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    Best video card for 2D?

    Building a new PC. Nothing high end, but an improvement for me. AMD 8310FX with 32GB RAM.

    I want to get a new video card. I play zero 3D games beyond, like Civ 4. Seriously, I do not play PC games. At all. I do a lot of photoshop and 2D work. My current video card is:

    GIGABYTE GT 420 2GB 128-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x 16 ATX Video Graphics Cards GV-N420-2GI REV3

    There are some photo filters and such that will not run on this due to it being so old. What card should I replace it with? I'd like to keep the cost below $100

    #2
    Re: Best video card for 2D?

    what software do you use?
    Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
    ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Best video card for 2D?

      Video card prices went nuts over the last couple of years (for reasons that might be best discussed in the VIP forum), so I don't think you'll find anything under $100. Right now, I see people buying low-end Nvidia workstation cards like the T400, and those are over $100.

      Modern integrated graphics might work, depending on what stuff won't run on your current card. It's probably worth trying with current pricing.

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        #4
        Re: Best video card for 2D?

        Looking at Adobe Photoshop's system requirements page...
        https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/sy...uirements.html
        ... looks like you need a DirectX 12 GPU with 1.5 GB of RAM minimum.

        Ouch!

        I guess I'm getting ancient with my software collection. I'm still using version 7.0 - that's the version before the CS series rolled out! (read: mid 2000's)
        Man, even image-editing software nowadays has brutal system requirements... well, compared to what I'm used to (from 10-20 years ago.) What the heck, though, why does modern software need so much crap?!

        That said, perhaps just grab the "cheapest" (HA!) DX12 video card that would do the task. I was going to suggest looking at AMD's workstation line - the FirePro series... like Firepro W2100, W4100, W600, and W5000. However, I found a discrepancy with those: according to Techpowerup, these cards support DX12, but the feature level is only 11.1. So they don't actually fully support DX12 then. Likewise, your GT 420 is listed to support DX12 too... but feature level is only 11.0. WTFLOL. This reminds me of the whole DX 9.0 vs. 9.0b vs. 9.0c thing all over again.

        Anyways, looking at the cheapest fully-compatible DX12 video cards... seems like you'll need either an nVidia GTX 900 series or newer (probably GTX 950, as I don't recall there being anything below it)... OR, from AMD's side, that would be RX460 or RX550. The latter seems to run around $70-100. A quick look shows the GTX 950 starting at $80 (if you're willing to play bidding games on eBay) and go past $100 - and that's if you can find a working one (be careful, as there are many listed for parts, since these aren't exactly reliable cards... though neither are the AMD RX series either.)

        Yeah, the GPU market is a sad place today.
        The fact that now even the "cheaper" older workstation cards are either depleted or have a crazy price just speaks for itself.
        Last edited by momaka; 03-05-2022, 11:17 PM.

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          #5
          Re: Best video card for 2D?

          My RadeonHD 6450 1GB (and RadonHD 6350 512MB) is/are sad.

          I think I might have to use my i3 over my i7 because the i3's on chip graphics is faster than the i7 and the 6450 ... significantly faster ...

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Best video card for 2D?

            Originally posted by Uranium-235 View Post
            what software do you use?
            Chrome, Kingsoft Office 2013, Photoshop 2020, Visual Studio 2013, VirtualBox

            Looks like the cheapest "real" DX12 cideo card is going to be around $200, so I'll just keep the one I have

            Edit: How about something like this? https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeFo...dp/B071DY2VJR/

            The gT1030's seem to fall in the $140-ish range and google tells me they support DX12
            Last edited by SluggerB; 03-06-2022, 03:38 PM.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Best video card for 2D?

              Originally posted by SluggerB View Post
              Looks like the cheapest "real" DX12 cideo card is going to be around $200, so I'll just keep the one I have
              Perhaps you missed my previous post above?

              Yes, GT1030 will also do.
              But seriously... $140 for that "GPU"??! Ugh.
              Both the AMD RX460 and RX550 will get you a lot more performance for the $. RX460 is about 1.5 times faster... well, as far as 3D capabilities are concerned. Otherwise, they are all 2 GB cards. The RX460 and RX550 can be found for under $100 used, though, which is the budget you said you had.
              Last edited by momaka; 03-06-2022, 05:56 PM.

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                #8
                Re: Best video card for 2D?

