Video Card vs. High End Processing

[Aanarav Sareen]

[HAWLEYJ] “but we do use a lot of color correction, film effects, etc.”

I would go with the Matrox then. Although, the rendering time difference is not substantial between the Matrox and any other card, you may benifit from the real-time color correction functionality.

[Brett Howe]

The question you need to ask yourself is where are your productions heading.

If HD is on the horizon, go the gruntiest system you can get your hands on. I don’t believe that Matrox card will be much use in HD production. CPU’s will always give you the goods.

If you told me 2 years ago we would be cutting HD on our PC’s without dedicated hardware, I would have laughed nervously, now…..mmmmmmm…..who’s laughing?

[Ron Shook]

Aanarav & Mr. Hawley,

[Aanarav Sareen] “I would go with the Matrox then. Although, the rendering time difference is not substantial between the Matrox and any other card, you may benifit from the real-time color correction functionality.”

Although I can’t say why, I would counsel waiting until after NAB to make any final decisions. Whether you go with hardware or not in the slightly longer run, a very grunty computer is gonna be essential, ala Axio. No manufacturer of hardware cards is ignoring the CPUs anymore even when the hardware cards are more than just dumb I/O.

Ron Shook

[Aanarav Sareen]

Good point about NAB. Hopefully, something else may come out.

On another note: I would get the best PC you can afford. The more $$ you spend now, the less $$ you have to spend upgrading various system components, if you do decide to edit and produce HDV content.

[Mike Smith]

Have Matrox sorted out the problems that precented the RTX100 running with dual xeons now ?

My vote would be for the fastest system you can get; if the edit is pure DV, it will be fast enough, and if you want to go into other formats later you can add cards as needed.

[Img-interactivemediagurus]

I would definitely agree, wait for NAB, and then you can see, easy as 1, 2, 3…oops, sorry for the rhyming and aliteration!

Seriously, consider the Axio LE card, at just under $4,500 (US), with either a dual core dual Xeon system, or at the very least, a dual core single P4.

Don’t believe all of the baloney about AMD having better throughput, etc. As a computer tech with 30 years experience, and 10 years in actually building video systems, AMD makes ok stuff for a gaming system, but Intel smokes them for a top of the line NLE box. Fewer technical problems and compatibility issues than AMD, for sure. Better choice of mobos, etc.

I checked ASUS’s website the other day and was disappointed that they haven’t come out with a real screaming video editing mobo yet. My wish list includes having 6 – 64 bit PCI-X slots, a dozen USB ports, and at least 4 Firewire ports, with a FSB in excess of 800 MHz, hopefully venturing into the 1.2 GHz range if possible.

Just dreaming here, but I would love to match that with 2 dual core 4 GHz Xeon CPU’s and about 4 GB of DDR 667 RAM, and the Matrox Axio LE running Adobe PPRO Video Collection 2.0.

Hopefully NAB will show us a few glimpses of what we can all expect for the next year or so,and the systems will be heading in that general direction.

Scot

It’s always harder to do the right thing, but you’ll always be glad you did in the end.

[Steve Freebairn]

I actually just sold my RTX100 and upgraded to a dual core system with a faster GPU and I’m not regretting it at all. If you do a lot of slow-mo and color correction the RTX100 is great, but it really starts to choke when you have higher resolution jpgs on the timeline. It was nice for a wysiwyg preview, but now I just use a second video card for a preview (which also lets you have 3 displays and a tv). I wouldn’t buy anything until after NAB, there will be a lot of great stuff coming out as usual. I’m not under any nda’s and I don’t have any “inside” knowledge, but if you look at Matrox’s line, it is pretty obvious that a replacement for the RTX100 should be at NAB. There is a huge gap in their 1k range right now. The matrox is near 3 1/2 years old. Hopefully the new HD card will do what the RTX100 did for DV editing 3 years ago (I could do stuff then with a single core no ht 2.4 ghz, that it takes a pretty decent dual core system to do now.)

[Img-interactivemediagurus]

Steve,

You will note in my previous post that I specifically cited NOT the RTX10 or RTX100 cards, which are in fact a bit dated, but the BRAND NEW Matrox Axio LE card, which just arrived on the scene in the last month or two.

If you haven’t seen it or tried it, like I have, then you are doing yourself and others here who read your post a great disservice by causing potential confusion for those folks who may be considering this card as a viable option.

Certainly, I think we all agree that wait until NAB, since it is just a couple of weeks down the road, but from what I have seen in using the new Adobe Video Collection 2.0 with the combination of the Matrox Axio LE card, I personally have found what I am looking for.

True real time effects for preview, true real time rendering of your final video, etc. are just some of its many features.

You owe it to youself to go to Matrox’s website and check out the new systems. IMHO, absolutely NOTHING can touch the harware acceleration that they are capable of.

[Steve Freebairn]

I totally missed that you weren’t talking about the RTX100, I’m very sorry. The Axio looks excellent! I wasn’t trying to mislead anyone about the axio, it looks awesome. I wish I could get one.

[Justin Hawley]

Ok, excellent posts by all. Let me narrow the field a bit.

I have been researching HDV content a bit lately, and from what I’ve read I am not sure it is worth even considering building an upgradable system around at this point in time. The massive size of processing combined with what I have read about HDV artifacts, editing problems, and especially the lack of a consistent delivery medium make me believe that it really is too early to spend thousands of dollars on a system that most people will never enjoy the fruit of anyway. Especially since right now 100% of my projects are SD.

So the real question becomes: While working in SD is it better, the same, or worse to have either my current ASUS P5AD2-E Premium board with a Matrox RT X100 compared to no card and a Dual Xeon or whatever the current fastest configuration is? I use mostly speed effects, a lot of color correction, and yes, I do use large size images as well.

Excellent posts, gentlemen! Thank you for your input! When is NAB, anyway?