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which graphics card for a non gamer

themul

themul

themul

Associate
Joined
3 Apr 2011
Posts
193
Hi,

I am not going to be using my new system for gaming, so I have been looking at this card.

MSI GeForce GT 430 OC 1024MB GDDR5

Do you think this one is ok or can I get a better one for a little bit more money ?

I was originally looking at this card MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5, but I dont know if it is worth spending another £135 more, as I wont be playing any games, only watching some movies.

Thanks for any help.
 
themul said:
Hi,

I am not going to be using my new system for gaming, so I have been looking at this card.

MSI GeForce GT 430 OC 1024MB GDDR5

Do you think this one is ok or can I get a better one for a little bit more money ?

I was originally looking at this card MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5, but I dont know if it is worth spending another £135 more, as I wont be playing any games, only watching some movies.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

TBH, a 5670 would be enough if you are just watching movies.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-025-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

5770:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1515

GTX460:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-068-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

The GT430 isn't really good value for money. What PSU do you have and what is the rest of your system spec?
 
Hi,

Sorry I have not got back to you all sooner, but I have been at work.

Here are the specs of my new system so far.

Coolermaster CM690-II Advanced Case - Black
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.30GHz Quad Core Processor
Stage 5: MAX OC OF CPU, 24/7 Stability [Only]

Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**
GeIL Value PLUS 8GB 1600MHz C9 Memory Kit
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

This is what I have decided upon so far, I encode lots of movies and they take up a lot of my time on my 4 year old system, so I want to go for a high spec cpu to reduce my encode times.

I dont know much about graphics cards, but I dont want to go to cheap, so maybe £100.

Can you tell me why is it pointless going for a 1024mb card and instead get a 512mb one ?

Thanks again for all your help.
 
not sure which one it is, but the missus laptop(amd x2) throws out 1080 on thats got ati 4250 which cant be that high a spec, so a massive card for videos could be overkill
 
themul said:
Hi,

Sorry I have not got back to you all sooner, but I have been at work.

Here are the specs of my new system so far.

Coolermaster CM690-II Advanced Case - Black
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.30GHz Quad Core Processor
Stage 5: MAX OC OF CPU, 24/7 Stability [Only]

Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**
GeIL Value PLUS 8GB 1600MHz C9 Memory Kit
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

This is what I have decided upon so far, I encode lots of movies and they take up a lot of my time on my 4 year old system, so I want to go for a high spec cpu to reduce my encode times.

I dont know much about graphics cards, but I dont want to go to cheap, so maybe £100.

Can you tell me why is it pointless going for a 1024mb card and instead get a 512mb one ?

Thanks again for all your help.
Click to expand...

Because no 1080p video will need more than 512 MB to decode, if I recall correctly, when I monitored VRAM while watching a 1080p movie, my VRAM usage didn't go above 220ish.
 
My Gfx card does not even use 220mb to decode a Movie at 1080p it bearly even uses 150mb. I do have a 5770 though
 
themul said:
Hi,

Sorry I have not got back to you all sooner, but I have been at work.

Here are the specs of my new system so far.

Coolermaster CM690-II Advanced Case - Black
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.30GHz Quad Core Processor
Stage 5: MAX OC OF CPU, 24/7 Stability [Only]

Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**
GeIL Value PLUS 8GB 1600MHz C9 Memory Kit
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

This is what I have decided upon so far, I encode lots of movies and they take up a lot of my time on my 4 year old system, so I want to go for a high spec cpu to reduce my encode times.

I dont know much about graphics cards, but I dont want to go to cheap, so maybe £100.

Can you tell me why is it pointless going for a 1024mb card and instead get a 512mb one ?

Thanks again for all your help.
Click to expand...

whats wrong with going cheap ?

just seems pointless spending £100 on something u'll never use when a £25 card would do the job perfectly fine, it'll also use less power and be quieter/cooler usually

unless are u infact thinking of playing some games, just not often ?
 
AMD 6450

Have a look at this maybe?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4263/amds-radeon-hd-6450-uvd3-meets-htpc/

Under Final Thoughts: "So what do we do with a very low power, low performance, budget priced card? We throw it in our HTPCs of course! It’s here where we need to do some more aggressive testing as time allows, but the Radeon HD 6450 has all the makings of an excellent HTPC card. It has all the video decoding features we could ask for at the lowest TDP we’ve ever seen those features made available at. For a pure video decode and 10ft GUI card, I’m not sure there’s anything that can top the 6450. The only area where it comes short is overall gaming performance if you intend to game on your HTPC, in which case the 6800 series, or perhaps a Turks-based card would be a better choice…

The only notable blemish here is that AMD has gone for a soft launch. If you're buying OEM there's no reason you can't get the 6450 today (or last month for that matter); however, if you're buying retail you're going to be waiting roughly another two weeks."
 
Last edited:
Hi,

I would just like to say a big thanks to everyone who has posted and I wil be going for one of the budget cards you have suggested.

There is no point in having features you dont need or will never use.
 
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