Which graphics card will be best for my PC

The_One_2

I'm thinking of getting a fairly basic graphics card as i do abit of photo/video editing/recording these days on the PC, which it struggles with most of the time
Cant afford to buy a new PC, so just trying to do a few upgrades to it myself.


What kind of graphics card would be best for my PC? my PC specs are.....

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

System Model
Packard Bell NEC Packard Bell Computer PB13316901
System Serial Number: 047383020440
Chassis Serial Number: 50424E
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Processor
2.93 gigahertz Intel Celeron
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board
Board: NEC COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL P5S800-VM Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0160 05/12/2005

Memory Modules
960 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' has 512 MB

Controllers
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
SiS PCI IDE Controller

Display
SiS 651_661FX_741_760_760GX_M661FX_M661MX_M741_M760_M760GX [Display adapter]
Default Monitor

Multimedia
Realtek AC'97 Audio

Any help is much appreciated


Thanks

macman

A Celeron is not really a good processor for intensive work like this, but I would start by fitting some more RAM, as you only have 1GB. Go up to 2GB if it can take it.

The_One_2

I have only just bought another 512Mb stick 2 days ago, to bring the total to 1Gb.

Seems to have made an noticeable difference so far, but is not going to be enough, so i was under the impression that a dedicated graphics card (currently its integrated, so takes 60Mb out of the 1Gb of RAM) would do the trick maybe??

epz_2

60 meg is unlikely to make much difference, a dedicated card might free up some memory bandwidth but unless your encoding apps are cuda enabled and you are going to be getting a high end GPU a better CPU would be what you are after.

i dont know the board but odds are it would take a p4 and possibly a dual core p4 which would really up the performance.

FYI i helped a bloke at work build a pretty serious video encoing rig, quad core etc and the memory perfomance difference is negligabe, it still takes him about 30 mins to run an encode so unless you are planning or spending mega money its not going to be close to real time


edit, also thing about reinstalling windows and ripping out any default crud hp put on including the antivirus, rogue programs can kill performance too.

Baldur

epz wrote: »

i dont know the board but odds are it would take a p4 and possibly a dual core p4 which would really up the performance.

The original motherboard is an Asus P5S800-VM (800MHz FSB, Maximum RAM 2GB), processor support list can be found here - http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

The_One_2

My budget is about £30

How do i know if my motherboard has a AGP, PCI or PCI-E slot ?

My PC can only take a max of 2GB and i have only just bought a 512Mb to bring the total to 1GB

Would you recommend any good reputable retailers for graphics cards? I've seen some on Play.com graphics cards for around £25, £30 is the max budget


Thanks

The_One_2

Here's a pic if it helps

DatabaseError

The_One wrote: »

I have only just bought another 512Mb stick 2 days ago, to bring the total to 1Gb.

2 Gb (2x1gb) is fairly cheap, and should make a much bigger difference than the upgraded to 1gb.

Reading the motherboard manual, found here, you can fit an AGP 8x card, which, besides freeing the paltry 64mb of system ram, will relieve some of the pressure on the CPU.

I encode video from divx/xvid to mpeg4/dvd, on my old system (better than yours) I could encode at roughly 0.7x, now (quad core system), dependent upon bitrate, I hit between 7x and 10x.

The_One_2

Would something like the following be ok ?


http://www.ebuyer.com/product/60575

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

I think ive found the one on overclockers cheaper on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-GeForce-...724099&sr=1-17

Thanks

The_One_2

So upping the RAM to 2Gb and a graphics card should be adequate ?

DatabaseError

The_One wrote: »

So upping the RAM to 2Gb and a graphics card should be adequate ?

If you're not in a hurry, yes.
The celeron processor which you have is ....erm..... not very good. 2.9ghz sounds fast..until you realise that being a celly is has limited cache and really is a cut-down, cut-price processor.