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most appropriate graphic card
Not sure if I should post this here but can somebody advice me which one would be the most appropriate graphic card (for PC Intel machine) or at least what category or brand I should look for, for working on Adobe After Effects and be able to split the output signal to two monitors, having opengl support and of course, be a fast one?
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6 Replies
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Start here:
https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/opengl.html
Most cards nowadays have dual output, just check first. As long as you got the OpenGL support, your speed is much more likely to be determined by your CPU and memory than the card. If I’m wrong here, someone will probably correct me 🙂
– AA
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[alon_a] “If I’m wrong here, someone will probably correct me :-)”
Well, I haven’t checked the last generation of ATI drivers, but most people go with nVidia for After Effects 7. Depending on the type of project and the resolution, a good OpenGL board can speed up the previews a lot.
I currently use a 6800GT with 256MB RAM. The board runs out of RAM quickly when doing 2k comps, so I tend to disable OpenGL preview when doing complex composites in HD or 2k. But for SD projects it speeds up the workflow very well.
I imaging having 512 MB of memory on the graphics board will help. Currently I’d recommend a good gaming card such as the 6800GT or upwards (7800 would do quite well).
Another example: I just did a test with the OpenGL accelleration of Magic Bullet Looks Suite. Enabling GPU in the plugin decreased the rendertime to 10% of the CPU-only rendertime.
So my dual Opteron system did the preview in over 6 minutes. Enabling GPU in the plugin resulted in a 40 second preview.
Oh… and the nVidia drivers have useful dual-display settings.
Bar3nd
Forum COWmunity leader for:
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS
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Yup – that’s what I meant by “as long as you have the OpenGL support”… obviously I wasn’t being clear enough. Anyway the numbers you mention are incredible, I’m going to have to upgrade pretty soon myself. Dual Opteron… droooool….
– AA
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I was thinking of purchasing the Nvidia 7800 form the first place but my concern is that would I be needing the openGL ver. 2 or just 1.5? Would it be a great difference? Also, using this Graphic card would I be able to connect two monitors one CRT analoge input and one TFT digital input? Any clues? Thank you for your help already.
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You need OpenGL 2.0 to benefit from high-fidelity OpenGL preview.
[Jimmy D] “Also, using this Graphic card would I be able to connect two monitors one CRT analoge input and one TFT digital input?”
Should be perfectly possible. Make sure you get a graphics board with 2 outputs. Mine has two DVI outputs with VGA converters. So yes you can connect one VGA and one DVI output at the same time. As long as you make sure you get the right model.
Bar3nd
Forum COWmunity leader for:
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS
MAGIC BULLET SUITE
INDIE FILM & DOCUMENTARY -
Thank you for your support. Regarding these VGA converters you mentioned, do I need to purchase them separately or come along with the graphic card for that kind of cases?
Also, based on your experience, if you know about it, what would be better, a system with one Intel dual core processor, let’s say 3.2 or 3.4 Ghz or two separate processors but not dual core around 3.2 Ghz?
Sorry for this bombardment of questions. Any ideas would be great help for me.
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