I'm going to take a crack at answering your questions as best I can.
Thank you kindly sir
I appreciate the help. I dont wanna be a knoob forever !
Yes, discreet GPUs have their own ram (called VRAM - separate from your computer's RAM) and cooling solution; barring water-cooling, that usually means heatsinks with fans blowing across them.
I thought VRAM was short for Virtual Ram? But we are talking physical ram here right? And your explanation of it being sort of like a dedicated graphics cpu really helps me to know what that thing is besides the "picture doohiky"
I respect your reasons for doing so, it just makes it a little harder to give exact suggestions, but that's totally alright.
You're right though, I'm guessing your rig is 4-5 years old? A midrange card should definitely be able to max out the rig before the GPU hit's bottlenecks - especially with 4GB of system ram.
4-5 yrs old? Naw ! Ive only had it for about 6 months! When I asked the ASUS tech how old my board was he said "Well we do have the Crosshair V now...." I should really do an introduction post at this site but long story short , last time I had a pc before the past year was when XP premiered . Now Im building them. Alot of years of info to cover when you just want your rig working right away
gb
And that's 8bg of ram
2x2gb corsair and 2x2gb kingston (I'm touchy about it because it still fells like alot
) But still I get your point. Is there a metric for calculating the bottleneck so I can know where to steer away from?
Hmm, that's an interesting issue. I'm no expert on DVI cables or multi-screen setup, maybe someone else can chime in on that.
It'd help if you could post the model numbers of the monitors so we can get an idea of what we're looking at here - what their max/intended resolutions are (I'm almost positive it's not 640x480) unless they're REALLY old.
Yep, he definitely made some good suggestions for what you're looking at - keep an eye in that direction.[/QUOTE]
If need be Ill post about that in the appropriate forum (but seriously if someone wants to solve that problem, then SWEET!) but its not a real high priority because I have workarounds and Im certain I might find the answer if I would look in the right places. As far as make and model on the displays though they dont really say anything on the outside except the brand and the rig isnt booting right now while I wait for its new cpu so the best I can give you is HP and NoName I Bought at the Pawnshop (come to think of it that might not be the actual brand of the second one ....) The HP cries at me if I set it any less than 1280 x 1024 and I dont believe that it goes any high without forcing it with CCC. The other as I said must be forced past 640x480 and I am pretty sure its capable of more as well. Like I said though Ill figure it out eventually. I know Ill game in the future but for now its only used for more mundane purposes. (Holy this is going to be a long post!)
Now Ill got back to the format as closely as I can just to be helpful. I did look at the cards you suggested and drooled a bit over the Vram and clock speed and then I cried about the price. I know a good gpu will set a guy back , and I know my price range is way low, but those prices were a real kick in the @$*&$!
1) Specs: Specs are in the sig as well but here we go....
Proc: AMD Phenom II x4 965BE
Mobo: ASUS Crosshair II Formula (thats the order the words are in one the box and the website, I think Formula II makes more sense as well)
PSU: EPower Top-650PM (Even though it says 650 in the name it says 600w on the sticker in the box. Also Topwer webiste lists a 600PM and a 750PM but now a 650....weird, but budget friendly)
RAM: 8gb
Current card : Ati Radeon R5 220 (plenty good for now but I will want to game someday!)
2) Budget: Cheap to Free. The less I spend the better
I supposed I could save and afford the suggested cards but Im looking for a bang for the buck x quick option. Ive been looking on the auction sites and those things are still hot items that carry a hefty tag. I know thats not a real answer but its a true one
3) Time Frame for having the card? I dont know what if they come out with DDR6 tommorow and it only costs $2 for a 10,000 Ghz card? Then Ill be dumping this one and getting that one, but for now lets just say that if I dont outgrow it Ill be keeping it. Meaning that if they never make a game I want to play that taxes the card I wont ever change it. At this point I dont even have any games picked out to play because Im still building the rig .
So basically Ive walked into your guys bar here and said "Give me Your Biggest ,Strongest, Cheapest drink " and expected not to get slapped ! If you have any seuggestions after all that by all means throw them my way, but since some of my earlier questions were answered nicely I am better able to research now , so thank you
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