Need some ADVICE!!!

[Macaco]

Hello Guys:

I am looking to add a video card to my system. I do not do any games, I just want something better than what I have now (Onboard) & that will make my WEI get better (7.3/7.5/4.5/5.4/7.9). As U can see my bottleneck is the video part (4.5/5.4). This PC is used mainly for a home business & wife does a few of the Facebook games. I have always had on board video & want to experiment with better video.

These are my specs:
CPU: Phenom II X4-955
MoBo: MSI 785GM-E51 MATX/AM3
Video: On board ATI/Radeon HD 4200
PS: Logisys 575W w/2 6wire plugs & 2 fans
Resolution: 1920x1080 23" DVI LED monitor & 2nd monitor used every now & then 19" VGA LCD
Case: MATX but with room thou. No extra fans except the CPU & the 2 fans inside Power supply. Can add fans if need to.
PCI Xpress 2.1 is empty now
Silence is not that important.
Main HD is a Crucial M4 SSD drive
If USED < $50, if NEW < $75

I would like something inexpensive & can be USED also. Just want to get my WEI numbers better for my own satisfaction . I have looked around but can not make a decision on what would be a good choice.

Any help/direction would be appreciated. THANKS!!!

 

[Piano Man]

Couple of things:

You said no games, but what do you want to do?
What resolution is your monitor running at?
What kind of case/cooling do you have?
What is your price range?
How important is silence to you?

 

[Termie]

Well, at least you're honest. Doesn't sound like a good thing to spend money on, but if you want to be solidly in the 7 range on WEI, something like this used 6850 would be a good solution: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2259110, as would one of these used 5850s: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2256302

Those are around $100-$115. If you want cheaper, just buy any card in the AMD HD6000 range.

 

[Arkadrel]

If not for gameing, Im assumeing this is to speed up/accelerate web browseing (ei. facebook games ect)?
and to work as htpc? Maybe watch blu-ray 3D movies?

In "HQV 2.0 benchmark" anandtech gives a 6570 a score of 197 / 210, for image quality.
Which is probably as high a image quality score (for movie playback) you can get for a cheap HTPC card.

If you prefer only AMD cards, the 6570 is the perfect HTPC card. The set of post processing options provided is very broad compared to what is provided by NVIDIA. All post processing options are enabled irrespective of ESVP, even for 60 fps videos. It has the highest HQV benchmark score of any HTPC-oriented GPU that we have evaluated so far. We didn't encounter any bitrate limitations with video playback. The pesky 23.976 Hz refresh rate may be a hit or miss depending on your setup, but it is way better than Intel's implementation.

​

can get a small card like this: (no fan = no noise)

for around 45$ on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161409

 

[Macaco]

OK I hope I added all that is needed for an intelligent response. Sorry about that, I knew that I would forget something. OK, now for some suggestions. THANKS!!!

 

[Yuriman]

As you probably already know,WEI is a useless measures and does not reflect real-world performance, but if you want to raise it, you can get a 5 year old HD 4870 to raise it to 7.3. The HD5770 and 6770 are more expensive alternatives that run cooler and quieter.

 

[Zap]

I am looking to add a video card to my system. I do not do any games, I just want something better than what I have now (Onboard) & that will make my WEI get better (7.3/7.5/4.5/5.4/7.9). As U can see my bottleneck is the video part (4.5/5.4).

Just as long as you understand that besides getting a higher WEI score, you will probably not benefit at all from having a discrete graphics card in your system.

Also, your "Logisys 450W PSU" is not 450W, regardless of how many 6-pin plugs it has. If you upgrade your graphics card sufficiently, you will likely bring that PSU crashing down.

 

[Macaco]

Yeah, I know that WEI does not mean SH?T, but it sure would look nice when all of them are in the 7'ssssss. Anyway, all PC's I have had always been all on board MATX's & just want to experience something better.

 

[Arkadrel]

you will probably not benefit at all from having a discrete graphics card in your system.

His onboard IGP cannot playback 3D blu-ray movies.
Might not be able to do web-GL or something he could need for a facebook game... lol, but still
(you know things are bad when facebook game's are laggy).

Maybe he wants to be able to do post-processing ect on videos, to enjoy better image quality on playback of movies. Or make use of video transcodeing, to faster encode videos with than he currently can.

There might not be "huge" reasons, to upg to something like a 6570, but there are a few of them.

 

[Macaco]

Ok we do not watch any movies on the PC @ all. As I said just want to get something better than what I have without going into a big expense. As it is now all is working AOK. Just want to IMPROVE the PC.

 

[Joseph F]

As you probably already know,WEI is a useless measures and does not reflect real-world performance, but if you want to raise it, you can get a 5 year old HD 4870 to raise it to 7.3. The HD5770 and 6770 are more expensive alternatives that run cooler and quieter.

That would be four years old, buddy.
<= Owner of CF 4850s.

