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Posted on 14/12/07 00:34:33 AM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply  |
Graphics Card Recommendations
Have a new monitor, capable of producing a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels. I don't play computer games and only use the computer for photos and Photoshop, Illustrator etc. What would be a good PC (Windows) graphics card for the new monitor? Thanks! |
Posted on 14/12/07 4:54:23 PM |
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Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply  |
Re: Graphics Card Recommendations
Hi Jwhite im not sure if your asking what would be a good PC ? or be a good pc graphics card ? (i think the latter). Well thats entirely dependant on what mother board you have in your machine. Going back 6-7 years ago a main board would have a PCI card in it, a little newer and it would have an AGP card in it (1-8x) within the last 18 months or so then it will almost certainly have a PCI-E x 16 slot in it. So depending what board you have, depends on what you can do. Even though you may not play games having a good card will seriously speed up photoshop / illustrator ect. If you have a PCI-E board then i can fully recommend the latest geforce cards, the 8800 GT rocks and is alot cheaper than the GTS, you should be able to find an 8800 GT for around £160. If your board is older then your options are more limited and you may find you have to opt for a AGP 8x card with maybe 256 meg DDR1 in it. if your stuck let me know and i'll try and help you further Johnny |
Posted on 14/12/07 11:01:19 PM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply |
Re: Graphics Card Recommendations
Johnny, Thanks for the information. I ended-up getting a decent PCI Express Graphics card only to discover that my power supply couldn't handle the extra load.  |
Posted on 15/12/07 5:02:32 PM |
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Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply |
Re: Graphics Card Recommendations
Oh dear well the good news is that PSU's are very cheap these days (i know because i build systems quite often for myself, friends and family). I have just built myself a high end games/photoshop machine with a top notch power supply that cost me £80. But for an average PSU say 550 watts (dual rail 12v minimum) which is easily enough to drive a high end PCI-E card your talking around £45 mark. Changing a PSU is a pretty easy task which a total novice could quite readily handle in around 20 minutes. always remember to make sure your static free before removing the machines side panel and touching components though. Usually 3-4 hold the psu in place, remove all peripheral connections ie hard drives, optical drives, mobo power ect and simply slot the new one in place. Your main board may have a dedicated PCI-E power supply which all new PSU's will have onboard, simply slot that into your mainboard as well as the usual main board power plug. any probs just give me a shout mate Johnny |
Posted on 19/12/07 3:18:28 PM |
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jwhite
Collage Critter Posts: 274 Reply |
Re: Graphics Card Recommendations
Johnny, Thanks, I got new power supply installed. |