upgrade video for photoshop

[bikerchick4God]

I need to upgrade my onboard graphics controller to increase Photoshop 7 productivity; not for gaming.<BR>I have an AGP slot. <BR>Money is THE issue :rolleyes: I am a starving artist :cool:<BR>thank you - any and all advice IS greatly appreciated</BR><p>HAPPY NEW YEAR

[Rick]

THE BEST 2D card on the Market

Matrox G550
Is also the fastest 2D card.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/home.cfm

Even the Older G400 and G450 Out perform the new 3D game cards
for 2D work..

[bikerchick4God]

unfortunately it is way over my budget

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

What is your budget? There are a number of good deals here:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?submit=list&catalog=48&DEPA=1&order=price&sort=asc

Budfred

[bikerchick4God]

:rolleyes: <$50 for a card but am really just shopping it around for now to get an idea of the range. I am stunned cards go for 3,000 :eek: that is serious business. I need ya'll to keep in mind i only have a no-frills 15" monitor at present.
Thanx :cool:

[Rick]

I recall seeing Refurb. G400's on the matox site for about $75
( May Have been a few months ago)

But that $50 won't even get you a clone 3D that is better than the onboard you already have

[bikerchick4God]

its good to have a ballpark. I am budgeting for 2003. $100 is reasonable but makes me wonder if its gonna make a difference on my standard monitor.
thanx
happy new year, I take it you didnt go out either :)

[saphalline]

A better video card will help on any monitor, even my parents' old 14"! I know because I did it, and their monitor is a proprietary Compaq monitor so it has some gamma issues.

Just how bad is your current onboard video? What are the specs for the rest of your system? It can't be too ancient if it has an AGP slot. Cheaper AGP cards do exist, like older TNT2's and Rage128's, tho they are old gaming cards.

Matrox video cards really are the best for 2D work, so just keep that in mind. You may see a boost in 2D speed/quality with an old gamer's card, but a G450 or G550 will be much better.

EDIT - Now that I think about it... Anyone got a used Matrox card? That might be worth a check...

[Rick]

Try Here

http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/categories.asp?CategoryID=19&Column=2

Refurb's ?

The G400 MAX is the best


Or here
http://www.pcconnection.com

New retail

[bikerchick4God]

thanks saphalline. Forgive my lack of computer lingo. I know a little bit from motherboard and crucial faq's.
<P>I have a 1.2 GHz compaq presario, 8mb onboard controller. The system came with a 20 gig harddrive, 128 mb memory (I added 256 yesterday) with only 2 memory slots.
<BR>Working with photos is the majority of my computer work when I'm not OL. I read that increasing the video will speed up PS7. I've set virtual memory to be controlled by XP. I need a new/another HD also. There is a second drive holder (?language) behind the installed hard drive.
<P>I believe the board has an agp slot. I also have a couple of other questions about upgrades and language. Are you up to answering a few questions?
thanks for taking the time to comment on my needs :cool:
happy new year,
nancy

thanks for the shopping tips Rick ;)

ADD'L NOTE: it is a 4mb video controller, a generic GEM monitor

[Rick]

PS7 will benefit the Most from
1. The video card Upgrade
2. Memory upgrade ( Already done)
3. An additional Hard drive ( Used by PS as a scratch file location )


You have a free Hard drive mount point available ,
That is half the battle. Deciding how large a drive is the second.
As you already know Graphics files ( especially Photo’s ) are large
I’d suggest picking up the Largest you can afford and your system will support. ( 40 to 80 )

Unfortunately Compaq CPU upgrades are limited :(

[bikerchick4God]

Rick, for clarity, is the cpu the 1.2 GHz? If so, that'll work for me while I'm learning to master PS :rolleyes:
<P>Thank you for the scratch disc suggestion; makes perfect sense!
<BR>Thanx for the indirect language course, i.e., hard drive <B><I>mount</B></I>.. lol
<P>I got my first PC 12/00 - a 486 w/a 14.4k modem (17 min to log onto/use the internet woohoo).
<BR>Fried it that summer then got a 133. 56k was like so fast lol.
<BR>I fried the 133 a yr later and got a 333
<P>I've had this one since aug '02 so I am happily learning it's potential and how to avoid static electricity :eek:

[bikerchick4God]

I went into the PC case to nose around. I see the cables are numbered. How would I know which number to use for a second hard drive?

[Budfred]

Generally the cable that is connected to your current hard drive is the same one to use for the second drive. You will have to set jumpers on the back of the new hard drive to Slave and use the connector between the motherboard and the current hard drive. If there is already something on that connector, you will have to look at switching things around.

The 1.2 Ghz is your CPU speed, the central brain of your computer. That is a decent speed, but if you get into major graphics use, you may need to upgrade eventually. Usually the people who need to most speed are people like design engineers, graphic designers, CAD, and so on.

Budfred

[bikerchick4God]

mucho gracias senor. I'll have a look at that cable.

[bikerchick4God]

Thanks Budfred for welcoming me to PC Guide several days ago.

[saphalline]

Here's (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1306&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1) some good hard drives. The WD400JB is a 40GB HD with an 8MB cache (helps with transfers of large files, like PS7 ones!), only $87 w/free shipping. The WD800JB is the same except it's 80GB, only $108 w/free shipping. These prices are from Newegg, my fav online vendor!

As you can see, you can get twice as big a hard drive for a mere $21 more, so 80GB is the "sweet spot" for hard drive size right now.

Here's (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&propertycodevalue=3080) the Newegg listing of the G450 32MB AGP video card. $84 w/free shipping, not too bad. Going up to the G550 here (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?catalog=48&DEPA=1&submit=property&mfrcode=0&propertycodevalue=3081), the price goes up to $95 w/free shipping. That's a difference of only $11, which may or may not be a lot to you. It's worth looking into refurbished and/or used Matrox video cards, but just keep these prices for new ones in mind as you look. Also be sure to check on any shipping, 'cause if you find a used G450 for instance for $74 + $10 shipping, that's not going to be worth it since you can get a new one from Newegg for the same price.

[deddard]

Photoshop and other 2d graphics rely more on system memory than the graphics card - the graphic card needs to be able to render the image, but it's main job (in this case) is the number of colours it can produce - any of the geforce or similar will be able to handle this with no problems; 2D tends to get lost behind the 3D specs of most graphics cards, but if money is tight, a reasonable graphics card, plus oodles of system RAM is the way to go.

I use paintshop pro and coreldraw, and images within paintshop pro can be 120MB or more; every time you change something, it has to store the previous image, in case you want to 'undo' anything - you can imagine that after 4 or 5 changes, there is a hefty amount of imformation waiting around - this is why you need the RAM more than the fancy graphics.
Consider 512MB of RAM the minimum for graphics - if you can put 1Gig or more in, do so; believe me, this is where you'll notice the difference.
Having the system crash because of lack of memory is a pain in the butt when it takes your latest graphic with it:(

[bikerchick4God]

deddard, that was terrific advice.<br>I've been waiting to hear from a graphics user.<br>Unfortunately I only have 2 slots. I'll have to see about trading up the 128 mb to a 256. I've not had a crash but have had hang ups. <P>Thank you.

[saphalline]

Hang-ups could be a sign of sub-par RAM (among a myriad of other things). I don't suppose you know what brand name of RAM it is? Or what type, either PC133 or some type of DDR, we'd need to know to help you upgrade it.

For new stuff on a budget, get Kingston RAM. Excellent quality without the excellent price! ;)