I need a new graphics card, though I know nothing about graphics card

AGoodFella

Hi,

So I think its time time for me to upgrade my graphics card. I currently have a pc with 4 gb of ram with a Intel® G41 Express Chipset graphics card. It only supports OpenGL 2.1 which is like 10 yrs out of date.

I can't open Motionbuilder because of the OpenGL issue and Cinema4D won't open. No error messages, nothing happens when I click on it.

I don't game on my pc, I just need a graphics card that isn't too expensive to run 3d software. Doesn't even have to be high range, more mid range. As long as it can run the damn software.

Will this be good enough:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-Nvidia-1050Ti-GDDR5-PCI-E/dp/B01MG15JZS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481379161&sr=8-2&keywords=nvidia+geforce

Or how about this:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4948#ov

Treidge

1050 Ti with 4 GB of video memory will be a fine choise. Don't bother with 750 Ti. 

AGoodFella

Yeah, but its quite a bit more expensive.

Treidge

I personally still would recommend to go for 1050 Ti because it has 4 GB of video memory, which makes this card a bit more future-proof: there's no telling when you'll really need it, but when you do - 4 gigs will be much better than 2.

If price is a major factor you can look for GTX 1050 (non-Ti) — it should be more affordable, but with 2 GB of video memory instead of 4. Performance-wise it will be just a bit slower than GTX 1050 Ti, but still much faster than 750 Ti.

AGoodFella

Oh, ok. But this has 4 gigs right?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-WindForce2-Graphics-Card/dp/B015CM1YVE/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481538968&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=nvidia+geofroce+750

Its cheaper than the 1050 but it still has 4 gigs of ram. Or is video memory completely different to ram?

So if I have 4 gigs of ram already on my PC and I install this card, I should have 8 gigs total to work with, right? My PC will be twice as fast?

I'm a complete noob.

Scruples

Unfortunately graphics cards don't share memory so 4+4=4 in this case.

pior

For what it's worth : I was personally running a 750Ti (2048mo) until this month, and it served me extremely well for almost 3 years. The only thing that it had trouble with was the new GI mode in Toolbag3. But for everything else (UE4, Unity, Toolbag without GI) it performed great, and didn't require much power (as in, electrical power).

Now I wouldn't necessarily recommend it today because it would struggle with recent games, but hey, if you see one new or used for under $100 then that could be a decent (temporary) solution.

Treidge

There are some 750 Ti cards with 4 GB of memory, but their raw performance starts to come short this days, as pior mentioned. Tha't why I'm recommending GTX 1050 (or Ti) — it is a sweet spot for performance and price, just as 750 Ti was a couple of years ago. Amount of video memory is important, but the GPU's performance is no less. It's best to keep them in balance.

AGoodFella

Ok. Last question, would the 1050 run 3d software like motionbuilder, Maya, Cinema4d, Unreal, etc a lot better than the 750?

If it was £20 more expensive, I would go for it but it being £40 more expensive is just a little too much. If it will run 3d software a LOT better, then I might go for it. I don't game at all on my PC so I only need it to run Motionbuilder, Maya and Cinema4d.

Treidge

It depends on what kind of work you do, but it will not be a lot (I personally consider "a lot" as a more than 50% increase). 1050 is faster than 750 Ti roughly by 30%. May be not worthy of £40 premium. If 750 Ti is much cheaper for you, you'll be fine with it. Just look for 4GB version.

AGoodFella

Ok, I'll go for the 750. I might even buy some extra ram as well for a performance boost.

This is the motherboard I have:

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5G41CM_LX/

I'm thinking of replacing the ram card with this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J8E8ZK6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Get 2 4gb cards for dual channel mode instead of one 8gb. It should work since the specs seem to line up.

However, I have an Intel Celeron E3400 @ 2.60GHz CPU. I know its not very good but it should still be good enough to open the programs and use pretty decently? Maya 2015 runs fine for the most part. Rendering will take ages on the other hand but I'm not too bothered about that. I figured updating the graphics card and ram should be enough?

Thanks for the help!

Treidge

Considering the specs of your CPU, you can pretty much get the cheapest DDR3 4GB RAM sticks available for you, and they will work as good as the more expensive ones. You can save some money here.

Your software will run, but making anything complex with it will test your patience . The added RAM most likely will smoother your experience, so I believe that this is a good call.

AGoodFella

Thanks, it's been kind of fun trying to figure out some of this PC building stuff. Eventually, I would like to get a new PC that's much better but this will do for now.

Appreciate the help, everyone.

Cheers!

Mark Dygert

That system is definitely on it's last legs, I wouldn't put too much money into keeping it going that much longer. Ram and a videocard will only get it so far. The processor will be a bottleneck which you MIGHT be able to upgrade for pretty cheap but really the motherboard is holding you back.

You will want to check out your power supply also, it might not be able to handle the upgrades. 

I would spend as little money as you could and start pulling together parts for a new system. Then so it isn't a headache in the future, start putting money aside a little each month, so you can build a new one every 3-5 years.

They aren't that difficult to put together. There are tons of videos, tutorials guides. Plus the documentation that come with the parts is generally all that most people need. It's also available online so you can check it out before you buy parts. The hardest part is probably making sure everything does together and that the power supply isn't under powered but isn't overkill either. I like using the newegg power supply calculator to help me figure that out:
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/

AGoodFella

My power supply is 450W. Yeah, don't plan to upgrade the PC anymore, its just a stop gap for when I actually decide to buy a new PC. Just need something that will run most 3D software for me to practice on.

AGoodFella

Update: So after all this research, the driver is failing to install for the graphics card. I'm really tired of my POS PC.