Video card for video editing

[farwest01]

Hey guys,
Right now I'm building my first computer (and I'm a newbie, so go easy on me) and it will be used primarily for video editing. I was curious what the best video card for editing would be(balancing performance with cost) and what benefits in general a good vid card would provide. Oh and it has to support dual monitors. Currently I have a nVidia Geforce FX 5200, it does the job but my editing software runs like **** and I don't how much is the fault of my slower old system (P4 1.8 ghz, 512 mb SDRAM, Asus P4B-LX mobo) and how much is related to the video card. I do have a DV Storm 2 PCI card for editing, but it too doesn't run at all near it's capabilties.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[MJCfromCT]

Video editing is less video card intensive and more cpu intensive, i would think that that is the source of your bottleneck. a 5200 should be more than plenty to do video editing.

[Peter M]

For video editing, you need (1) I/O bandwidth, (2) memory bandwidth, and (3) computing power. Storage and memory need also be BIG not just fast. Graphics power is the last thing you need.

P4 with SDRAM inherently stinks in categories 2 and 3; to get serious about (1) you'll have to look into RAIDing a couple of fast SATA drives (Raptors!) or going all the way and using a SCSI setup on a mainboard with PCI-X slots.

[farwest01]

Thanks guys, that's what I thought, but some doof at a computer store tried telling me half my problem was the video card, when I knew it was the fact that my system is just lackluster. He got me second guessing the role of the video card, when in fact he was probably just trying to sell me an expensive product for commision. I am buying parts right now to build a computer, and I appreciate your honest input.