Considering upgrading my graphics card

Mart61

Mart61

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Martin
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I'm considering upgrading my graphics card.

At the moment I am using an Nvidia GEForce 7300GS with 128Mb of RAM. I am considering going to an ATI Radeon HD3650 with 512Mb of RAM.

I've done a fair bit of research and I am unsure of this upgrade will make any difference to my use of Photoshop. I do not play games or watch movies on my PC.

I am using two 19" widescreen monitors - a Samsung 940BW as my main and a Samsung 923NW as my auxiliary.

I have heard the the ATI cards give a better and true rendition of colours, hence my considering the change.

What do you think? Will I see any benefit moving to this ATI card? If not, are there any other cards I should consider? Or should I stick with my current Nvidia card?
 
How much you looking to spend? I would go for the GTX 260 if money allowed. That or a 9600 GT if you're on a budget. Thats ALMOST as good (but not quite) as the old 8800's!
 
If you dont play games it would be pretty much pointless to upgrade the graphics card. Nearly all (even 30 quid cards) will more than happily handle any sort of 2D work (such as photos).

If you want to improve performance in PS or Lightroom your talking a CPU upgrade or more RAM. RAM being so cheap at the moment it would be the best way to go
 
EviL Ras said:
How much you looking to spend? I would go for the GTX 260 if money allowed. That or a 9600 GT if you're on a budget. Thats ALMOST as good (but not quite) as the old 8800's!
Click to expand...

I don't wanna spend much more than £50. As mentioned in my original post, whilst the two cards you mentioned are great cards, as I don't play games or videos, will they do anything more for me than my current card?

dfrear said:
If you want to improve performance in PS or Lightroom your talking a CPU upgrade or more RAM. RAM being so cheap at the moment it would be the best way to go
Click to expand...

I have an E6300 processor, clocked to 2.8Ghz. I am considering an E8500 at the mo. I have 4Gb of PC2-8500 memory.
 
Upgrading the graphics card will do nothing for you if you don't play games so put your cash to something else...

Processor and ram will always help but as you've already got 4gb don't bother!! Possibly a faster CPU but that will cost more than your budget so i'd stick with what you have an perhaps just clean up your PC a bit (free programs like Ad Aware can really help).
 
If you want to upgrade your graphics card for Photoshop, get an nVidia card that has CUDA support (8800 upwards, something like a 9600GSO would be ideal) and use CS4. Then Photoshop will use the graphics card for things like faster on the fly resizing.

People saying it would 'do nothing', just aren't up to speed on the latest tech ;)

Whether it's worth the outlay is another matter though.
 
2.8ghz and 4gb ram?!! I'm STUNNED that you're getting a budget card! But as you say, if you're not playing games, then its not really that important..
 
i've got a 256mb 8800gt that i don't really use if you're interested feel free to make me an offer?
 
The graphics cards we manufacture are about the best you can get anywhere in the world, however they come with a hefty price tag!

If I were you I would stick with what you have. It will make no difference to your use of Photoshop.
 
It won't make a blind bit of difference to your photo editing, it only matters for 3D work, gaming or CGI
 
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