After spending hours combing this board looking for advice on a new graphic card purchase, it seems as though a single  thread dedicated to this topic would be helpful.

I'll start it off with my recent experience to give you an idea on the format to use. Please add your experiences (good and bad) to the list.

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Card: NVIDIA Quadro FX570 with 256 MB Memory*

Operating System: Vista (without SP1)

Studio Version: Studio Plus 11.1

Results: Failed Check3D Tests. Could not edit HD.

Comments: *Check the Studio Readme file carefully. This card advertises 256 MB, but only about 233 is available for use.

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Card: ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 512 MB Memory*

Operating System: Vista (without SP1)

Studio Version: Studio Plus 11.1

Results: Passed Check3D Tests. Renders HD full screen preview smoothly and without problems.

Comments: Installed flawlessly (don't forget to connect the PCIe16 power connector!). Vista Certified.

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Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256 MB

Operating System: Vista (without SP1)

Studio Version: Studio Plus 11.1

Results: Success!

Card:  NVIDIA Geforce 7950 GT   with 512 MB DDR3 Memory, XFX brand.

Operating System:  XP Pro  w/sp2 

Studio Version:  Studio 11.1 Ultimate

Results: Renders HD excellent, no problems, VitaScene okay.

Comments: Love the vivid colors.

Card:  NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX   with 512 MB Memory

Operating System:  XP Pro  w/sp2 

Studio Version:  Studio 10.7 Plus

Results: Never had any problems.

XFX Nvidia 8800GTS 512MB

Vista Home Premium 32 bit

Studio 11.1.1

No probs so far.

Card:  NVIDIA Geforce 8500 GT   with 512 MB Memory

Operating System:  Vista Home Premium 32 Bit

Studio Version:  Studio 11.1.1 Ultimate

Results: Latest drivers, no problems. Stay away from the "TURBOCACHE" boards!

Comments: Finally a system that works with Studio!

Card: Palit Nvidia 8800GT Sonic 512MB

Operating System: Vista 32 bit, Windows XP SP2

Studio Versions: Studio 11.1.1, Studio 10.8

Comments: No probs so far.

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Card: Palit Nvidia FX5200 128MB

Operating System: Windows XP SP2

Studio Versions: Studio 11.1.2, Studio 10.8, Studio 9.4

Comments: Choppy preview, no HD editing capabilities

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Card: Gecube ATI HD2600XT 256MB

Operating System: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 32bit

Studio Versions: Studio 11.1.2, Studio 10.8, Studio 9.4

Comments: No problems so far

Card:  Nvidia GeForce FX6200 AGP with 256 MB Memory (PNY Technologies)

Operating System:  XP Pro  w/SP2 

Studio Version:  Studio 11.1.1 Ultimate

Results: So far, so good. Only SD projects.

Comments: A minimum recommended card, any less just doesn't work properly.

Card:  Nvidia GeForce FX5950 Ultra 512MB

OS:     VISTA

Studio Version:  11.1.1

Comments: Never any problems.

Card:  Nvidia GeForce FX5500 256mb

OS:     XP SP2

Studio Version:  11.1.1

Comments: No problems, a bit slow with HD sources.

Is anyone running tandem cards?  I'm thinking of doing that on my main PC..

My current card on the PC I'm on at the moment is:

NVidia GeForce go 7300 - 128Mb onboard memory

Studio 10.8 

Vista Home Premium

2.5 Gb RAM

Acer 5613 Aspire

No problems that I can attribute to the video card 

Card:  Nvidia GeForce 7900GS 256mb

OS:     XP SP2

Studio Version:  11.1.1

Comments: No problems with SDV or HDV TL full resolution preview, even when using an external VGA monitor.  

Card:  Integrated Graphics of the Intel G965 Chipset, using 256mb of shared 2GB total system memory.

OS:     XP SP2

Studio Version:  11.1.1

Comments: No problems with SDV TL display; HDV display is choppy.

