Can anyone offer computer help recommending video cards?

[Arachnyd]

I ran into a motherboard issue on my 5 year old desktop and now I'm going to build a new one, but I dont know much about video cards. I dont want the video card to hold me back since I'm spending approx $2000 on the system.

For my uses, I do NOT game except an occasional solitaire or starcraft 2 adventure (maybe average of 1 hour a month?). I do a lot of multitasking and occasional real light video work (still running 10 year old software, but I might upgrade at some point... never had render issues). Most of my work is photoshop / older macromedia products, but my old system seemed to be able to hang. Mainly, my clients are mostly computer and software developers so I need to "look" like I'm on top of my game, and my old 4 core i7 / 12 GB ram 3 1TB in Raid 5 system was running a LITTLE slow when I was over-multi-tasking, but frankly was probably "good enough".

What I've already decided:

6 core i7 3930k
32 GB ram (4 8 GB 12800, upgradable to 8 8 GB for 64 GB)
OS and software on single 120 GB SSD SATA III 6 gb/s
3 SATA III 1 TB HDs in RAID 5 (Was going to do 2 2tb in RAID 1, but 3 1TB blacks is cheaper and should be faster too) for data storage

Leaving really only the Video cards to decide on. I do run 3 monitors, I'd prefer not to replace them and 2 of them are VGA, so I'm looking at cards that can do DVI and VGA. That should mean I need 2 video cards. I have a 9500GT and a 9600GT now. I was looking at 2 GT 640s until I read that they were significantly slower than the HD 7750s, so I am now pending on 2 HD 7750s.

Should that be suitable for my needs or do I need to upgrade to something better? the 7750 is 1 GB GDDR5 and the 640 is 2GB DDR3. Most the comparisons have been for gaming. Does it change if I'm not gaming?

Thanks in advance for your Thoughts

[Brokinarrow]

I'm sure dual 7750s will be PLENTY o power for ya. Whether or not you're gaming, you need graphic processing power (I assume, i don't do a lot of photoshop stuff) and the 6 core CPU will definitely help with multi-tasking.

[Chiefish]

Just a tip on the old stuff youre going to ditch.[ 4 core i7 / 12 GB ram 3 ] I would be willing to bet that if you just kept these parts, got a new vid card, new m/b and a solid state hard drive any slowness you encountered before would be gone. For a lot less money then if you upgrade your cpu and ram. From what you have described the 7750 should be fine for what you do video wise.

[PsychoZL1]

Honestly I prefer Nvidia graphics cards over ATI, but that's just my preference. You should be good with any of those cards. Just depends on how much $$ you want to pay and how much VRAM you need/want.

[Arachnyd]

Originally Posted by PsychoRS

Honestly I prefer Nvidia graphics cards over ATI, but that's just my preference. You should be good with any of those cards. Just depends on how much $$ you want to pay and how much VRAM you need/want.

Thats the problem... I dont want to spend more than I have to, and I dont understand the benefit of VRAM. I have been trying to do research into video card stuff, but all I can ever find is in reference to gaming, so I can't figure out what it means if your not gaming.

Is more vram better than less? (well yes obviously, but in the forums I've read it says "ram doesnt matter if your not throughputting enough info to get "caught up". How do you figure out how much info your throughputting? What do you need for video and graphics work?

I haven't had any issues with my GT 9600, so quite frankly I'm thinking "it doesnt really matter" but I wish I could find a good way to understand it better, so the best I think I can do is go with the benchmarking data I've tracked down which seems to show that the radeon cards around the $110 price range dominate the GeForce.... but the trade off is less VRAM, but then everywhere I read it says it doesnt really matter...

Thanks so much for the pointers!

[Steve Dallas]

Originally Posted by Arachnyd

Thats the problem... I dont want to spend more than I have to, and I dont understand the benefit of VRAM. I have been trying to do research into video card stuff, but all I can ever find is in reference to gaming, so I can't figure out what it means if your not gaming.

Is more vram better than less? (well yes obviously, but in the forums I've read it says "ram doesnt matter if your not throughputting enough info to get "caught up". How do you figure out how much info your throughputting? What do you need for video and graphics work?

I haven't had any issues with my GT 9600, so quite frankly I'm thinking "it doesnt really matter" but I wish I could find a good way to understand it better, so the best I think I can do is go with the benchmarking data I've tracked down which seems to show that the radeon cards around the $110 price range dominate the GeForce.... but the trade off is less VRAM, but then everywhere I read it says it doesnt really matter...

Thanks so much for the pointers!

If you don't plan on gaming, you don't have to get a blazing fast video card. Aero will still work with most low end cards that are out these days.

Stick with nVidia, not ATI. VRAM is used for loading textures in 3D graphics. Games use this mostly, but other applications can and do use this on occasion. It's best not to skimp on the card, as you'll regret it later.

Also, consider this. You may not do gaming now...but plan for the future. Do NOT buy a low end card now, then expect it to work well 2-3 years from now when applications and operating systems change.

I'd recommend putting about $250-400 bucks into the card if you can.

[Arachnyd]

Originally Posted by Brokinarrow

I'm sure dual 7750s will be PLENTY o power for ya. Whether or not you're gaming, you need graphic processing power (I assume, i don't do a lot of photoshop stuff) and the 6 core CPU will definitely help with multi-tasking.

Excellent- Thanks! Thats what I needed to know!

Originally Posted by Chiefish

Just a tip on the old stuff youre going to ditch.[ 4 core i7 / 12 GB ram 3 ] I would be willing to bet that if you just kept these parts, got a new vid card, new m/b and a solid state hard drive any slowness you encountered before would be gone. For a lot less money then if you upgrade your cpu and ram. From what you have described the 7750 should be fine for what you do video wise.

Thanks for your thoughts and pointers. I did a little research and I can get some decent x58 boards now. When I built my system there were only 2 x58 boards out there and both were SATA II only and lacked some other perks like USB 3.0. Maybe I should look into slapping a closed loop water cooler on the 920, upgrade to 24 GB ram (max the 920 can support) and just act like its a new computer, all for under $750. Sounds good to me!

[Arachnyd]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

If you don't plan on gaming, you don't have to get a blazing fast video card. Aero will still work with most low end cards that are out these days.

Stick with nVidia, not ATI. VRAM is used for loading textures in 3D graphics. Games use this mostly, but other applications can and do use this on occasion. It's best not to skimp on the card, as you'll regret it later.

Also, consider this. You may not do gaming now...but plan for the future. Do NOT buy a low end card now, then expect it to work well 2-3 years from now when applications and operating systems change.

I'd recommend putting about $250-400 bucks into the card if you can.

Thanks for your thoughts. Definately don't anticipate any gaming- Coaching my kids soccer team is the closest I'll get haha. I barely have enough time to spend with my family or race my cars, so I doubt I'll ever find the time to sit behind a computer for fun! haha.

I looked up some more expensive cards and a lot don't seem to support VGA. Do you have any cards you recommend? I run 3-4 monitors, 2 are VGA 2 are DVI. I want to maintain atleast 1 VGA for graphics work. Some of the lower range cards offer DVI to VGA for one of the ports.

[Steve Dallas]

VGA really isn't used anymore. That's a pretty old video standard.

Most stuff is DVI or HDMI...any graphical work you do would work with those as well. Most flat screen monitors don't even support VGA anymore, though you can get adaptors that will convert. VGA just has much poorer graphical quality these days. You really don't need it.

[nikos30]

yo did you get anything? i didnt read all the posts. I am extremely into computers. any questions and i can answer them anytime