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Video card suggestion with a twist

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dogubit

Registered
Joined
Apr 24, 2006
I need to buy a video card for my current computer, current one is failing. I don't game, but I do watch movies/DVD's/youtube, but primarily research/surfing. My current system has a PCIE x 16 video slot and I would like to have something around a 2GB card as that seems enough for what I do (Acer 24" LCD). But, around November 2015 I would like to build another more up to date system and would like to use the new video card. I want to upgrade to a mother board with USB 3.0, maybe 3 PCI slots, and something with more than 2 SATA connections as I currently am running two 2TB SATA drives and two 1TB ATA drives plus a BlueRay and DVD-RW not to mention the USB 2.0 and 3.0 Desktop storage box's of 2TB and 3TB and was considering upgrading to SATA drives as the ATA's are getting aged. Not interested in going with Solid State drives as I don't do anything that justifies the need for them and cost verses storage size and read wright cycles are a factor.

So I guess I'm looking for advice as to what video card I could get now to go with a Mother Board with the spects above (make and model still unknown) so that I don't buy a Vcard now that is unusable in a system upgrade 6 months from now.

Can't buy the MB and CPU now because of cash flow issues, but if you have suggestions as to MB and CPU that fits the above, that's welcome too as I'm open to just about anything at this point. Not looking to spend an arm and a leg though, always on a budget, but want quality too as I tend to run a system for some time before upgrading.

Thanks for whatever you may be able to offer and for reading this.
 
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You don't even need a 2GB GPU.
Grab a GT 720 for $50 and call it a day. Just make sure you have all the display outputs you need.
 
You don't even need a 2GB GPU.
Grab a GT 720 for $50 and call it a day. Just make sure you have all the display outputs you need.

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Yea you may be right, but I have a 1gb card now and sometimes HD full screen is kind of crappy, could be because the card is dieing, but sometimes even when almost new it was somewhat unsatisfactory, that's why thought I'd up it a Gig. Thanks though.
 
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Yea you may be right, but I have a 1gb card now and sometimes HD full screen is kind of crappy, could be because the card is dieing, but sometimes even when almost new it was somewhat unsatisfactory, that's why thought I'd up it a Gig. Thanks though.

And which card do you have now?
I'd hedge a bet that it's quite a few years older tech and that's why it's struggling.
 
as crappy as they are you might look into an amd apu, cheap, last forever and a motherboard/cpu combo from microcenter might be just what you are looking for......now..........it just might all change shortly..........
 
And which card do you have now?
I'd hedge a bet that it's quite a few years older tech and that's why it's struggling.

GeForce 8400GS on a 2.4GHz intel, 8GB Ram, after card gets warm/2 hr it will start throwing random horizontal lines and then go black.
 
If you have plans to upgrade to 4K (not necessarily for gaming), keep in mind that postprocessing video takes a lot of VRAM. Playing a 4K video with postprocessing enabled gets the VRAM usage up to 1.2GB. I would consider 2GB to be the minimum for a 4K setup.

There's little reason to get anything less than a 750 since there's little savings getting something less. Deinterlacing also takes a good amount of GPU power, which a 750 will handle with ease.
 
Yeah... An 8400GS is outperformed by many integrated GPU's these days.
 
If you have plans to upgrade to 4K (not necessarily for gaming), keep in mind that postprocessing video takes a lot of VRAM. Playing a 4K video with postprocessing enabled gets the VRAM usage up to 1.2GB. I would consider 2GB to be the minimum for a 4K setup.

There's little reason to get anything less than a 750 since there's little savings getting something less. Deinterlacing also takes a good amount of GPU power, which a 750 will handle with ease.

I'm a little dense, are you referring to a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card when you say go with a "750"?
 
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