Card:  NVIDIA Geforce 8600 GT   with 256 MB DDR3 Memory, 2xDVI, Colorful brand.
 

Operating System:  Windows XP  SP2 

Studio Version:  Studio 11.1 Ultimate

Results: No problems, VitaScene okay.

 Greetings,

Wiel

Card: Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT with 256MB GDDR3
M/board: MSI P965 Neo-F - with C2D E4400 overclocked @ 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM
OS: WinXP Home SP2B
Studio 10.7 Plus
Result: Failed

Comments: Showstopper failures reported in Check3D, however in standard DV editing the card did appear to be working. BUT output quality of anything rendered by it was severely degraded (colour space compressed). Also card performance was decidely mediocre - the Nvidia GF7600GT I replaced it with blew it away!

Card: Inno3D Geforce 7600GT, 256MB GDDR3
Other things as above
Result: Passed

Comments: Using older 93.71 driver; at the time I installed it the latest available driver at the time (152.xx) caused some minor display corruption. Working fine for standard DV in Studio 10.7 and Avid liquid 7.2

Regards,
Richard

It is a great idea to set up a separate thread dedicated to comments on specific devices.

I am running XP Pro SP2  and my graphics card is ATI PCIE Rad AIW 2006, 256MB, Vivo Box X1300.  I am perfectly satisfied with it, both in terms of rendering and playback.

Ted

nVidia 7950GT 512Mb here also. Renders SD very fast with my Quad Core 6600.

Tony

Card:  GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16

CPU:  Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz

MB Chipset: Intel X38

Memory:  4 sticks of 1 Gig Team Xtreem DDR3 1333 Dual Channel RAM

OS:  Vista (with SP1) 32 bit

Studio Version:  Studio Plus 11.1.1.5224

Results: Passed Check3D Tests. Renders HD full screen preview smoothly and without problems.

However, I still wish it rendered faster.  I have my computer set up with 6 HDDs, configured in 3 seperate Raid 0 stripes.  One for the OS, one for the captured video, one for media (photos, music) and rendering.  Does anyone know if I would get faster rendering from a workstation card?  I was looking at an NVIDIA Quadro FX3500 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express.  Ideas?

Graphics Card: 7300GT 256MB

Results: Great for SD, choppy on HD. 

XP Pro: 

Geforce 6600GT 128Mb ram.

HD: Flaky with Blue/green frames on some rendered transitions. Made it work eventually but needed to change PCIe BIOS settings.

Gainward Bliss GeForce 8800 GTS 512. in same mobo. HDCP enabled, can be used in SLI config. (2 identical cards, more power & heat!)

HD: So far no problems, but it's a huge long card which will sit over the SATA sockets on a Asus P5K-E mobo (needs left and right handed, right angle SATA cables).

Everybody mentions cards that work. Here's one that don't.

MSI ati EN1950 Pro 256mb with Catalyst Control Centre (CCC) installed. CCC provides a means to monitor the performance + OC, temp etc. System hang, crashed or just perform a reboot during rendering. Happens when using S10 & 11.

When CCC is removed, there's no problems but the performance drops.

Card:  Nvidia GeForce 7650

OS:  XP Home

Studio:  11.1

Result:  Success

The card that I had before this one was an Nvidia GeForce 8600.  Had a lot of trouble trying to have it get along with studio.  Had to go to the 7xxx series, but I've been very happy with it.

 Jim

I am running: 2x NVIDIA 8800GTX PCI-E video cards with 768MB each. Absolutely no problems. I am using two cards that are driving 4x 19 inch Samsung monitors.

The rest of my specs are:

ASUS Crosshair mobo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core 6000+, 4GB OCZ RAM, 4x 250 Seagate Barracuda SATA drives @7200 rpm, Plextor PX-755SA DVD burner.

Nvidia 8800GTS 640mb RAM here. Great stuff with no problems

Regards

 Keith H