Video cards vs. processor/ram

After researching notebooks for what seems like an eternity, I feel that I may be tricking myself into thinking I need a better video card than is neccessary for my needs.

I primarily will use my notebook for After Effects, Premier, and Photoshop. AE and Premier can utilize openGL which accesses the video card to assist in rendering and previewing. I believe 15.4 inches is the size I want, sacrificing screen real estate for better portability than a 17inch.

Many reviews are geared towards gamers seeking higher frame rates and resolution. It has been my line of thought that what's good for the gamer is good for the video artist, but now I find myself in a debate between the Asus G1 with NVIDIA GeForceGo 7700 GPU 512 MB Physical VRAM, and Asus Z96Js (barebone) with ATI Radeon x1600 256mb. Both machines can be custom built to the same specs except for the video card.

I can get a 2.33ghz processor installed in the Z96Js for the price of a 2.0ghz processor in the G1.

How much will the video card increase the performance of these applications (AE, Premier, etc.)? Are processor speed and ram a greater factor?

Someone please shine some light on me!

 

Imo, the programs you mention are more CPU intensive than GPU intensive. Hence, either video card will do. CPU speed/type and RAM also play huge roles.

 

The Go 7700 is slightly faster than the X1600 (about 10-15% . You won't see much performance difference between the T7600 and the T7200. The most significant thing is that those two processors both have 4 MB of L2 cache - the clock speed doesn't really as much.
Nvidia cards are also better at OpenGL applications. I would go with the G1.

 

I agree, the 2.33ghz will make a bigger diffrence than the go7700 vs the X1600

 

The graphics card is really only an issue for 3d rendering - as mentioned, the apps you wish to use are largely cpu intensive. For you, a better processor and more ram will be the primary determinants for performance. You could easily get away with a much lower-end video card (e.g. go7300/x1300) IMHO.

 

If any of your programs use 3D rendering, then yes the gpu will matter. But if it's all 2D (like photoshop) then you can get away with the lowest of the lowest gpu's and you will be fine. The cpu/ram will matter more in this situation.

Remember, you don't need a go7700 to display the desktop, photoshop, or play videos. An integrated, or low dedicated card will do those just fine.

 

I really appreciate the insight everyone!

Does anyone know how much of a difference there is between a 2.0ghz and a 2.33ghz processor? Any big improvements with Santa Rosa?

Adobe does recommend nVidia cards over ATI, as the ATI cards cannot support antialiasing and 2D motion blurs. Again, maybe ram will compensate.

 

I don't think the average difference that much, I thought it was about 5% or something.

 

Santa Rosa will help for you yes. The 800mHz FSB should give better Ram performance and programs that use alot of ram will benefit the most. The flash drive stuff should also help be it hybrid harddisks or robson since it will lessen the seek time and speed up swapping.

 

wave is correct. Santa Rosa is about a month away, and it will provide some extra performance for those processor dependant tasks you have mentioned. There not going to be much actual core difference, except for that 800 MHz, which will boost the Merom core just that bit further. However, Santa Rosa will be expensive when first released, and only a few notebooks will have it implemented. You may have to wait serveral weeks after that, before more desirable notebooks release, and when the price comes down a bit.

 

can we expect core 2 duo prices to come down upon release of santarosa?

 

Probably not when Santa Rosa is initially launched. The demand for the platform will be moderate, so manufacturers won't just want to decrease the price for the current Napa platform. When the sales increase to a stable point, manufacturers will want to get rid of some of the stock for the older technology, and there may be slight decreases then.