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video cards

skyhigh

New Member
Would I be better off with 2- 512 video cards or 1- 896, in my new computer?

I was surprised to see the 2-512's are cheaper than the 1-896
 

Sabre

New Member
There is alot more to that question than you think. Most importantly, if you're not doing any gaming then the RAM isn't going to matter much. Is it a design/work computer? Or a home machine?

The 896 sounds like a GTX variant which is going to be very overkill for a non-gaming rig.

Better give us a little bit more information about your intentions with your computer/video card upgrade.
 

omgsideburns

New Member
check the speed, the chipset, reviews,, etc.. Memory is no longer the main thing to look for in video cards.

Dual or single monitor (sounds like a dumb question but new video cards can run in sync for better performance).
 

Sabre

New Member
You can get away with just about anything in there then. Any modern videocard worth ~$40 or more will be more than enough. If your motherboard has onboard video it might even be enough in most cases.

There is a crowd that appreciate the graphic specific Quadro type cards, but I unfortunately am unable to give you any solid advice on them.
 

choucove

New Member
When it comes to the type of design work that most sign shops do, there's not a whole lot of demand on the actual video card, and most of it is based on the CPU performance. As others mentioned, the memory on the card is no longer the largest deciding factor. But for any design work, 512 MB should even be plenty for anything you really need, much less two 512 MB cards. Using just the one would be ample power and remove some complexities that your software might not even be able to take advantage of!

As Sabre mentioned above, there are several that like the Quadro line from nVidia. I am one of them that will suggest this line of video cards because they have been outstanding quality for me. A simple nVidia Quadro FX570 is what I have used in several of our design computers and it's more than enough power. But even then it may be more than you really need, as spending up to $100.00 will still net you a very decent card for higher resolutions and plenty of performance.
 
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