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Pls help me choose a better GPU

gqtuazon

gqtuazon

Member
Hi. My name is Glenn. As you can see, I am new here and I am seeking for your advice or suggestions. I am a photographer and do a lot of both photo and video editing. I would like to ask if you can recommend a video card that can improve and speed up my computer a little bit. My current Windows 7 64-bit experience for desktop Aero is only at 5.1 which went up after installing the latest driver from MSI. Gaming graphics is at 6.2.

Here are my desktop computer specs:
Mid tower case AMD Phenom II X4 945 processor 3.00 Ghz
ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO mother board
8 Gb DDR3 RAM
Logisys 600W ATX PS SLI & X-fire ready
1 TB 7,200 RPM HD
Win 7 64 Bit Home Premium with Service pack 1
GPU: ATI Radeon 5450

The reason why I chose this card before was that I had a bad experience with my previous GPU where in the cooling fan fried or gave up. This GPU operates using a heat sink only. My budget for now is around $150 or $180 tops. I am not sure if I provided enough information in order to get a better video card recommendation that will work with my current components. Reading the reviews from online users aren’t really as detailed and old in most cases which is why I am happy that I found a forum that is dedicated to computers. Thank you for your help in advance. Regards, Glenn
 
I think that would depend on which software you are using for video editing.

Adobe premiere will run best on Nvidia cards and the recommended card is a gtx560 and up.
For Advid media composer a Nvidia quadro card is recommended.
The latest versions of Vegas also recommend a Nvidia card for cuda acceleration.
Pinnicle studio will run good with AMD and Nvidia cards with 1gb of memory like a gtx460 or 6850.


I would guess that if you went with at least a Nvidia gtx460 or 560, you would be covered all around.
Both are within your price range.

And welcome to the forums my friend. 🙂
 
Last edited:
Not with that PSU mate.

Whats your native resolution and what software do you use? Adobe uses MPE which Nvidia cards is the preferred choice

MPEGains.png
 
happy medium said:
I think that would depend on which software you are using for video editing.

Adobe premiere will run best on Nvidia cards and the recommended card is a gtx560 and up.
For Advid media composer a Nvidia quadro card is recommended.
The latest versions of Vegas also recommend a Nvidia card for cuda acceleration.
Pinnicle studio will run good with AMD and Nvidia cards with 1gb of memory like a gtx460 or 6850.


I would guess that if you went with at least a Nvidia gtx460 or 560, you would be covered all around.
Both are within your price range.

And welcome to the forums my friend. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I use Adobe CS5 and premiere for editing.
 
LiuKangBakinPie said:
Not with that PSU mate.

Whats your native resolution and what software do you use? Adobe uses MPE which Nvidia cards is the preferred choice

MPEGains.png
Click to expand...

I have a Hanns-G HG216D which uses a HDMI cable. The native resolution is only 1680 x 1050. Thank you for sharing this data. I thought I new a bit of computer stuff but it's been a long while and my knowledge is way out of date.
 
gqtuazon said:
Thanks for the reply. I use Adobe CS5 and premiere for editing.
Click to expand...

So we are looking for a Nvidia card but the problem is now your power supply.

Your power supply has only a 25 amp 12v+ rail and a gtx460 will use half of that.
The same 12v+ rail also powers your motheboard, cpu and harddrive.
This could be a problem.🙁

Idealy you need a psu and videocard.

Something like this for 35$AR and promo code will do for a power supply.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341022

and the cheapest Nvidia gtx460 1gb card you can find for your video card is what I'm recommending.
120$AR.....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500202

That should keep you close to your budget.
 
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Thank you for your recommendation. Just when I thought that I beefed up my power supply, it still came a little short after a year. I'll search for the GTX 460 then.
 
gqtuazon said:
My current Windows 7 64-bit experience for desktop Aero is only at 5.1 which went up after installing the latest driver from MSI. Gaming graphics is at 6.2.
Click to expand...

These numbers don't mean all that much in your case. A new gpu will not make your pc much faster overall, it will only alleviate certain bottlenecks, like indeed the mentioned Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere which uses Nvidia's Cuda. Other bottlenecks are your cpu and most importantly your single hdd. An ssd for os and apps would probably give you a bigger general speed boost.

LiuKangBakinPie said:
Not with that PSU mate.
Click to expand...


This is important, you can't run a card like GTX560 with your current power supply. It can only deliver 300W on the 12V rail, which has to power both cpu and gpu. Whoever advised you that psu, don't take anymore advice from him. On the other hand, I'm not sure how taxing video editing is on the graphics card so you might just get away with it. But don't try playing any games.
 
gqtuazon said:
I have a Hanns-G HG216D which uses a HDMI cable. The native resolution is only 1680 x 1050. Thank you for sharing this data. I thought I new a bit of computer stuff but it's been a long while and my knowledge is way out of date.
Click to expand...

