Discussion Which cards are the threshold for being better than integrated?

[JWade]

of course dedicated cards are better than integrated, but whats the threshold for the various sockets/CPU's? I have an old nvidia 7200gs that is definitely an improvement over the onboard of an x2 4400+ amd chip, but would be a downgrade to an a10-5700 fm2 chip's onboard. anyone have a general idea of the nvidia and ATI cards that is needed to break the threshold of onboard performance?

AM2/AM3?
skt 775 lets use a q6600
fm1
fm2

 

[mohit9206]

I think the GT 1030 gddr5 is a bit faster than the Ryzen 3400G, the GT 730 gddr5 is probably slightly faster than the A12-9800.

 

[JWade]

wondering about some older ones, like c2d, c2q, fm1, am3, etc. right now I have an a10-7800. the motherboard doesnt have hdmi, but does have display port, i can get a display port to hdmi adapter, or i can put in an nvidia 710 1gb hard that has hdmi. system has 16gb ram and a 240gb ssd. if the 710 is equal to or less than the a10 R7 video, i may as well just get an adapter and use the 710 in an older system. but dont know

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Tomshardware still have their GPU ranking, if that's helpful:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

I'd take it with a grain of salt, but still.

 

[mopardude87]

I know the struggles of needing hdmi, i had a rinky dinky set up recently with a H81 motherboard only offering vga out. Oddly i couldn't get aux to component audio to work with a tv older then time itself so in a fit i just tossed some old Dell computer speakers in the mix and had video from the vga port to t.v and the audio coming out the speakers. In the speakers defense, they sounded quite a bit better then the speakers in the t.v even if they looked like they crawled out of the grave from 2004. Not to long before that,i failed phenomenally to get a vga to hdmi adapter and aux cable to work with the same set up on a t.v only offering hdmi ports. I got more ticked then annoyed and just swapped out the set up for a 8350 based one with onboard hdmi. Well W10 was a wreck with it so before i could beg someone ANYONE for a valium, i just downgraded to W7 and had a issue free HTPC experience.

I just assume the op wants audio to carry over to a new t.v and i could only suggest if you can get like a GT1030 or maybe even like a 960 if you got a decent psu then do it. . I mention the gtx 960 cause well i got hdmi out on my HD630 and my B360 motherboard well it locks itself to 30hz at 4k and AGAIN no audio. Picked up a cheap local used gtx 960 and was over the moon. It was way cheaper then the 1030, it supports 4k 60hz and it can game quite a bit better then the 1030.

I wish for nuclear annihilation to anything with a vga port though. I am sitting currently looking at this old 24'' Dell monitor in the closet with only dvi and vga . I do also have a 27'' 1080p monitor with vga and hdmi support so MAYBE the 24'' will see a quick drop and sudden stop. I reside in a second story room with a VERY BIG WINDOW! Only thing saving the 24'' is the fact my 960,1060 and 1080ti have viable dvi ports. The 1080ti is like the last of the mohicans offering that dvi option though.

 

[PingSpike]

I've been running comparisons on my pile of crappy cards versus the Intel UHD 630 on my 8400. Just using the heaven benchmark because its easy to install. Its hard to find benchmarks on junk cards and iGPUs, the best place seems to be amateur videos on youtube.

The UHD 630 gets basically the same score as my R7 250 DDR3. Both those cards are basically double the score of my GT710 DDR3. Mine you, this is just one benchmark. I'd imagine gaming performance might be all over the map.

 

[Midwayman]

What do you want to do with it? The main reason for the really low end cards would be to get hardware video encoding/decoding for new codecs. Even that is probably mainly relevant on laptops for the battery implications.

 

[Shmee]

I would say the minimum threshold for buying a video card would be like at GTX 1050 level or RX 570 level. Anything else is not powerful enough really to make that much of a difference in games, and would not be a whole lot cheaper.