New Graphics Card Advice

[sam-whitts]

Hi, new to the forum, long time lurker but need some help if at all possible please!

Here is my current PC build, I would really like to upgrade the graphics card but I am unsure of compatibility


Build:
HP Workstation XW8400
Intel Xeon 5160 @ 3.0GHz (x2)
32GB Ram
2TB Hard Drive
Nvdia Quadro FX 3500 Graphics Card (256mb)


I bought this PC second hand

I would like to use it for editing photos and films on after effects, premiere pro and photoshop (19 yo film maker wannabe)
I want something that will last me for a while! 2Gb +
My budget is around £300

 

[andicole0]

What do you intend to use the system for? Most £300 video cards are targeted at games. The specialist CAD cards are expensive and I'm not sure the rest of the system warrants a high spec card.
Andi.

 

[humbug]

Edit: he has a point ^^^^

The Quadro K620 has 2GB, its about £180
The K1200 is much better with 4GB and 80GB/s Memory Bandwidth vs 29 on the K620, that's around £300.

 

[sam-whitts]

What do you intend to use the system for? Most £300 video cards are targeted at games. The specialist CAD cards are expensive and I'm not sure the rest of the system warrants a high spec card.
Andi.

I want to edit videos (After Effects and Premiere Pro)
and a little bit of photoshop.

Is the pc even going to be worth while if I upgrade the graphics card? or should I cut my losses and get rid of?

 

[sam-whitts]

Edit: he has a point ^^^^

The Quadro K620 has 2GB, its about £180
The K1200 is much better with 4GB and 80GB/s Memory Bandwidth vs 29 on the K620, that's around £300.

Am I going to benefit from sticking to the Quadro Series? I can go more than £300 and I thought a titan might be good?

 

[Poneros]

In your case Quadro won't make a difference, get a 970.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-377-as.html

 

[humbug]

Tough question without knowing EXACTLY what you are doing.

Having said that. As far as i know GPU acceleration in After Effects doesn't work with Maxwell, CPU only so a GPU for that would be a waste of time, Later versions of PhotoShop are OpenCL only, CS6 and above...

Video editing, well, mostly no...

TBH i think a normal GPU would suit you just fine, and be a lot more cost effective, but i maybe wrong about that, its very difficult to know because for some aspects of work a workstation card is an advantage, but mostly not if your not on a project for Hollywood.

 

[meldarthx]

Honestly if he wants to break into this industry; going with a pro card wouldn't hurt.

CS6 and above is opencl; does not run as well on nvidia as it does on AMD cards; W5100 would be your best best. Out of pro cards you get so much more out of AMD firepros specially on the lower end and top end nothing Nvidia has can touch compute of w9100.....but he's not wanting to spend 3000 grand

I don't have any info on w4300 that was just released; even prices so I can't recommend it; but your price range; its about 250 pounds; comes with pro drivers which will give you what you need and be far faster any game card in editing; photo and video.

If you're going in; do it right......