Anyone have a recommendation on a good value budget PCI-E graphics card?
gone are the days I need to play games on my PC, so I'm looking for one that will just be good enough for day to day use. (or since I'm not gaming, is it as simple as getting the cheapest one out there?..saw one on Ebay for $40)
The build in GPU should be more then enough if you do not plan on gaming, which CPU are you using? If you are planning on an upgrade anytime soon, get the skylake CPUs, their iGPU is pretty good, comparable to low end GPUs.
thanks guys to be honest i don't remember, it's like a 4-5yr old pc
let me check tonight, but never heard of iGPU before :S
i thought it's the motherboard that will have the integrated graphics (which it doesn't)
iGPU = integrated graphics so whatever is built into the cpu itself. Generally pretty horrible for anything other than really casual gaming.
Check out this site for their recommendations within your budget. Lots of useful info below the main table and they're a good starting point to begin your research.
thanks
If it not gaming or doing any graphic intensive work a dedicated gpu isn't needed.
gone are the days I need to play games on my PC
You don't need a graphics card if you are not gaming. Actually the lowest end card that you can buy in a shop will suffice, but if your PC has integrated graphics (that is, it can output a signal through an built in VGA / DVI / HDMI port on your motherboard) then having a GPU would only take up unnecessary space in your PC.
A GPU can still come in handy if you require multiple outputs - e.g if your mobo supports only two monitors maximum a graphics card can usually support three or more.
Actually, integrated graphics scoops system RAM to operate where dedicated graphics comes with it's own, graphics-specific RAM (which is generally faster than system RAM).
Any dedicated card will give an overall boost to the system- even if it's only in that it would give back the previously scooped RAM to the system itself.
:)
Unless you game, I don't think iGPU will take all that much of your RAM. Looking at laptop as an example, most of the lower end laptops use iGPUs and the system runs fine as long as it isn't running win 7 with 2GB of RAM.
Not too sure as i have dedicated GPUs for my desktop but I reckon a skylake CPU or an APU paired with >4GB of RAM should be enough…
It isn't only the RAM, it also allows the CPU to do what it needs to do by relieving it of doing GPU work, as well.
:)
I always thought that aside from gaming and perhaps even photo editing, nothing else is GPU intensive.
Videos require decoding which is usually done by CPU right?
What cpu do you have? It may have an integrated gpu which is probably good enough.