Does video processing software uses graphics cards?

[Beloved]

I will be upgrading my computer to a new setup. The computer will be for a high-end setup. I will be doing image processing and video processing on this computer. So I want some suggestions on my new configuration. Since I will be performing video processing, I would like to know if such software will be using my graphics card at all. I am asking because should I go for purchasing a graphics card or can I run my onboard gpu. If you think I should install one on my computer then can you also tell me if how much memory it should have ?

[kiLLer]

The answer to your question completely depends on the situation. Generally gpu accelerates your graphics performance but sometimes if you work on software likes Photoshop which sometimes require graphics card for processing. Which software you will be working on and how much gpu memory due you have onboard?

[Team Leader]

Yes it depends on the applications that you will be going to use. Adobe's Premiere program have the GPU acceleration feature. So if you can than installing a new standalone graphics card is a better solution. It is a good idea to have it installed on your computer if you perform photo editing or play a lot of games. What is your budget and does purchasing a new video card increases your budget a lot?

[Marthaz]

Which software you will be working? I personally work on Adobe's Creative Suite 5 suite which accelerates a lot of stuff in OpenGL. However the Mercury Playback Engine can use any graphics card with appropriate number of cores and at least 512 MB or more of video memory. Although there is a hack to enable cards that aren't on their list, but I would not suggest you to go with that method if you are not a technical person.