elements for the flexibility of Pro. I'm a little apprehensive about having to use Encore instead of Elements' built-in DVD authoring, though.
Again, thanks for the thoughts!
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4. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
the_wine_snob Sep 23, 2010 12:23 PM (in response to Ed.Macke)1 person found this helpfulEd,
Right now with PrE, any good video card, with proper driver support can probably do all that you can actually use.
One thing to consider is that Adobe is moving towards more GPU acceleration. That was added at a low level in PrE 8. I do not know how things have changed with PrE 9. I'll need to hear from others, on any advances there. Where I am going with this is that PrPro CS5 takes great advantage of GPU power for many things, but only for a limited number of nVidia cards. Will PrE 10 move closer to CS5? Will you ever move to CS5, or newer? If one can answer either with YES, it might lead one to acquire an nVidia card with CUDA support. The downside is that if much time transpires, there will certainly be better nVidia cards, and probably at a lower cost. Trying to "future proof" a new computer, can backfire, so one needs a good crystal ball, or a visit to Sister Esmarelda, the fortune teller...
Good luck,
Hunt
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5. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Ed.Macke Sep 23, 2010 1:52 PM (in response to the_wine_snob)Heh. I've been trying to future-proof my computers since, oh... 1980 with the Apple II, and have come to the conclusion that there ain't no such thing.
So it sounds like that with either PRE or Pro, a decent video card would be fine. With PRE, a more advanced card would be of modest help, but for Pro an nVidia CUDA card would help a lot. Is that a fair summary?
I've never really had to look at video cards, so help me out here... On the Adobe website, it says the nVidia GeForce GTX 285 is one of the approved CUDA cards. But when I do a Froogle search on "GeForce GTX 285", I get quite a few different manufacturers with all kinds of prices and gobbleygook descriptions. For example:
- GIGABYTE GV-N285UD-1GH GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (wow, that just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) for $260
- EVGA 01G-P3-1181-AR NVIDIA GEFORCE 285 GTX CORE 216 PCI-E 2.0 X16 1GB DDR3 SUPERCLOCKED GRAPHICS CARD - 2X DVI, HDTV-7, $420
- XFX NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GTX285 1GB GX-285X-ZWFF, $390
So am I correct that I'm not buying an nVidia video card per se, but rather a video card with an nVidia chipset? If so, any recommendations on brands? For instance, why pick the $400 eVGA over the $260 Gigabyte?
Sorry for the newbie questions, but up until now I've just picked the cheapest video card that Dell offered in its configurator.
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6. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
the_wine_snob Sep 23, 2010 3:30 PM (in response to Ed.Macke)Ed,
I think that you have gotten it all correct.
First, some functions in PrPro will be accelerated with full CUDA support. CUDA is not used by PrE, though there is some GPU acceleration with most newer cards, ATI, or nVidia.
Until one gets to the Quadro line of nVidia cards, it's just the chipset, and they are assembled by different mfgrs. I am not enough of an insider to be able to say if one gets a "better" GTX-285 for $400 vs one for $200. I normally go with the most respected name, if there is a difference.
As for "future proofing," I build my last workstation around a Quadro FX4500. Well, things did not work out so well. While a great card, it became obsolete. Some lower-level Quadro cards could be retro-fitted to CUDA, but mine, near the very top of the line in those days, is an evolutionary dead-end. Still, it has been a very good card, but the $ could have been better spent - if only I had looked more carefully into my crystal ball.
Going back about 3 workstations, we specs. a video card, and the builder got it in. We were waiting for some SCSI 320M drives and in that time, a new version of the card came out. The builder swapped in the new one, but then we found out that Adaptec had just released a new SCSI controller, so we ordered that. During that wait, a newer, better video card was released. When the Adaptec controller came in, we swapped out the video card for the third time. By the time that I got my software loaded and began using that computer, a newer video card and a newer SCSI controller were available. We passed on both! If one can get their new computer home, before it has been totally replaced by a newer, faster, and often cheaper model, they have succeeded. "Future proof?" Heck, I just want one full day of having the hottest computer on the block.
Good luck,
Hunt
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7. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
VDOSurfer Sep 23, 2010 11:05 PM (in response to Ed.Macke)Hello Ed,
You mentioned
Lightroom and Premiere Elements are my 2 workhorses, so they are #1 and #2 on my list of "Make Sure These Things Will Work".
I am trying to figure what workflows would require "both" these.. I am a video enthusiast and would love to learn from you about these.
Thanks,
Steven -
8. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Ed.Macke Sep 24, 2010 8:15 AM (in response to the_wine_snob)I am not enough of an insider to be able to say if one gets a "better" GTX-285 for $400 vs one for $200. I normally go with the most respected name, if there is a difference.
That's the problem - I have no idea whether any of these names are "respected" or not.
I've at least heard of Gigabyte, but have no idea of their reputation. I've never heard of eVga or XFX.
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9. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Ed.Macke Sep 24, 2010 8:25 AM (in response to VDOSurfer)Steven,
I don't use Lightroom and Premiere Elements together in a workflow. I use Lightroom (and sometimes Photoshop Elements) for photos, and Premiere Elements for video.
What I was saying is that (except for possibly browsers) Lightroom and Premiere Elements are really the 2 software products I use the most, and coincidentally are also the most demanding on my system - especially Premiere Elements. So when I'm considering a new system, or even a software or hardware upgrade, my first concern is always how it will affect those two products.
I do a lot of photography, and so use Lightroom a lot. I have a never-ending backlog of video to process, so I use Premiere a lot (although more sporadically). But I don't really use them together - sorry for the confusion!
Regards,
Ed
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10. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
bwentzel13@gmail.com Sep 24, 2010 8:36 AM (in response to Ed.Macke)1 person found this helpfulI have had great luck with eVGA motherboards and graphic cards. They also provide exceptional service and have a very active forum that includes active participation from eVGA employees.
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11. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
Ed.Macke Sep 24, 2010 8:40 AM (in response to bwentzel13@gmail.com)Duke,
Thanks for the vote of confidence in eVGA. Nothing I hate worse than doing my research, picking a brand, only to find out later there was a much better choice.
So it's nice to know when a particular brand is good.
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12. Re: Graphics Card and Win7/64-bit Advice
VDOSurfer Sep 24, 2010 11:05 AM (in response to Ed.Macke)Thanks Ed!