Video card question for the geeks

Jeff Horton

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I have to upgrade to a good video card. I have a good computer but it just can't keep up with larger videos and I am doing more and more. I am not a gamer. Main areas I am running it slow downs is CAD and video editing.

When I start looking at video cards I am seeing video cards and work station cards. I have read the difference and I think that for what I am doing either would work just fine. But wanted a second opinion on that.
 
Jeff,

Don't worry about workstation cards. They're a bit of a hangover from another time. The search should be for graphics cards, and there are lots of good ones.

The real question? What kind of slot do you have on your motherboard? PCI, PCIe, PCI2, AGP? Once you've settled that, look for at least 512 of memory, or go 1024 and you won't worry for years. Fifty or sixty bucks should be your upper limit. I do high end games and HD videos with a 60 dollar 1024 card. Anything beyond that is overkill.

http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?N=4294966938

Thanks,

Bill
 
I have to upgrade to a good video card. I have a good computer but it just can't keep up with larger videos and I am doing more and more. I am not a gamer. Main areas I am running it slow downs is CAD and video editing.

When I start looking at video cards I am seeing video cards and work station cards. I have read the difference and I think that for what I am doing either would work just fine. But wanted a second opinion on that.

I am somewhat of a 'puter geek...according to my kids. Maybe I can help you.

I have a Gateway Gm5260. It was fine for a while, but after storing all of the CAD's and files, The speed was Extremely slow for vid's and other things.

Here is what I learned through trial and error.

I wanted a MUCH faster video card, but wanting that left me with 2 issues. The memory and the power supply. Most of the better cards needed a LOT more power so here is what I did to solve the issues. And I have to tell you, vids, large files, Cad's etc, open for me know at lightning speed.

First thing I did was go here and get a new power supply. VERY EASY to install, the trick was to get one that fit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...085&cm_re=power_supply-_-17-104-085-_-Product

Install was super easy. Just take on wire at a time off and put it on the new supply. Again, before you buy, make sure it fits.

Next was upper memory. Again easy and cheap. Here is what I used.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0161241&cm_re=4_gb_ram-_-20-161-241-_-Product

Remember that there is DDR, DDR-2 and DDR-3, I think RAM out there, just match it up to what you have. There should be 2 slots for the memory in your system, put in these and that solves that problem.

Next was the video card. Mine was very slow, and it was the main issue. Now that the RAM and the power was solved, time for the big problem. Here is what I ended up with.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500142&cm_re=9800GT-_-14-500-142-_-Product

All I can say about this card...is WOW. No more lag, even on games...and I mean ANY game. I spend a lot of time on this computer, and lag was something that I could not tolerate. This solved the problem.

Next. I wanted to do a dusting a cleaning on my hard drive. Cleaning out all of the files and moving them to an external hard drive was simple. I went to Walmart and found a 1TB external for about 80 bucks. I moved ALL of my cads, Videos, Sketch-up's, etc into that external. I ended up moving about 400GB of info there. This increased my speed as well.

Once all of this was done, I used IOBIT Advanced System care (free) to clean up my registry and hard drive, then ran my defragger and I was done.

My sytem is now smoking while saving a ton of cash. ( I did treat myself to a 25' flat screen I found on Newegg for about $200 :thumb:)...and now I am extrememly happy!

If I can help you at all, just pm me or post.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Don and Bill. Well the computer is one of several I picked up G'ment surplus with no drives. Dell GX-260. I have plenty of memory and processor. Just needs a decent video card. It has AGP slots in them.

I have an older dual head Matrox Millennium G450 driving dual LCDs. A just looked and it only has 32 megs of memory. Works fine till you try doing video. It's a little slow with boat design software when you switch to 3D views.

Doing a little more reading and sort of getting an idea of what I want. Main requirement is dual head with "stretched" mode. I have gotten spoiled to that!

PS I have read that there are some compatiblity issues with the Dells and Gee-force cards so I am probably just going to stay away from them just in case.
 
Thanks Don and Bill. Well the computer is one of several I picked up G'ment surplus with no drives. Dell GX-260. I have plenty of memory and processor. Just needs a decent video card. It has AGP slots in them.

I have an older dual head Matrox Millennium G450 driving dual LCDs. A just looked and it only has 32 megs of memory. Works fine till you try doing video. It's a little slow with boat design software when you switch to 3D views.

Doing a little more reading and sort of getting an idea of what I want. Main requirement is dual head with "stretched" mode. I have gotten spoiled to that!

PS I have read that there are some compatiblity issues with the Dells and Gee-force cards so I am probably just going to stay away from them just in case.

You might want to try process of elimination before you go through the expense. And you are right, Dell's have an issue with Ge force. I would try the memory first.....and then go from there
 
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