Video Card Upgrade (MSI R5450 to Zotac GeForce GT640)

[cpuken]

I realize this isn't really considered an upgrade in the gaming community but for my needs this appears to be a good step until I possibly get a Radeon 7770 at some point in the future. Since I don't game, who knows, this may be a good stopping point for a while.
I was more interested in running 2 and 3 monitor setups (cheaply). The Zotac appears to be available in the $40-$50 range at this time.

(don't mind the messy desk, in the process of rearranging things)

Running 2 Dell 1905FP monitors and just connected my Samsung 23 inch TV/Monitor.

Thanks to everyone for your help up to this point.

Ken

 

[vmem]

nice, good job!

just a side note, if you don't game at all and mainly do productivity with your three monitors, don't bother with a 7770, it won't be much of an improvement, if you and to reduce power consumption go with a 7750. otherwise wait for the next generation to see if they have something more suitable for your needs.

 

[cpuken]

nice, good job!

just a side note, if you don't game at all and mainly do productivity with your three monitors, don't bother with a 7770, it won't be much of an improvement, if you and to reduce power consumption go with a 7750. otherwise wait for the next generation to see if they have something more suitable for your needs.

Thanks for the reply and for that additional info. That will save me a few bucks if I go with the 7750 but as you mentioned, by the time I get around to that the next Gen cards may offer an even better return on my investment.

Now if I'm doing graphics editing, working with video and that sort of thing...
Would you still recommend the 7750 over the 7770? Can't the GPU get involved in video rendering if I'm converting a large video file to a new format?

* Side note: the two Dell 19 inch monitors (old) are not the wide screen format like the monitor on the left (Samsung TV/Monitor). The Samsung is a 23 inch but because it is wide screen format, the actual screen height is almost identical to the 19 inch Dells! That discovery also saved me from making the mistake of buying another 23 inch monitor thinking I'm getting a much larger screen than my 19 inch Dells (wider yes but not taller). I'm trying to find a used matching Dell and them I will run the 3 Dell monitors in portrait mode.

 

[vmem]

In order to use GPU compute for graphics editing/content creation, the software and code you're using have to support either OpenCL or CUDA, unfortunately this is fairly rare at the moment (although this field is developing very quickly). at the moment, almost all rendering etc is done by the CPU, if there is any GPU work involved, chances are your software would let you know and brag about it (because it's using new tech :heh

 

[cpuken]

Best answer selected by cpuken.