Upgrade 6600 for 27" display and Photoshop

[CalvinAndHobbes01]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Now

BUDGET RANGE: AU$ 100 (around US$ 50 - 60)

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Photoshop. Must be very quiet or silent. Not used for gaming at all.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: nVidia 6600, 500 Watt PSU

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, AMD Athlone 64 X2 4200+, Motherboard is PCI-Express 16 v1.1 ONLY.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: any in Australia, or will ship to Australia.

PARTS PREFERENCES: Prefer nVidia as they supposedly have better driver support for Photoshop

OVERCLOCKING: NO
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 2560 x 1440 DVI plus 1280 x 1024 either VGA or DVI

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

I need to upgrade my card as the 6600 doesn't seem to be able to drive the resolution I need (2560 x 1440) for my new 27" monitor.

I am considering a GT 220 based card, but can't find any silent ones in Australia. (Neither the Asus or the Zotac silent cards are available here).

I know this is a fairly old motherboard which only supports PCI-Express 1.1. From what I understand, the GT 220 will still work with it?

To run those resolutions, do I need 1 GB memory? Can I get away with 512 MB?

Is there much difference in Photoshop CS5 acceleration between the GT 220 and the 210? There a few Silent 210 available.

Thanks
Thomas

 

[xyzionz]

No problems with the PCI-E slot, the 512MB and 1GB frame buffer or memory will do almost no difference with CS5, so it doesn't matter.
And go get the GT220 since in raw power GT220 will be at least 2~3times powerful than 210, 48 unified shader vs 16 in GT210

 

[wa1]

Yes, GT220 should enough for your need, stretch budget a bit and get GT240 for a longer term...
You will need a STRONG CPU instead of GREAT GPU. What is your current cpu? speed?

 

[CalvinAndHobbes01]

I will probably build a new machine in the next year or so. The CPU at the moment is pretty old - Athlone 4200+, so meets my needs for the moment, but probably not for that much longer.

Regarding the GT 240 - are there any nearly or totally silent ones? That is probably my highest criteria.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[wa1]

Okay, for a temporary right, so stay with GT220, better save money for next PC.
Make sure get GT220 with DDR3, it faster than DDR2 version.
Generally, GT220 is a little bit loud...

 

[eqbal321a]

I bought 220GT DDR2 for my girls and it is loud, but realy the 6600 is too old even for your aplications .

 

[cyberkuberiah]

gt220