Please Recommend a New Graphics Card

[dcinmich]

Good morning hardware folks,

Lately I have been getting these artifacts on my monitor, they are like long or broken lines of different colored pixels. They will go away if I refresh the page or switch from one window to the other. I've had people tell me this is my graphics card overheating, but I have checked on this and the card and heatsink are cool to the touch. I realize though that it may be my graphics card is simply going out. I don't know.

I would like to ask everyone to recommend me a new card. My system is ...

Mobo: Gigabyte P35-DS4(rev.2.1)
OS: Windows XP Home (SP3)
CPU: Intel Quad Q6600
RAM: 2GBs G.SKILL RAM
Graphics Card: Diamond ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB
Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120E
Extras: Sunbeam Multi-Port, Lite-On LH-20A1S DVDRW Sata drive, SeaGate 350GB, and acomdata 500GB external SATA

I am not interested in games or any of the HD stuff. I use my computer for graphic design work. I would like to get a Nvidia card again. I have an old GeForce card in my other PC (which I gave to my mom) and it's still going strong. Besides, with the ATI card I can no longer get any driver updates, because ATI is no longer providing them for non-HD cards.

Thank you.

 

[renz496]

maybe you can try to get this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121320&Tpk=asus%209600%20GSO

 

[thesupermedium]

ATi 4870, great card, good price. Or even a 4850. Both are great cards. But if you have to have an Nvidia card for every day use and such, the one above is a good card. Can't beat that rebate.

 

[dcinmich]

Thanks to both of you Yeah, I want a Nividia card because of the reason I said in my first post. Besides, I miss the Nividia control panel - it was much more user friendly than the ATI one.

 

[thesupermedium]

Haha, agreed. I like the control panel in my old 9500 GT better. That was a good card, but won't hold up in heavy gaming. But, since you don't do heavy gaming, maybe that would be a consideration?

 

[dcinmich]

....maybe that would be a consideration?

Can you give me a link?

 

[thesupermedium]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=+40000048&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=-1&description=9500&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

This is a list on Newegg of all the 9500 series cards. Personally, I like Xfx as a brand, and I've heard great things about EVGA. I had a Galaxy card, and it worked great. Also, look for ones with 1GB of RAM or DDR3 if you want to get an edge over the other ones.

 

[dcinmich]

Thanks superman. I like the XFX and EVGA brands myself. So far on the two pages you linked me to I've found the following ...

EVGA 01G-P3-N958-LR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB DDR2

EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR2

ASUS EN9600GSO GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB GDDR3

Nice cards, but no DDR3 except for the Asus (although it's only 512MB).

 

[thesupermedium]

Well, I'd say you picked some good cards. The Asus is a 9600, which has more power, and DDR3, so I'd say that would give you the best performance.

 

[renz496]

The Asus is a 9600, which has more power, and DDR3, so I'd say that would give you the best performance.

agreed.

 

[dcinmich]

You guys are awesome. God bless you both for your help. Here I thought I was going to have to dump big bucks to get a card and you provide me with one for less than a hundred - praise God!

Thank you

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I use my computer for graphic design work

What type of graphics design work? For intensive work, you'll need a $500-$2000+ Quadro series Nvidia card.

For basic graphics design, those GPUs will do fine. Although I suggest a GTS250 by Galaxy...a better performer for $99

 

[dcinmich]

Ok, I've been doing some comparison shopping. I would like to have dual DVIs because one of these days I'd like to have a second monitor. So far I've only located one card that I'm interested in....

EVGA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130440

Let me know your opinions (based on what I stated in my first post).

Thank you.

 

[renz496]

in the OP you said that you use your pc mainly for graphic design work.considering you can do your work using your old using x1650 pro thats why i'm suggesting 9600GSO in the first place. 9800GT is considered as quite good card for gaming unless you want to play GPU intensive games with everything max out + high resolution such as Crysis

since you're not interested in games maybe should consider this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130424

 

[dcinmich]

Thanks, Renz. That's a sweet card, too.

 

[thesupermedium]

Honestly, I'd never pay that much for a 9800 Card. You could pick up a 4850 for less, and in my opinion, it's a superior card. But, if you really want an Nvidia, and you want to spend near the $150 range, look at some of the newer GTX 200 series cards. That would be the next step, because the 9000 series is older technology.

 

[dcinmich]

Well the front runner is still the card you guys linked me to in the beginning - the ASUS EN9600GSO. It only has 512MB of RAM, but then it's only fifty-five bucks. Of course any other suggestions and links to other cards is appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[renz496]

for $150 price range maybe you can get something like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130462

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150394

but it will ultimately defeat the purpose of this thread.
besides these card are power hungry so you might have to change your PSU as well

anyway i think its best to buy a card that served your actual need. its a complete waste of money to buy powerful card when all those power are not used or needed. its like driving 50km/h all the time using F1

 

[dcinmich]

I agree, Renz. That's why I'm keeping my focus on the Asus card. Unless more graphical power equated to better quality for my design work then it would be a waste of my money.

 

[thesupermedium]

Ah the 4870 is what I have. It runs every program I throw at it, and then some. It is an ATI, but I've heard good things from others, and my experience as a system builder has been great with it, although that 260 looks pretty tempting. If you feel like you don't need the higher end power, then spend the $50 on the good enough card. Do you do some heavy 3d design, or just blender and such?

 

[dcinmich]

superdude, I do mainly graphical work with Photoshop and Illustrator, plus I usually have several other windows and apps open a the same time. That's the reason I bought a Quad when I built this computer - people told me it would be a good CPU for running multiple apps. However, I have learned that's not exactly true.

Quite often when I have PS, AI, and other things open and I'm working in one of my graphics programs the computer bogs down considerably. I have to close a few things to get some semblance of speed going again. This kind of ticks me off because I spent three months researching everything before I put this computer together. I know I have enough RAM (I have 2gigs) so it can't be that.

So anyway, graphics card ... Asus in the lead.

 

[redwine01]

if u r heavy user of photoshop and illustrator + u open several other windows and maybe also browsing the net the main thing u need to focus on is having a lot of ram and a good cpu. photoshop is cpu dependent program. So i will say go for 4gb ram u will definately see performance gain. And for graphics card a card with 512MB video memory is good for photoshop because greater image requires more video ram than gfx processing speed. So my suggestion is:

Buy another 2gb of ram stick so a total of 4gb

Buy GTX260 with 896mb vram like renz said: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130462

Overclock ur processor if u can.

 

[dcinmich]

So I should have 4Gigs of RAM, even though I've read that Windows XP (Home) will only utilize three? Probably a good idea. I mean, if I'm buying the card then I should also get some RAM while I'm at it. I already have two gigs of G.SKILL PC2 6400 so I'll just get two more. Always nice to add things to your shopping cart

 

[redwine01]

the 32bit windows will read it as 3.2gb. but if u r using vista 64 bit then it will show 4gb ram. yes 4gb ram will give u performance boost u will see significant difference if u add 4gb for the works u r doing. ur old graphics card(artifact) i think is out. u need new graphics card but photoshop doesnt really require a very good graphics card. U can go with low end cards but the one that reanz has spoted a gtx260 in just $135 u should grab it because it has higher video ram which will help u when u decode or work with higher resolution image and it has the gfx power if u need it in gaming so very good value for the money i say

 

[dcinmich]

Well, the cards Renz linked to are huge. I don't need anything that honking big, lol. Also, they don't get very favorable reviews and they aren't any better than the Asus in that regard.