advice on graphics card

dipsomaniac

i have onboard graphics with this mb Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX

i don't do gaming but have the family videos and photos on pc. is there any point in me upgrading graphics card as the onboard one is the lower common denominator on windows rating

i was looking at sapphire hd 5770 1gb for £100

any advice appreciated

GeoffX

I have an Asus HD5770 and it's an excellent card, but prices have come down dramatically in the last couple of months. In that price range it's also worth considering nVidia's GTX 768MB and GTX460 1GB. They've now released a third variant, the GTX 460 SE which performs somwhere between the two. I'd avoid that and go for the 1GB model.

But if you're not playing games then you're unlikely to benefit from the greatly improved performance that one of these cards would give you. Also, you would need to make sure that your computer's PSU has a six-pin PCI-E power connector.

Toxteth_OGrady

dipsomaniac wrote: »

have the family videos and photos on pc. is there any point in me upgrading graphics card as the onboard one is the lower common denominator on windows rating

If it does what you need it to do and plays the videos/displays the photos OK then there's no point upgrading.

:cool:

TOG

dipsomaniac

GeoffX wrote: »

I have an Asus HD5770 and it's an excellent card, but prices have come down dramatically in the last couple of months. In that price range it's also worth considering nVidia's GTX 768MB and GTX460 1GB. They've now released a third variant, the GTX 460 SE which performs somwhere between the two. I'd avoid that and go for the 1GB model.

But if you're not playing games then you're unlikely to benefit from the greatly improved performance that one of these cards would give you. Also, you would need to make sure that your computer's PSU has a six-pin PCI-E power connector.

thanks for reply. i have a Corsair 650W TX Series PSU so should have the connector.

just wondering if i will see any benefit at all adding a graphics card if i don't do gaming. i am thinking about dual screens

davb

It looks like that motherboard has both DVI and VGA connections, so it should run dual monitors as is.
The Windows rating may show it to be the weakest link, and if you were gaming it would be significant, but for photos and video it should be fine. Just give it a try, worst case you can do the upgrade at a later date, but most likely it will be fine.

rdpro

£100 for a graphics card is wayyyy too much for a non-gaming PC. Even something like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239012 (£26) would benefit you though, as you would free up your onboard graphics from using your system RAM. Also, it doesn't require a separate power connection, and is fanless.

DatabaseError

If you're not pushing the the onboard GPU, the only real benefit you're gonna see from adding one is releasing the system RAM the onboard is using, the cheapest PCI-E card will do that.

Hammyman

No point in upgrading at all. I have that motherboard and it'll do "reasonable" gaming with the onboard. Other than that, you'll not notice any benefit with buying a dedicated card.