need help on graphic card for art and animation, video

[bandi]

Hello, I got a new computer and needed a graphics card mainly for th
s-video out cause I watch a lot of movies through the tv so I decide
I might as well get a decent one. I picked out the visiontek 512m
x1300 because they only had 2 pci-e cards at the store in my rang
(100-150) and this one was on sale.

I really know nothing about cards even after reading up I can't see
to find much about how the different features would make an
difference in what I do. I don't do gaming at all, but I watch a lo
of videos from the hd, do a lot of photo editing, graphic editing an
computer art, tons of 2-d animation and editing them in movi
programs. Some 3-d rendering and also want to get into 3-d animatio
soon. I could use some suggestions. Some questions on my mind are
would I be better of with a smaller mb card with faster engine mor
pipeline, wider bus etc, is this card (or any in this range) overkil
for what I'm doing.

As far as just turning on the computer and messing around a littl
now, can't say I see any difference on the screen at all from the o
board graphics so wondering if I should just get a cheap 50 dolla
card, or if I'll be glad I got this when I start rendering the 3
animation. Some stuff I read said you don't even use the card cach
when doing 3d animation, other stuff said movie production worker
have extreamly high end cards, I'm lost. Thanks

 

[William]

Hello, I got a new computer and needed a graphics card mainly for the
s-video out cause I watch a lot of movies through the tv so I decided
I might as well get a decent one. I picked out the visiontek 512mb
x1300 because they only had 2 pci-e cards at the store in my range
(100-150) and this one was on sale.

I really know nothing about cards even after reading up I can't seem
to find much about how the different features would make any
difference in what I do. I don't do gaming at all, but I watch a lot
of videos from the hd, do a lot of photo editing, graphic editing and
computer art, tons of 2-d animation and editing them in movie
programs. Some 3-d rendering and also want to get into 3-d animation
soon. I could use some suggestions. Some questions on my mind are,
would I be better of with a smaller mb card with faster engine more
pipeline, wider bus etc, is this card (or any in this range) overkill
for what I'm doing.

As far as just turning on the computer and messing around a little
now, can't say I see any difference on the screen at all from the on
board graphics so wondering if I should just get a cheap 50 dollar
card, or if I'll be glad I got this when I start rendering the 3d
animation. Some stuff I read said you don't even use the card cache
when doing 3d animation, other stuff said movie production workers
have extreamly high end cards, I'm lost. Thanks!

Bandi:

Games is where it's at. If you would like to know what all those pipelines,
wider busses and ram are for, take a look at the specks for DirectDraw v8,
v9a,b,c, and v10. It tells allot. It's all about eye-candy, realistic
emersion of the player. Shading, blending, texture, speed, light bouncing,
effects, and more. Most of your computer and gaming web sites offer
performance write-ups on the newer boards and specks of DDv9c and v10. Read
and learn.

If you are going to stay simple in your 3d renders, then speed is all you
need. But if you want to get into realistic rendering, where you use bitmap
skins, complex objects moving over backgrounds, multiple avatars, and more -
then you cannot purchase too much of a board. No matter what you get, you
will want more.

The big memory is used to park bitmaps for object drawing on the fly. The
first time a graphics engine sees a new object, it has to fetch the bitmaps
and info from the HD, it is then parked in high-end memory for future use,
over and over and over. Much faster.

Pipelines and buss width is used for realistic rendering of the scene. Are
you going to make cartoons, or people? Is complex detail important to your
work?

From my point of view, you can not purchase a fast or big enough of a board.
I wish I had a CRAY under my desk. I purchase a new graphics board each
year. I go for the sweat-spot, one generation back from the front line unit
saving a bundle. Next year I will have to swap out my mother board, CPU and
ram if I want to keep up. What an expense for liking graphics...... and
games.

William

 

[bandi]

Thanks for the help. I guess I should take this back till I figure ou
what's nessassary and what isn't

I'll probably be using lightwave to start, maybe 3d max in the future
From what I can tell, I'd be doing prerendering as opposed to needin
on the fly rendering. No gaming, making 3d movies more likely

I haven't used any 3d animation yet. I've used coral 3d for making ar
on my old computer. The things that took up time were when you set i
to render a final image, I'm guessing that is a cpu issue and not
card issue?
Also when building a wireframe enviroment, if you applied any textur
and then moved around in the enviroment, it would hang while i
rendered the new screen position, something like that would be mor
of a card issue

 

[William]

Thanks for the help. I guess I should take this back till I figure out
what's nessassary and what isn't.

I'll probably be using lightwave to start, maybe 3d max in the future.
From what I can tell, I'd be doing prerendering as opposed to needing
on the fly rendering. No gaming, making 3d movies more likely.

I haven't used any 3d animation yet. I've used coral 3d for making art
on my old computer. The things that took up time were when you set it
to render a final image, I'm guessing that is a cpu issue and not a
card issue?
Also when building a wireframe enviroment, if you applied any texture
and then moved around in the enviroment, it would hang while it
rendered the new screen position, something like that would be more
of a card issue?

Bandi:

Sounds like you need more than a new graphics card. Get used to the time
wait for rendering images. It is common to take 3 or 4 hours to render one
complex image, let alone an animation.

Their are two different types of animations. One type creates the
environment on the fly, such as games. Very GPU (Graphics Processor Unit)
intensive. Then their are rendered animations saved as video streams, such
as AVI, MOV, WMV, DVD, MPG, movies. These require huge CPU resources. If
you are going to make animations saved as video streams, you do not need a
big graphics board, as long as it can playback a DVD with respectable
quality. You need a fast computer.

Seriously, games, 3d rendering, animation, is all front-line technology.
You will need the fastest, best computer, (fast motherboard I/O, CPU, Ram,
HD, and graphics GPU) you can get your hand on. Not only that, you will
need to replace it EVERY YEAR to keep the render time to a minimum.
Otherwise, accept taking long walks down the beach while your work
progresses.

I've played around with Hash 3D (Local company - they offered a class at our
college and deep discounts on their software that was hard to pass up) and
Corel 3D, lots of work, and fun. And yes, any movement in the environment
and you get to wait. That's why scripts are so much fun, once the avatars
and backgrounds are built, and the scripts are polished, then hit render and
go have dinner and go to sleep. Maybe by morning you might have something.
Some renders take days! Even Electric Lightwave has rented time on CRAY
computers to make their animations.

Sounds like to me you need to go to Barns and Noble and buy a few books on
the subject, and keep asking questions.

Have fun

William