Run this on your current setup.
http://ppbm5.com/
Thats the benchmark for CS 5 and will tell you where you need improvement
 
coffeejunkee said:
This is important, you can't run a card like GTX560 with your current power supply. It can only deliver 300W on the 12V rail, which has to power both cpu and gpu. Whoever advised you that psu, don't take anymore advice from him. On the other hand, I'm not sure how taxing video editing is on the graphics card so you might just get away with it. But don't try playing any games.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your advice. If I use a GTX 640 just for editing and not for games, will it matter or risk in damaging my existing PSU?
 
gqtuazon said:
Thank you for your advice. If I use a GTX 640 just for editing and not for games, will it matter or risk in damaging my existing PSU?
Click to expand...

Its cutting it close, in most cases you will notice some kind of warning like random shutoffs, blue screens ect ect. but if your very unlucky it might just go poof.

If it were me, I"d go or it but I'm known to go a little crazy with computer stuff.
 
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happy medium said:
So we are looking for a Nvidia card but the problem is now your power supply.

Your power supply has only a 25 amp 12v+ rail and a gtx460 will use half of that.
The same 12v+ rail also powers your motheboard, cpu and harddrive.
This could be a problem.🙁
Click to expand...

A 1GB GT 240 is only $35 after rebate and would work with his PSU.
 
I agree with happy medium, I wouldn't risk blowing up your computer lol. Buy a decent PSU and a GTX 460.

EDIT: happy when did yo change your GPU?
 
happy medium said:
Its cutting it close, in most cases you will notice some kind of warning like random shutoffs, blue screens ect ect. but if your very unlucky it might just go poof.

If it were me, I"d go or it but I'm known to go a little crazy with computer stuff.
Click to expand...

Yikes! 😱 Thanks for the emphasis. I'll get the combo then as originally advised. 🙂

BTW: I do have two additional 7,200 RPM SATA hard drives installed in the desk top and 4 other 120mm cooling fans. Is the 550watts enough to power this rig and video card? Thanks again and sorry for the follow-on questions.
 
badb0y said:
I agree with happy medium, I wouldn't risk blowing up your computer lol. Buy a decent PSU and a GTX 460.

EDIT: happy when did yo change your GPU?
Click to expand...

Last week bro,the final upgrade for old Betsy. 🙂:thumbsup:
I'm seeing 75/80% improvements over my gtx460 @ 930 core
I got 30$ for the 2 copies of Dirt 3 and 150$ for my old card.
SO I paid 180$ net for 2 6870's and the 2gb models too. 🙂
 
Last edited:
happy medium said:
Last week bro,the final upgrade for old Betsy. 🙂:thumbsup:
I'm seeing 75/80% improvements over my gtx460 @ 930 core
I got 30$ for the 2 copies of Dirt 3 and 150$ for my old card.
SO I paid 180$ net for 2 6870's and the 2gb models too. 🙂
Click to expand...
Oh god that's a monster deal man. Enjoy it! :thumbsup:

OP Try to get a decent power supply don't be fooled by the wattage. Make sure you get something decent like Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, etc.
 
Thanks for your help Happy Medium. New Egg is charging $23.39 for FPO/APO military shipping address. 🙁 I'm not so happy with that although the discount helps augment it a bit.
 
gqtuazon said:
Thanks for your help Happy Medium. New Egg is charging $23.39 for FPO/APO military shipping address. 🙁 I'm not so happy with that although the discount helps augment it a bit.
Click to expand...

After your outrageous shipping cost, 58$ is still a good deal on that PSU, not great, but good. Just think , you would pay the same shipping with any other psu anyhow. Please come back and tell us how you make out man and good luck.:thumbsup:😎

edit:
make sure you use the promo code and get your rebate buddy.
 
happy medium said:
After your outrageous shipping cost, 58$ is still a good deal on that PSU, not great, but good. Just think , you would pay the same shipping with any other psu anyhow. Please come back and tell us how you make out man and good luck.:thumbsup:😎

edit:
make sure you use the promo code and get your rebate buddy.
Click to expand...

Roger. Thanks again Happy. 🙂
 
Hi guys. After some thought process, I purchased the 550W PSU that Happy Medium recommended along with a 120gb SSD. I still have not finalized my video card though😱. The reason being is that should I decide to play some video games with my PC, I want to make sure that it can handle a decent job. Upgrading my monitor is also a possibility with a higher resolution around 1900 x 1200.

With that said, I have increased my budget to around $200 give or take a few for the video card which is to primarily improve my video editing and some occasional gaming such as BF3. I do would like to have a card that can do these tasks, prefer dual fan such as the MSI and must be quite enough at full power. I've been looking at the GTX 460, GTX 550Ti, and 560 non-ti. I went to the local computer store here in Japan and saw the 550Ti around $125. I don't know if the higher the number equates to newer version and better performance which is why I am back here again. Thanks for your help again.
 
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