How to choose the right Graphics card for a non gamer

mrtom

How to choose the right Graphics card
I want to fit a graphics card that can handle Premier and output up to 1080P (and I am not a gamer.)
I'v looked at Graphic cards at PC world & Adverts.ie
(http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/compu...county-Dublin/) but prices vary wildly and I have no idea which one suites my needs with my average pc.

I'v done some reading on Shader clock speed and Core clock but am a bit lost here.
So advice welcome from both experts and non experts on what I should be looking for and yes, cheap is good!


My hardware
Mobo (GF8 100VM-M5) has a PCI Express X16 & PCI Express X1 slot And supports Hybrid-SLI enabled Graphic cards.
OS W7 64bit / 4 Gig ram / AMD 2.4 dual core CPU
As you can see, its not a particularly fast or new pc .

mrtom

To be more specific in my question, does video editing make the same demands on a discrete graphics card as games do?

sink

Looking at the teck specs for adobe premiere CS6

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

Supported AMD graphics cards for GPU acceleration
AMD Radeon HD 6750M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)
AMD Radeon HD 6770M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)

Supported NVIDIA graphics cards for GPU acceleration
GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac OS)
GeForce GTX 470 (Windows)
GeForce GTX 570 (Windows)
GeForce GTX 580 (Windows)
NVIDIA® Tesla C2075 card (Windows) when paired with a Quadro card as part of an NVIDIA Maximus™ configuration
Quadro FX 3700M (Windows)
Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
Quadro FX 3800M (Windows)
Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
Quadro 2000 (Windows)
Quadro 2000D (Windows)
Quadro 2000M (Windows)
Quadro 3000M (Windows)
Quadro 4000 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro 4000M (Windows)
Quadro 5000 (Windows)
Quadro 5000M (Windows)
Quadro 5010M (Windows)
Quadro 6000 (Windows)
Quadro CX (Windows)
Tesla C2075** (Windows)

Visit the NVIDIA website for system requirements and compatibility. The list of graphics cards that are compatible with Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS6 is updated on a regular basis.

So it appears from that you will need a relatively high end Nvidia card to benefit from GPU acceleration but it only lists previous generations, I would imagine the high end cards of this generation (i.e GTX 670, 680 & TITAN) would also be supported. More reading here.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/quadro-premiere-pro-cs6-uk.html

marco_polo

Thats just the the official list you can unlock other less powerful Nvidia cards too.

With a relatively low powered CPU no point spending a fortune either. I'd be looking to pickup something cheap like a GT 240/ GT 430 etc. Something like this would be fine for your setup, the GT430 is a 96 cuda core card. There aren't massive performance jumps with the most powerful cards in most cases.

Have a read here OP.

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

ozmo

mrtom wrote: »

To be more specific in my question, does video editing make the same demands on a discrete graphics card as games do?

You can edit video with the cheapest of modern cards - I like the ones with no fans as they are cheap and silent - its the CPU that will limit your encoding speed then rather than the video card.

But.. Even some cheap cards though can do some GPU acceleration -
where you can off load some of this cpu processing onto the video card (if it supports CUDA or ATI's equivalent) - The software can use certain video cards as if they were hundreds of cpus - The best ones last time I looked into it are the Nvidia 'Keplar' cards - they can be expensive.

mrtom

So my AMD 4050e cpu sets my threshold & as the on board GForce 8100 has "6" Cuda cores, time to get a better graphic card without going over the top. simples
thanks, this clears up things

mrtom

I have my eye on this card:

Radeon SAPPHIRE HD 4890 Vapor-X Graphics Card GPU

http://www.adverts.ie/graphics-cards/radeon-sapphire-hd-4890-vapor-x-graphics-card-gpu/2773361

i have a EZCool 500 Watt Quiet Silent PC Power Supply and will pick up the two power adapters required.

Am I right to assume that this has the ATI version of "Cuda" support?

ozmo

mrtom wrote: »

I have my eye on this card:

Am I right to assume that this has the ATI version of "Cuda" support?

OpenCl is what AMD have implemented in response to CUDA - this card does have it in its specifications - you would need check it supports the latest OpenCl drivers though - this link might help
http://developer.amd.com/tools/heterogeneous-computing/amd-accelerated-parallel-processing-app-sdk/system-requirements-driver-compatibility/


Looks sold anyway.

mrtom

Indeed it is, this thing of beauty sitting in front of me.
Now to sort out its power feed. It came with two 6 pin to molex leads. I have two available fly leads from power supply; Sata & Molex. So now to source a molex splitter cable to feed both 6 pins..

I understand there is no need to disable on board graphics in the bios as the unit is plug & play.