To answer OP's question, honestly, it's not worth buying a discrete GPU, if you're not going to do anything with it.
Just be happy with your WEI scores. They're meaningless.

 

[Termie]

OK I hope I added all that is needed for an intelligent response. Sorry about that, I knew that I would forget something. OK, now for some suggestions. THANKS!!!

You won't get in the 7-range with a <$75 card. Sorry.

My old 8800gt, which is about equivalent to a 6670 GDDR5, scored 6.9. The 6670 costs about $90 before rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&amp;PageSize=20.

 

[Macaco]

What about this 1:
http://www.directron.com/100323l.html

 

[Arkadrel]

@ Macaco

If its really just for the WEI score, something like a 7750 will give it a score of 7.5.
You can find one on newegg after rebate for around 89$.

Its performance is akin to the Amd 5770 or Nvidia 550ti.
Its also the newest tech generation of graphics cards (7xxx series),
which means 28nm tech, and low power usage for its performance.

If all you want the card for, is to give you a nice WEI score, then I guess you want it to be power effecient while doing that too right? 7750 is is the highest performance/watt card currently on the market.

a 7750 consumes abotu 5watts in idle mode, going by Techpowerup's charts.

Power consumption of the HD 7750 is tiny, in all power states. In idle it uses a mere 5 Watts, which is the best result we have seen on any VGA card ever. It's also lower than the power consumption of Intel's IGP. Impressive!

With something like a 7750, you would have the option to actually use your PC to do some gameing if you ever decided you wanted to try it.

Go download the trial for World of Warcraft and give that a try and see what all the fuss is about, or try out some free2play games, and show your wife, instead of face-book flash based ones.

 

[Termie]

What about this 1:
http://www.directron.com/100323l.html

Good card but won't close to hitting 7 in WEI, but if you just want an improvement, it will definitely be fine.

@ Macaco

If its really just for the WEI score, something like a 7750 will give it a score of 7.5.
You can find one on newegg after rebate for around 89$.

Its performance is akin to the Amd 5770 or Nvidia 550ti.
Its also the newest tech generation of graphics cards (7xxx series),
which means 28nm tech, and low power usage for its performance.

If all you want the card for, is to give you a nice WEI score, then I guess you want it to be power effecient while doing that too right? 7750 is is the highest performance/watt card currently on the market.

a 7750 consumes abotu 5watts in idle mode, going by Techpowerup's charts.

Good card, over his budget though.

 

[Macaco]

Ok so basically from what I gather if I stay above the 6500 I should be OK then, right???
Which was what I was leaning to.

 

[moonbogg]

What is this all about? Do facebook games lag? What are you expecting to happen by improving the PC in this arbitrary way? Why not upgrade the CD-ROM instead?

 

[Termie]

What is this all about? Do facebook games lag? What are you expecting to happen by improving the PC in this arbitrary way? Why not upgrade the CD-ROM instead?

He's already established that he's not actually trying to accomplish anything.

Look, I get it. He has a computer with an empty PCIe slot and he wants to fill it with something, more or less because it's there. It's the spirit of tweaking that's driving him, and I think we can all understand that.

OP - just go for that Sapphire HD6570 card you found. It's a solid card, and will allow you to watch HD video or play a few games sometime in the future if you ever decide to.

 

[moonbogg]

Hes going to be tweaking on a new PSU pretty soon as well.

 

[Macaco]

Why not upgrade the CD-ROM instead?
Could U please explain to me what does the CD-ROM has to do with a video card?

Hes going to be tweaking on a new PSU pretty soon as well.
Y if I don't do games?

Termie U got the point.
It's the spirit of tweaking that's driving him, and I think we can all understand that.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Just edit your WEI numbers to whatever you want.
Or upgrade to XP.

 

[Zap]

Ok so basically from what I gather if I stay above the 6500 I should be OK then, right???

See post #11 of this thread. :sneaky:

Radeon 6570 WEI 6.7
Radeon 6670 WEI 7.1

 

[Yuriman]

Why not upgrade the CD-ROM instead?
Could U please explain to me what does the CD-ROM has to do with a video card?

Hes going to be tweaking on a new PSU pretty soon as well.
Y if I don't do games?

Termie U got the point.
It's the spirit of tweaking that's driving him, and I think we can all understand that.

He's saying that although the CD drive isn't in the Windows Experience Index, it is tested in Passmark for instance, so why discriminate against other benchmarks?

Your PSU may be an issue if you ever put heavy load on the system - which you do. Opening programs for example will briefly peak CPU usage and because of the added draw of a video card, your offbrand PSU may cause instability.

My suggestion for a more tangible upgrade is to get a sound card. Even if you don't watch movies or listen to music on your PC, it will improve the clarity of the Windows beeps and clicks, with the added bonus of offloading the audio processing from your CPU (= more CPU performance). You could also invest in a better wireless card or hardware NIC.

 

[Macaco]

THANKS for all the input.
Have a NICE 1