Upgrading GPU for large monitor

[jpiazza7]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum, but I've read some pretty good stuff here so I thought I'd join.

Question is this: I purchased my desktop in 2009. It has:

- i7 950 (3.06GHz)
- 6GB ddr3 memory
- nvidia geforce GTX 285 1GB gpu
- 800w power supply
- 64 bit running Windows 7

I am using a Vizio M422i-b1 (42"), 1920 x 1080 (1080p) as my monitor and I'm wondering if I would benefit from a GPU upgrade. I do not use my computer for gaming, but for watching video and CAD modeling/ rendering programs, photoshop, etc...

On a side note, within the last month or so, I've been experiencing some display issues. The issue begins with a few, sporadic, green, flickering pixels showing up in dark portions of a video. Sometimes that's all that will happen. Other times, the green pixels increase and pink ones join and every once in a while the screen will get really bad with the pixels and it will appear to cut the feed to the monitor and will remain blank for a few to ten seconds. It seems to always snap out of it, but I do not know what is causing the issue.

Any help on the upgrade advise or the monitor issue would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Karsten75]

Upgrading your GPU will not improve things. The graphical workload is dependent on the number of pixels (resolution) and there is no difference between your 42" monitor and an ordinary 23" monitor at the same resolution. Even a low-end graphics card is adequate for the tasks you outlined.

Of course, there is one exception. If any of the CAD programs you use can take advantage of CUDA or OpenGL capabilities in the GPU, then a bigger, stronger card may improve things in that area.

If that is not the case, then your best bet for improved performance (if you should need it) is to build a new computer with a low-end Xeon processor that can multitask the Cad workload and has additional memory. A low-end workstation (under US$ 1,000 might yield substantially improved results over a 7-year old computer.

The visual effects could be for any number of reasons. Your display device might be giving up the ghost, or your GPU or even your power supply. It is hard to tell.

 

[jpiazza7]

On a related note: I'm running the same computer set as originally listed in the first post of this thread and I'm running this ASUS monitor and the same Vizio M422i-b1 (42") tv as a second monitor. Recently the Vizio tv stopped clearly displaying with my computer. It has that "nintendo is screwing up and colors and graphics are in shambles" look. Eventually the tv stops displaying the messed up "nintendo" image and goes blank. I just tested my computer with a different 2nd monitor and it works just fine. This test 2nd monitor is very similar to my asus monitor in the link above. I've also tested the Vizio tv on a different computer and the tv works just fine. Do I have an issue running the Vizio tv with the GTX 285? One side note, when the vizio tv was working properly as a 2nd monitor, there was also a weird lag with the mouse. When I moved the mouse from my 1st monitor to the Vizio tv, the mouse movement wasn't seamless. It was as if the mouse had different settings for each screen. However, when I tested the Vizio tv on teh second computer, the mouse movement seemed fine. Any thoughts? Thanks!