Getting there...

ozmo

mrtom wrote: »

So now to source a molex splitter cable to feed both 6 pins

I think the idea is you connect them to two feeds from the psu rather than use a splitter.
It's to get more amps safely to the card by increasing the wire thickness- if you use a splitter the card just could be unstable or run in low power mode when stressed.

Do you have a CD rom you can live without- you could use that.

mrtom

Thanks for that..
how about a compromise & split the feed to the cd rom instead?
Is that a win win?

marco_polo

Is this the PSU you have? If so it is not a quality 500W PSU and so I would be concerned about its ability to power a HD4890 sufficiently.

Looking at the rated outputs sticker in the photo on the ad, it can only supply 22 amps on the 12V power rail (12V is what the CPU and GPU uses).

22a X 12V = 264W which is a long way short of 500W. I would expect a good quality 500W unit to be capable of outputting at least 36-40 amps of 12V power.

In the HD4980 review I linked to the load system power consumption of 275W is probably beyond what EZcool PSU can do.

Honestly I would very much reccomend getting a decent 450W - 500W unit instead.

mrtom

yes; yellow lead =12vdc-22amp max. hmm, why does it present itself as 500w?
Looks like this "thing of beauty" will stay in its anti static bag for the time being.
thanks for the recomended spec.

marco_polo

Its labeled as 500W because certain PSU manufacturers lack moral fibre

Deano12345

mrtom wrote: »

yes; yellow lead =12vdc-22amp max. hmm, why does it present itself as 500w?
Looks like this "thing of beauty" will stay in its anti static bag for the time being.
thanks for the recomended spec.

It's an older style of PSU that gives more of its power on the 3/5v rails as opposed to the 12v rails of the newer PSU's. Even though its probably a 350W PSU (overall, not just on one of the rails) its not the may west to be pairing with a modern GPU, like the 4890.

Also, do you have good airflow in the case ? The 4890's run HOT (I had one )

mrtom

So time for me to stop looking at sites like adverts.ie (though I did very well with the 4890) and buy new. I understand unit to be capable of outputting at least 36-40 amps of 12V, Any recomedations, bearing in mind I have this involuntary reflex to bargins!
Case fan working fine.

mrtom

considering this :
Corsair 500W Builder Series CX 80+ Bronze ATX Power Supply

Output Current
+3.3V - 25 A , +5V - 20 A , +12V - 38 A , -12V - 0.8 A , +5VSB - 3 A


http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-500w-builder-series-cx-80--bronze-atx-power-supply-8CDD.html?src=3

Deano12345

mrtom wrote: »

considering this :
Corsair 500W Builder Series CX 80+ Bronze ATX Power Supply

Output Current
+3.3V - 25 A , +5V - 20 A , +12V - 38 A , -12V - 0.8 A , +5VSB - 3 A


http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-500w-builder-series-cx-80--bronze-atx-power-supply-8CDD.html?src=3

I've used it in 3 different build's, just a solid little unit, nothing flashy. Perfect for what you need too !

marco_polo

The CX500 would be a good choice, for 4-5 less this XFX 450W is a solid unit too, and its 34a 12V rail (408W) would be easily enough for the HD4890 and your CPU which are have a TDP (thermal design power) of 45W and 190W respectively (Actual power consumption is probably a bit lower than even these two figures).

mrtom

Yep, i feel this involuntary twitch coming on...marco_polo, thanks for addressing my condition!

deconduo

Yeah with older PSUs there was a lot more focus on the +3/5V rails, whereas modern components draw power almost exclusively from the +12V rails. This isn't really false advertising, its just the way they were built.

However, cheap PSUs will just blatantly lie about their capabilities. A 500W cheap unit might be able to supply 500W for about 10 seconds before exploding.

mrtom

Well I went with the CX 500, as I saw it had two PCI E power leads. Its up and running.

A few points I'm unclear about before I install the card.

The Radeon SAPPHIRE HD 4890 Vapor-X has twin 6 pin power connectors.
I assumed just connect the two fly leads, however I saw this on the Sappiretech site:
“This series uses the PCI-Express Gen2 interface, and features dual connectors for CrossFireX cables, allowing two or more cards to be used together on a CrossFireX compatible mainboard for even higher graphics performance.”
Does this mean I just use one fly lead for power and the other is a link port for a dual card set up?

Also on the support site:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?psn=0001&pid=259&lid=1#

From the list of available downloads, I'm not downloading the “Hot fix for AGP” and the “Hydravision”. Am I right here?

Otherwise, methodology after fitting the card: I switch to PCI E in bios, let Windows id the device then run the Catalyst software suit and its up its running!
thoughts welcome