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03-20-2011, 04:14 PM
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#1 |
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Member (3 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 5
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"Mid-Range" - looking to upgrade my graphic card for a recent build
Due to a motherboard failure, I rebuilt my computer. My new system utilizes the Intel i7 2600K chip with the Sandy Bridge platform on an Asus P8P67 LE motherboard. The Sandy Bridge platform is fast. Even though my computer is not used for gaming, my current graphic card seems to hold back performance in everyday tasks. My computing usage revolves around having many browser windows open along with multiple applications. Flash also tends to be a resource hog. I also perform light Photoshop and video editing work once a month. My system will also be a multiple OS boot; Windows 7, Linux, & OSx86 (so driver availability is important). I am looking for a graphic card as my next purchase and need advice in this arena. My primary goals with this new graphic card are seamless HD playback, dual DVI outputs, energy efficiency, and value. My initial research points to a mid-range card.
Current Graphics Card: XFX NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB Resolution: 1680 x 1050 The list below focuses on price; not performance. Based on feedback, I could speed less or a bit more. My purchase will be in the next month or two depending on sales & rebates. XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card Newegg.com - XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $139.99 MSI N450GTS CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - MSI N450GTS CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $133.99 EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $129.99 GIGABYTE GV-N450OC-1GI GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N450OC-1GI GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $124.99 PNY VCGGTS4501XPB GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - PNY VCGGTS4501XPB GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $124.99 ZOTAC ZT-40503-10L GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - ZOTAC ZT-40503-10L GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $129.99 XFX GS-250X-YDFV GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Newegg.com - XFX GS-250X-YDFV GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $94.99 |
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03-20-2011, 05:45 PM
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#2 |
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Techphile.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Francisco Bay
Posts: 5,959
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The only brands I would consider that you are considering are EVGA and this is just from a reliability and customer service standpoint. The other good brands are HIS, Diamond and Asus.
Video Card Rating As far as performance goes, the GTS 450 and the 5770 will give you far better performance than your old card. What I like to do at this point it to refer people to Tom's Hardware so they can see the graphics card performance charts which show cards relative performance to each other. The charts also shows bang for the buck for each card with the prices for each card listed on the right. Any price changes that are out of order pretty much show cards that are either under priced or over priced. Be sure to choose a benchmark which is most relevant to the applications that you run on your computer. Benchmarks 2011 Gaming Graphics Charts The 5770 looks to be just slightly faster than the 450. Of the 5770's being sold at Newegg I would pick this one... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-338-_-Product Of the 450's I would pick this one.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-415-_-Product Or this non-overclocked version for the same price... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-393-_-Product One of your performance factors that really has nothing to do with your graphics card is what you describe as having many windows open and having a lot of applications open. My guess from what you describe is that you want to have a minimum of 8 gigs of RAM. Is this what you have? You can check to see how much RAM your computer is using by opening your Windows Task Manager and going to Performance. If you are close to using all of it then you need more RAM.
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Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | Intel 2600K @ 4.7 GHz | Win 7 Pro 64 |8 gigs Corsair 1600 | Two Diamond 6990's in Crossfire| Corsair AX1200 | Thermalright Silver Arrow | Western Digital Black 2TB 64 meg cache | Lian-Li PC-A71B | Logitec Z-5500 | Three Asus 26" VW266H monitors running under Eyefinity | Last edited by David M; 03-20-2011 at 06:29 PM. |
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03-20-2011, 07:01 PM
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#3 |
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Forum Administrator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 37,766
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Nvidia:
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card AMD: Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity These are the "entry level" cards in the latest series. |
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03-20-2011, 07:12 PM
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#4 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Graham, TX
Posts: 600
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Having a GTS 450 I can assure you its not the greatest, while better than your current card it is by no means fast. I would look at the gtx 550 glc recommended its the updated version of the 450, or I would look at the GTX 460 1gb model. Its only a few bucks more and has much better performance.
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Benchmark Results: Synthetics : Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review: Bridging The Budget Gap Keep in mind thats a 768mb 460 that is faster than the 550 and way way faster than the 450.
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Case: Thermaltake V9 Blacx Motherboard: Intel DP55WB Processor: I7 875K OC 4.0ghz Cooler: Zerotherm Core92 Ram: Kingston 4gbx2 PSU: CUG-950B(oops) HDD: Intel X-25 40gb SSD, 2 Seagate 1tb drives |
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03-20-2011, 07:27 PM
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#5 |
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Techphile.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Francisco Bay
Posts: 5,959
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He said he is not a gamer.
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03-20-2011, 07:29 PM
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#6 | |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Graham, TX
Posts: 600
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Quote:
Last edited by birddog_61; 03-20-2011 at 07:32 PM. Reason: wrong ammount |
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03-20-2011, 07:31 PM
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#7 |
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Techphile.
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: San Francisco Bay
Posts: 5,959
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Ok...that's true. Next gen, slightly more.
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03-20-2011, 08:08 PM
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#8 |
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Mondsreitersmann
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Skingrad
Posts: 8,781
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For Adobe you better stick with nVidia. And you need to pay more attention to the amount of RAM on the video card and its number of CUDA cores, rather than to clock speeds.
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Darum still, füg' ich mich, wie Gott es will. Nun, so will ich wacker streiten, und sollt' ich den Tod erleiden, stirbt ein braver Reitersmann. |
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03-20-2011, 08:26 PM
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#9 |
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Forum Administrator
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Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
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The 550 Ti has 192 CUDA cores, same as the GTS450. The 460 SE has 288 and the 460 has 336, both 768mb and 1gb versions. Hmmmmmmm..........I'm gonna pry your wallet open just a bit more:
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1370-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card |
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03-20-2011, 08:49 PM
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#10 |
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Mondsreitersmann
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Skingrad
Posts: 8,781
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That's a good card.
Avoid the SE and the 768MB versions, they're severely crippled cards. |
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03-21-2011, 12:31 AM
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#11 |
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Forum Administrator
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Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
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I wouldn't say "severely" crippled for a non-gaming rig, but getting 1gb ram and 336 Cudas is optimal. The SE is actually almost as good a gamer as the regular 1gb card.
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03-21-2011, 02:38 AM
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#12 |
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Mondsreitersmann
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Skingrad
Posts: 8,781
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To do the "hack" to enable full CUDA in Premiere Pro, the video card has to have at least 1GB of buffer, so that rules out the 768MB card. The SE might be then the cheap option.
For PS the more RAM the better, so that also rules out the 768MB. That being said, I'm running the CS4 with a 512MB card, but I don't do Premiere Pro. |
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