                After having video card after video card fail on me, I'm gunshy buying (expensive) used video cards just like hard drives... Too bad video cards don't have a mileage indicator like modern hard drives.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Best video card for 2D?

                  Originally posted by momaka View Post
                  Perhaps you missed my previous post above?

                  Yes, GT1030 will also do.
                  But seriously... $140 for that "GPU"??! Ugh.
                  Both the AMD RX460 and RX550 will get you a lot more performance for the $. RX460 is about 1.5 times faster... well, as far as 3D capabilities are concerned. Otherwise, they are all 2 GB cards. The RX460 and RX550 can be found for under $100 used, though, which is the budget you said you had.
                  I saw it, but I'm not buying used parts of eBay. I don't see any RX 450's for sale, and RX550's are $200. $140 seems like it will run the 2D programs that won't run on my DX11 card now. But I see your point, I'm likely still going to just keep my current card. But I dont see video card prices coming down .. ever.
                  Last edited by SluggerB; 03-07-2022, 09:35 AM.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Best video card for 2D?

                    Originally posted by SluggerB View Post
                    I saw it, but I'm not buying used parts of eBay.
                    Ah, OK. Yeah, understandable, given how many people fall for the whole mininig/BitScam thing.

                    Generally, though, cards under 4 GB of memory are not great for mining, at least from what I've read elsewhere. Hence, it's less likely that one of these would have been used for that. Still... yeah, it's $100 down the drain if you get a card that only works for a little while.

                    Originally posted by SluggerB View Post
                    I don't see any RX 450's for sale
                    That's because there is no RX450 ... unless that was a typo up there.

                    Originally posted by SluggerB View Post
                    I'm likely still going to just keep my current card.
                    Probably the wisest choice at this point, TBH.

                    Originally posted by SluggerB View Post
                    But I dont see video card prices coming down .. ever.
                    Sadly, that will likely turn out 100% true. :\

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Best video card for 2D?

                      What are miners doing with the memory, thought mostly each core would be running the same somewhat small code on a sequential key, so why would it need much memory? Probably not mining but some other sort of GPGPU operation like protein folding or fluid dynamics modeling?

                      Thought most video cards the RAM is basically texture map memory which is the intended purpose ... video...

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Best video card for 2D?

                        Not sure how applicable this is:

                        When looking for a vid card, I would recommend to scour the web for any issues with system standby after installation.

                        I recently bought a GT710-PCIEx1 (1 GB Ram) For a dedicated optiplex-745 Media Small Form Factor Computer (Win XP Unofficial SP4) in my "Den" (Movies, Music and light web browsing).

                        The onboard Dell Video AGP was tearing my videos*. The 710 was ebay used but looks brand new. $30.00.

                        The only issue I found is that installing the card and the Nvidia drivers (361.77-espresso-icafe-winxp-international.exe) disables the power management tabs for usb mouse and keyboard. So now to take the comp out of standby I have to push the flashing power button. For me an annoyance.

                        I did try the more recent 368.81-desktop-winxp-32bit-international.exe driver but same problem.
                        I also find that the HDMI port does not stay active in standby requiring using the on/off switch on the TV monitor.

                        So lesson learned, I was so busy looking for a compatible card/price that I did not look for any issues. I'm usually sharp on those things...

                        * Bonus archaic info:
                        When I first set up the 'puter and using the Dell VGA I "ingeniously" = installed the last Intel for XP vid driver: IntelĀ® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows XP_14.32.4.
                        This resulted in random BSOD, not too often but enough to ruin my movie watching joy.
                        I opened the Dell vid driver package for the Optiplex 745 and saw a few differences in file sizes/modifications. All older than the Intel package.

                        So I installed that driver and the BSOD did not happen again.
                        Newer is not always better...

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                          #13
                          Re: Best video card for 2D?

                          Turns out DX12 isnt supported in Windows 7, so I kept my old card.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Best video card for 2D?

                            Wow...so should I be holding onto all my DX11 and older cards for those holdout W7 users out there?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Best video card for 2D?

                              Originally posted by eccerr0r View Post
                              Wow...so should I be holding onto all my DX11 and older cards for those holdout W7 users out there?
                              Ha ha, absolutely. XP community is HUGE, Vista not as much but many loyalist. Looks like W7 is the new growing "Legacy" movement.

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