I need a Graphics card or do I ?

Graham

Graham

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Graham
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My PC is a home build consisting of:
Mobo Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3HP
Current card is Nvidia geforce 210
32 GB of DDR3 ram modules
Samsung 256 Pro SSD
AMD A10 7860k Processor (3.6)
Corsair Builder Series VS450 80PLUS

Do I need a New card or not as this mobo as I see it is up to it with the on board graphics ?
The current card is/was just a stop gap but do I need it ?

I use Lightroom CC and a little bit of PS but far from using PS to its full capabilities.

So, whats the answer please.
 
No you don't need a graphics card.

However the integrated graphics in that apu are far superior to that old nvidia card so by removing it you will be upgrading it!
 
Brazo said:
No you don't need a graphics card.

However the integrated graphics in that apu are far superior to that old nvidia card so by removing it you will be upgrading it!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment. As I am far from being knowlegable I knew I could count on someone in here.
Thanks again.
 
Graham said:
My PC is a home build consisting of:
Mobo Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3HP
Current card is Nvidia geforce 210
32 GB of DDR3 ram modules
Samsung 256 Pro SSD
AMD A10 7860k Processor (3.6)
Corsair Builder Series VS450 80PLUS

Do I need a New card or not as this mobo as I see it is up to it with the on board graphics ?
The current card is/was just a stop gap but do I need it ?

I use Lightroom CC and a little bit of PS but far from using PS to its full capabilities.

So, whats the answer please.
Click to expand...
take a read here,
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
I think get as fast as you can it speeds up so much that PS can use the card for a lot of work.
 
My usage sounds similar to yours (mainly LR, little bit of PS) and I find that the GPU makes naff all real world difference despite what Adobe says (and my laptop is actually quicker with GPU acceleration disabled).

I do have a relatively decent GPU for gaming and in experiments using GPU acceleration on LR makes no real difference and my PS usage is light enough not to be of concern, it seems quick enough.
 
Chaz Photos said:
take a read here,
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
I think get as fast as you can it speeds up so much that PS can use the card for a lot of work.
Click to expand...
What that article says is that you need a very basic graphics card by modern standards, and that not having a 'graphics card' at all will disable some features.

Photoshop really doesn't take advantage of high end graphics processors in the way that 3D games or video editors do.
 
I'm fairly certain LR uses the GPU only when in the Develop mode (in the prefs it's in a box called "Camera Raw" which suggests it's only used for the ACR portion of what Lightroom does (which is basically the Develop module)). Looking at my PC performance, CPU is always the hardest hit component. I've also had issues with the GPU causing LR problems with an NVIDIA update so you've got driver compatibility to contend with too.

I'd ask whether you're having problems at the moment? If not - the "if it 'aint broke - don't fix it" adage works fine. If you are, open up a performance monitor and see if anything is getting busy. If you're not a gamer/video editor, perhaps a CPU might be a better bang-for-buck upgrade?
 
I would agree with what has been said above regarding ditch the GPU in favour of the on board graphics of the AMD APU.

For your preferred use there is no real need for a seperate graphics card.

Notwithstandingding that, you are currently using a card that was first released in 2009 alongside an APU that was only released just last year.
You may not notice it relative to how you use your system but in true technical terms there is a bottleneck in your system and its the graphics card.
Remove it and let the R7 integrated graphics from the APU take over.
 
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I agree with the others that you probably don't need an extra card but, if you do decide to get one, then an older AMD card of the same vintage as the CPU might be a good choice as the two GPUs will work together.
 
Thanks everyone, guess I'll not bother with that graphics card then.
 
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