I am trying to upgrade my computer to use strictly as a digital darkroom. I am using photoshop as my image editor. What kind of graphics card would best fulfill my needs?

-- Thomas Lee Downs (thomas.downs@excite.com), August 09, 2000

Answers

I think most any current generation card will be fine, unless you're doing very high resolution like 1600 X 1200. If you're running at a high resolution you want at least 4MB video memory, most cards have that these days. Also if you're using a high resolution like 1600 X 1200 you should have a "high speed DAC" which is 225Mhz or more. This way you get a high refresh rate, which reduces screen flicker. A 60Hz refresh rate causes eye strain and headaches, 75 or more is nice. A minority of cards can do 75Hz refresh at 1600 X 1200. I don't know what res you're going to work at. Hope this helps more than confuses.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), August 09, 2000.

For the PC get a Matrox G400 Max 32MB or the 3dLabs Oxygen card. Both should run about $160-180. The Matrox has a 360mhz RAMDAC and provides 2D performance and image quality that are unmatched. Both cards ship with 32MB so you can run a game or two if you like as well.

-- Cris Daniels (danfla@gte.net), August 09, 2000.

Something to watch out for. I wanted to upgrade my video card to the 3dfx 3500 video capture card. It would not work on my system. I eventually found out that my motherboard (less than a year old) would not support it, and could possible burn it out. (so said by the mother board manufacturer. I ended up with a generic Nvidia 32mb card which I am happy with.(Though I would have liked that Vid cap TV card)

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), August 10, 2000.

Are you going to be running this on a PC or a MAC--on a PC most pros will recommend the Matrox--great card. I just ordered 3 new MAC G4s with a gig of ram in each one of them along with dual ATI cards. I currently use both the ATI on the PC at home and it perfoms wonderfully + most of the machines at work have the Matrox. I would highly recommend the Matrox.

-- fred (fdeaton@hiwaay.net), August 10, 2000.