Graphics card upgrade query

Stinger88

Quick question

I desperately need to upgrade my 5 year old PC. I was going to buy a computer just before xmas but decided i cant quite afford it just yet. So I need to wait till later in the year. So I’ve been looking at just upgrading my Graphics card in the mean time to boost my machine a bit. Spending no more than £100.

Specifically. I’ll be upgrading from aGeforce 7600GT to something like a 9800GTS. Doing this will triple my gaming power according to this benchmark site:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-2008-q3/3DMark06-v1.1.0-3DMark-Score,794.html

but does that mean it will improve my ZBrush polycount or Maya rendering capabilities to the same degree. Or is that more a CPU/RAM process?

or, Should I just wait bide my time till I can upgrade the whole system and save £100?

Cheers.

EDIT: or does anyone know a site that does graphics card benchtesting using 3D apps?

Tom Ellis

You will see viewport performance increases in your 3D Apps with a GPU upgrade, but I'd really wait until you can afford a more substantial upgrade. Spending £100 on 9800 right now is a little silly. It's already a pretty dated card.

You can pick up a GTX 460 for £20 more!

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/Nvidia+GTX+400+Series/GTX+460+Series/Gigabyte+GeForce+GTX+460+OC+768MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=42344

If you really must upgrade right now, then go for nothing less than a 460, at least then you'll still have a relevant GPU to use when you upgrade the other components.

Also remember that if the rest of your components are old and slow, your performance is still gonna be bottlenecked by the weakest component in your setup.

In all honesty, I'd just wait it out until you can afford a complete new system, no point delaying the inevitable!

Stinger88

Thanks man. Great reply. I find shopping for GPU's and such very confusing, especially with NVidia's crazy naming conventions.

I chose a 9series because I thought a more recent card might have compatibility issues.

Anyhoo.I'm gonna wait till I can afford a full rig. Thanks again

CrazyButcher

are you sure you can upgrade at all, a geforce7 could be AGP still, all graphics card these days are PCI-Express, meaning you need to get a new motherboard + processor...

another thing is power consumption, typically you will need extra power for graphics.

it looks like you should save a bit more money, to afford more upgrades.

Tom Ellis

Yeah CrazyButcher makes some good points which I completely forgot about!

I have heard one or two stories of compatibility issues here and there with some of the GTX4 series, also the 5 series, but I'm not sure how much of an issue it is.

I've personally been using a GTX260 which has not only been incredible, but I haven't had any issues whatsoever with any of the 3D apps I use. If you're on a super tight budget when you do upgrade, and once you've got a motherboard with PCI, then a 260 or even 275 may be a nice little 'stop-gap' until the issues with 4s and 5s have been ironed out and you've got a bit of extra spare cash.

Striff

What is your CPU/RAM setup now? For Zbrush, your CPU is going to be more important.

XenoKratios

Stinger88 wrote: »

or does anyone know a site that does graphics card benchtesting using 3D apps?

I think the guys who made C4D have a bench test for that, If I find a link I will post it here.

Here are some you can try:
3D Mark Vantage
Heaven
Cinebench (C4D) (made for rendering)

Rurouni Strife

Good call on waiting. It'll be worth it in the end.

Stinger88

Thanks guys for the info.

CrazyButcher: its a PCI Express 7600GT. But yeah power consuption could be an issue.

Striff: My CPU is AMD athlon dual core 2.2GHz and 3 Gig RAM. (XP). So that needs upgrading badly as well.

The reason I'm just desperate to upgrade is because ZBrush starts getting a bit slow around 6mil polys per subtool. And can handle about 25mil per ZTool. Which seems alot but its not enough to get that really nice fine detail.

I could use HD sculpting but that just slows me down.

XenoKratios

Try not to buy the first edition of the Phenoms if you're staying with the AMD CPU. I suggest the X6 or the Monster i7, if you like intel, nothing beats the i7 I think.

The cards are going down quite fast now and the mobo's should also be dropping soon!

You can pick up a gts 450 for around $100-150 and a gtx 460 for about $150-250. For these cards you going to need at least a 500W power supply, or a 600W just to be safe . Also these cards are kinda big so you should do some research if they fit or not.


If you have a low PSU of around 300W-400W, I suggest the 3dAxis gts 430, it has no pin connectors and stays very cool and quiet. Also has DX11! But it's not for maxing out games, it can run them on medium very well though, I'm sure you're not going to play on max everything online anyways.. unless you own a beast.

PolyHertz

Something to take into account is that zbrush uses software rendering, so its completely dependent on the CPU, gpu doesn't matter. The Intel 2600k and 2500k ("sandy bridge") processors should be getting officially launched in a few days, and in Q3 the octa-core (for LGA2011 socket) chips will be coming out. This also means all 'older' i7/i5 chips will be dropping in price. AMD is working on "Bulldozer", their next generation cpu line, which should be coming out sometime this year but no official eta yet.

For GPUs I'd avoid the Fermi (400) series of Geforce cards due to some problems with OpenGL they have. The issues don't seem to affect everyone but why take a chance. The Kepler (600) series will be getting released this year, before the end of Q3 to coincide with Intels LGA2011 launch is my guess.

Striff

Your processor is probably going to be bottle necked by your CPU because your CPU is pretty slow.

You should upgrade your CPU/RAM before you upgrade your video card.

arrangemonk

if you're having an am2+ mainboard you can ceep it when using a phenom II CPU

XenoKratios

The GTS 450 is like $99.99 after rebate...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125342