Do video cards help/affect video editing or rendering?

[backpackerx]

I've done a decent amount of fun videos in Pinnacle 8 with my current laptop. I'm looking to upgrade processors and RAM with a new desktop system possibly but other than CPU speed and RAM I don't know what else I should look for.

Specifically I've seen some great deals on DELL desktops and am looking at a system with a 3.0Ghz HT pentium 4 and 512 or 1Gb RAM. The problem with this budget system is it has integrated graphics and I don't know if I would need to add a video card to help with editing. I'm not into gaming at all and I confess I don't really know what video cards do other than intensive 3D processing for games etc. Will a Vid Card affect rendering and processing of digital video?

Thanks

[backpackerx]

Anyone?

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I might be wrong, but I don't think it affects video rendering. The work in compressing is done mainly by the CPU.

[backpackerx]

That's what I thought but wanted to be sure. I don't game on my PC so I don't really know how important a decent video card is to me above the integrated graphics chip in lower end systems.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Well, if the system has an AGP slot, you can always get that Dell system first. The only problem I can think of is the integrated card eating into your system RAM, which a simple US$50 card will solve.

[Pat Logsdon]

My understanding is that a built-in graphics chip will use available system memory for processing, which will vary depending on what other applications you're running, etc.

If you have a dedicated video card with onboard memory, your processing will be done using that memory first, as opposed to your normal system memory.

In short, I'd get a card. :)

[backpackerx]

Gotcha, thanks. The AGP slot, is that the only thing I should look for? Is there something else called a PCI or something like that?

[Jason Dunn]

Sorry I missed this one. A video card will only help with rendering if there are 3D transformations that you're using - and these are fairly rare. Otherwise, the video card plays no impact in the rendering of the video.

[backpackerx]

Thanks, that will help when I shop for systems.