Which of these two graphics cards should I purchase?

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Muku
You are true to some extent... Graphics card memory size doesn't matter up to single monitor usage. Memory doesn't make card faster or better, Other things do and they are really complicated things. So, lets not discuss it here.
But for gaming card we don't recommend lower than 1GB of memory. Again you said you won't be gaming so, you would be fine with either 512MB or 1GB.. Both are plenty for your need.

Generalisation like "nvidia are generally better than radeon" or vice versa should not be made at any point while buying a card. You should check individual card's benchmark to decide which one is better at your price point. And looking at the benchmark it seems that 6450 is a little bit better than GT 610.

Nvidia uses 10 Watts more...
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davilse

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Mar 19, 2014
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4,510
Hey, thanks for the reply :)

Ah yes, sorry maybe I should have mentioned I'm limited to PCI x1, the two cards I put up are pretty much the only options I have, particularly in my price range.

Guess the main thing I'm asking is does the in build memory gap of 512 to 1024 mb make a difference over all the other stuff, such as clock and bus speeds and what not?

I would have assumed the nvidia one was better even though it has 512 mb lower, as I read somewhere that memory doesn't make much difference and nvidia are generally better than radeon?

There is also the issue of the maximum wattage consumption, the radeon uses 19.1 watts maximum, and the nvidia uses 29 watts maximum. So does this mean because it is capable of using more power that its more powerful?

I started another thread on here about pcu power consumption actually, I'll only be using one of these cards in a pc with 220watts power supply. The nvidia spec page recommends 300watts and the radeon spec page recommends 400watts, but as the GPU's in question only use 19 and 29 watts maximum I'm just gonna use em anyway, those recommendations from manufacturers are bogus right?

Sorry a lot of rambling here, but I've never really looked into graphics card stuff before until recently. Also, I'm considering making the purchase today so any responses are welcome.
 
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Muku

Muku

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Jun 19, 2013
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11,160
You are true to some extent... Graphics card memory size doesn't matter up to single monitor usage. Memory doesn't make card faster or better, Other things do and they are really complicated things. So, lets not discuss it here.
But for gaming card we don't recommend lower than 1GB of memory. Again you said you won't be gaming so, you would be fine with either 512MB or 1GB.. Both are plenty for your need.

Generalisation like "nvidia are generally better than radeon" or vice versa should not be made at any point while buying a card. You should check individual card's benchmark to decide which one is better at your price point. And looking at the benchmark it seems that 6450 is a little bit better than GT 610.

Nvidia uses 10 Watts more but that doesn't mean that it is better than AMD. Nvidia and AMD do things completely differently so their energy requirement also varies. By looking at the energy consumption alone its impossible to tell which is better. if you look at Nvidia some gaming cards like 750ti, they consume less power but perform better than similarly priced AMD cards. The same thing holds true for AMD also.

A normal system with a single CPU, HDD and ODD without the graphics card consumes roughly around 150W. So with the card installed you would require a max of 170-180W at full load. So, assuming your PSU is a good one and really delivers exact 220W, I don't think you need to worry about that PSU. You will be fine.
 
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davilse

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Mar 19, 2014
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4,510
Some really good advice, thankyou kindly :)

I'll go with the AMD then, and thanks for the reassurance about power consumption, I was a bit concerned about that.

You've been very helpful, thanks again!
 
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