Video Card Suggestions

[rcook99]

Looking to upgrade my video card to handle 3 monitors. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Keep in mind I don't see the need to spend $300-$600 for the design work I do.

Thanks
RC

 

[mbsstandoffs]

I would recommend a graphics card based on GeForce GTX 980 with 4 GB or RAM or more. The reason I recommend a NVIDIA card over an AMD card is that more mainstream graphics applications are optimized for NVIDIA graphics cards. You will be able to find several cards with these specifications on Amazon or Newegg in your price range.

 

[MDKAOD]

mbs is right, you will need to be more concerned with VRam than horsepower for driving multiple screens.

 

[rcook99]

I would prefer to NOT spend $300-$600 on a video card. Most of what I do is vector based and does not require a monster video card unless I am missing something. :Big Laugh

 

[mbsstandoffs]

I would prefer to NOT spend $300-$600 on a video card. Most of what I do is vector based and does not require a monster video card unless I am missing something. :Big Laugh

What applications do you regularly use?

 

[rcook99]

Corel X-6 and Signlab P&C 9.1.

What applications do you regularly use?

 

[mbsstandoffs]

These 2 video cards will support multiple monitors and are below $300 and should fit your needs.

http://amzn.com/B012NOWEY0

http://amzn.com/B00NNXVPS2

 

[Andriy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487154

Grab that and you'll be satisfied + be able to play games if it slows down a lot!
980 is an overkill

 

[kheebl]

I have the GTX 970 and I love it

 

[WildWestDesigns]

On stuff like this, I usually suggest a Workstation card, but there is a difference in costs. You don't really need how gaming cards render for our type of work.

Just like I usually suggest ECC Ram for our type of work, but that definitely has much more of a cost.

 

[reQ]

Unless you do 3d modeling, you don't need powerful video card. I use Corel & Photoshop at work and i use CPU based video, and have zero issues.

All what i invested most money in

- CPU
- RAM
- SSD

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Unless you do 3d modeling, you don't need powerful video card. I use Corel & Photoshop at work and i use CPU based video, and have zero issues.

All what i invested most money in

- CPU
- RAM
- SSD

I know one program that he uses and I wouldn't cheap out on video, unless he never runs realistic view. That can be demanding (Wilcom).

Unless this computer isn't going to be running Wilcom.

 

[rcook99]

Evan,

It will be used to run Wilcom as well and yes I use realistic view as well. I also have PS on the system. Keep in mind the OS and all the programs are on the SSD while all other files are on 7600rpm drives with 16gb RAM on Win 7.

I know one program that he uses and I wouldn't cheap out on video, unless he never runs realistic view. That can be demanding (Wilcom).

Unless this computer isn't going to be running Wilcom.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Evan,

It will be used to run Wilcom as well and yes I use realistic view as well. I also have PS on the system. Keep in mind the OS and all the programs are on the SSD while all other files are on 7600rpm drives with 16gb RAM on Win 7.

Be careful with cpu based video on a 32bit program (which Wilcom is). As that affects how much RAM the program sees. A 32 bit program has a cap, while a 64 bit program can see much more. A portion of that cap may be "seen" by Wilcom as being taken up by that video usage. So while you might think that Wilcom is going to be able to use 3GB, it actually sees 2GB etc.

I had, at one time, had a video card that was setup like that. Complicated designs (like the recent dog pictures that I had posted in the embroidery forum) would take up to 5 minutes to re-render after an edit using realistic view and that was with not doing any other process (of my choosing, who knows what MS processes were also running at that time in the background).


This also isn't getting into the differences of cores between the two and how they each handle data that's being used.