Video Card for ProPresenter (Windows)

[rbcsound]

Hello all,
We have been using SundayPlus for a few years now at our church and it has started giving us some trouble. Since SundayPlus is no longer being updated and the company is out of business, we have decided to change to different presentation software, most likely ProPresenter for Windows.

Anyway, our current 6-year-old computer will not run ProPresenter, so we will have to get a new system. We will be buying parts and building it ourselves. I really don't know if ProPresenter needs a very powerful video card or not. I suspect the system processor is more important, but I want to make sure from those who know the program better than I do. For our CPU, we will be getting an Intel Core i7 2600K (Quad-core, 3.4 GHz).

Will a video card with 1 GB of video RAM be sufficient? Besides the amount of RAM, what other minimum specs should I look for in a video card?

Thanks in advance!

[Gracetech]

You won't see any improvement from a dual core to quad core so you might want to just invest in a higher end dual core. I never build a machine with less than 4 gigs of ram now and of course that means using Windows 7 64bit to make use of that ram.

My newest ProPresenter build is an AMD Phenom based system with an ATI 6850. The great thing about the 6850 is i can run the control monitor the main projection and the stage monitor off the same card. Ofcourse you will need to get a Active DP to DVI adapter to make it work. I also build most of my computers now a days with SSD for the OS drive. I actually have 2 1TB drives setup in Raid1 for the media.

BTW make sure to get a really good case with 120mm fans with speed control. You want to keep everything in the case nice and cool but you don't want it to sound like a jet engine either.

Happy building!

crt

[rbcsound]

Computer is all built, and we've been trying out ProPresenter, but I now fear that I may have skimped too much on the video card. I got an NVidia GT 430 card, which is better than what PP lists in their system requirements, but the transitions between slides are fairly choppy and the output image on our 2nd monitor doesn't look great. PP is set to output at 1024x768, which is what the 2nd monitor is set at, but the slides, announcement graphics, etc. look like they are at a lower resolution than that. Diagonal lines are a bit jagged and overall graphics don't look as sharp. Not having used the software before, I don't know if it is supposed to look like that or not, and if not, I don't know if it is the video card's fault or the software's fault. The processor and RAM are more than sufficient for PP, so if any hardware is at fault, it's got to be the video card.

I e-mailed ProPresenter's support asking if this particular video card is good enough, or if we need something better (I also asked a few more related questions about the software), but it's been 4 days and I haven't heard from them. I have 6 days in which I can return the video card, so this is pushing things a bit. Any thoughts from those who know ProPresenter (and video cards) better than I do?

[RV Support]

RBC... I don't think we've seen any messages from you come through our support email. The card you chose should work fine. You should not be seeing any of the issues you mentioned. Please make sure you have the latest drivers for the card and your OS (what version??) is current. If the drivers are up-to-date and you are still are having issues, please email us at .

[rbcsound]

I sent a message to support from my home e-mail address last Monday (8/15), so it would not be from the address associated with this account. I will send another one today with some more information.

Thanks!

[Gracetech]

Can you tell us your exact components?

I used to be a nVidia guy but over the last year i have almost solely switched to AMD(ATI) cards. I haven't had a chance to use PP with an nVidia card so i don't know what to expect yet. I will say check all your drivers and download the latest PP. It also helps to defrag a fresh drive.

crt

[warrenpe]

I would guess its a driver issue, quality setting (nVidia control panel) or some other software issue. I'm running PP4 on an older gtx260 card, and its brilliant. Your gt430 should be more then enough.