Which Video Card?

[saintinthecity]

I'm about to get a new computer and I'm wondering if I should go with a 256mb or 512 mb? I work with photoshop elements. The jump to 512 is pretty expensive so I need to make sure it is justified. Thanks.

[Photo-John]

I'm not a computer expert. But unless you're playing computer games or doing video editing, I don't think you need much video processing power for Photoshop. When I built my last machine, a little over a year ago, I bought the cheapest card I could get. I think it's a 64 meg card.

[Lionheart]

Unless you plan on playing FEAR, Doom 3, Half Life 2, or other 3D video games, get the 256. Heck, even if you are planning on those games, get the 256 MB version. My current laptop has 256, and it runs Doom3 at 1280 x 1024 with 4x antialiasing at a respectable 55 frames per second. The video card itself isn't all that important for photoediting applications, at least not in my experience, but system RAM makes a huge difference.. Photoshop is more RAM sensitive than how much video memory your video card has. That being said, the more memory your card has, the faster it can redraw those huge photoshop files most of us like working with before resizing to a more reasonable print output size. Video memory is important in todays 3D games where your GPU is crunching a gazillion bits of texture, shading, and more. What really is important is the sharpness and color fidelity of your monitor. If you plan to use two monitors, then a video card with more RAM and a muscular GPU becomes a little more important. I've noticed that even my Geforce 8800 tends to chug running 3D games when I'm running in dual monitor mode, even though only one monitor actually runs the game, and the other shows a blank desktop. However, when using regular real world apps, like Office 2003 apps and photoshop, acdsee....., etc, there's no noticeable difference in screen refreshes or lingering residual windows in dual mode versus single.
A video card and monitor with DV-I connections in my experience seems more color accurate and consistent as well, but others here may have differing experiences and opinions. Most PC video cards have both, so try it out and see what you think. Ok, that's all of my 20 million bits/reply over my 1 pipeline internet connection. Take with a grain of salt of course.