Question about advantage of graphics card

webcombo · Post by **webcombo** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:24 am

I recently purchased a ATI Diamond Viper Z1650 graphics card with 256MB RAM. I use to use an onboard NVidia GeForce 6100 card which came with my Gateway computer. I have an AMD Dual Core 3800+ processor computer with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB HD. My question is, will the new graphics card improve the speed of my rendering? If not, what will the new card do for me. I bought it because of a rebate that made it $29.99, down from $189.99. I figured it had to be better than my old one. If anybody out there knows about this type of hardware info, I would love to find out what advantage I now how because of this card (or disadvantage, if I am unlucky). Thanks for reading.

-Rob

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:17 am

As far as I am aware, it should make no difference at all to rendering speed. That is a function of the speed of your CPU (which is not bad) and RAM, which in your case is average for that sort of computer. You might get better performace by upgrading the RAM.

A graphics card is really a 'display' card, so a better card will mean a better, and more quickly refreshed screen usually. You would normally be able to use higher screen resolutions too. Notionally this means better quality images, smoother display, that sort of thing. Mind you, being able to see the difference on screen is not going to be easy since the differences are usually pretty minute. But if you are a gamer, for instance, you will probably see much faster movement in the higher definition games like Doom when using higher screen resolutions.

So you certainly have done no bad thing in buying the card. It's just that it has little to do with the speed of video editing or authoring. (Re the latter, for instance, I now have a Core 2 Quad computter, with top rated ATI graphics and 4 GB of RAM [see my system button] yet I find it will burn a single sided DVD only a few seconds faster than my old P4 2.0 GHz 2.5 GB RAM desktop, or my even more ancient Dell P3 1.0 GHZ 512 MB RAM laptop...)

I wouldn't sneeze at the old cardNVidia, either. You say it was 'on board' but that does not mean it was part of the motherboard as, say, audio cards can be. It was undoubtedly put there by Gateway. And you will probably find that it also has 250 MB of on-board RAM too or at least 125 MB. Certainly the older NVidia FX 5200 I still have running on my P4 2.0 GHZ above, has 250 MB of its own RAM. And that card, by the way, is pretty good in the display department, and plays back movies on PowerDVD very smoothly. It's just that I know its limitations and don't throw anything demanding in the graphics sense at it.

webcombo · Post by **webcombo** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:00 am

Ken, thank you so much for your informative answer. You are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate all of your posts!! It is good to know that I at least didn't regress when I put the card in. I guess that I just thought that because this card had it's own fan on it, compared to my old card, which didn't, that it was a major upgrade

But thank you very much for your quick and thorough post!!

-Rob

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:06 pm

I am surprised you NVidia did not have a fan -- even my old 5200 one has a small one, though nowhere near as large as the one under my NVidia 7600 GS on another computer... And thanks also for the compliments!

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:17 pm

Ken Berry wrote:As far as I am aware, it should make no difference at all to rendering speed. That is a function of the speed of your CPU (which is not bad) and RAM, which in your case is average for that sort of computer. You might get better performace by upgrading the RAM.

So long as you have sufficient RAM to run Windows - which for XP would be 256MB, the amount of RAM will have virtually no effect on rendering speed. If you have two RAM modules in your pc, it's an easy matter to confirm this by doing tests with and without one of the modules.

More RAM will, however, speed up Smart Rendering, although that will constitute only a small part of the total time needed to convert a typical project with DV avi clips to a finished DVD.

Increasing the speed of the RAM will improve rendering speed slightly.

Having said all that, I would suggest that if your pc uses DDR2 RAM it might be worth installing 2GB - DDR2 is really cheap at the moment. I recently picked up a 1GB module for $15! If you are a gamer, you'll see much improved load times with more RAM. If, on the other hand, your pc uses the older 184 pin DDR RAM, prices for that are currently so high that you might as well leave it with 1GB.

lespurgeon · Post by **lespurgeon** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:41 am

I think the 6100 was an embeded (northbridge) graphics solution, so yeah, even the rather old 1650 should be a bit faster if you use any 3-D applicatons (i.e. games).

2Dawg, his 256 ref was to graphics memorey, his profile showed 1 GB.

Rob,
If you could get an cheap 4600+ or Opteron 170 or faster, it might be worth a processor upgrade. Otherwise when you want a speed-up you are looking at a new motherboard, ram, and processor, since we are end of life on the 939 X2s (I use a 4400 overclocked).

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:34 am

lespurgeon wrote:2Dawg, his 256 ref was to graphics memorey, his profile showed 1 GB.

I know that! My point was that more RAM maketh not faster encoding, and that you wouldn't see much difference between 256 and the 1Gig he's already got, so not worth spending $60++ on another Gig of DDR!

webcombo · Post by **webcombo** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:40 pm

Thank you guys for the added input on this subject. I know a little about computers, like how to change out parts, and can work my way around most software programs, but when it comes to the "how" and "why" of computers, I am very uneducated. Not to try to go off topic, but if I were to get another 1gig of RAM (found some on Amazon for $48.98 free shipping) would it help me when I am running multiple programs at the same time. Like IE, FireFox, Photoshop Elements, VideoStudio, and ProShow Gold? Often times I leave my programs open in case I need to get to them quickly. I, of course, close them when I am ready to create my video file, and eventually burn the disc, but in editing mode, I usually have lots of programs open. Will doubling my RAM to 2GB help this? Or like Lespurgeon said, would a processor upgrade be better for that task? You guys know way more about this than I do. I really appreciate all the advice so far!!

-Rob

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:02 pm

Hi Rob,

that sounds like a good price if it's DDR RAM - if was DDR2, you could get it for way less...

It's hard to say if it would be worth installing. With XP, 1GB is kind of a "sweet spot", so going from 256 or even 512MB to 1GB, you'll notice a big improvement in program load times and your ability to run multiple programs.

Adding a further 1GB may give you some improvement, but it possibly won't be as much as going from 512 to 1GB. It should improve your ability to run multiple programs, but most users don't run many things simultaneously with VS.

If you have VS 11, it has a pre-load function that I believe is enabled by default, which makes it appear to load more quickly since in effect it's already half-way there.

Assuming that your motherboard is a socket 939 type, that uses DDR RAM, rather than the AM2 type that can use DDR2, you are a bit stuck as far as cpu upgrades, as lespurgeon pointed out. NewEgg shows a couple of Opterons that would fit, but they are $170 & $235. They do have an X2 4000 which would give you a 15% or so speed boost for $56. You'd see more of a performance boost from that than from adding the additional RAM.

Since your pc is from a Tier One manufacturer, the bios will more than likely not allow any overclocking.

So, your choice might be to shell out $56 ( plus $5 or so for some heatsink paste) for a 15% speed boost by getting the X2 4000 or $49 on the extra Gig of RAM to help run 20 windows at a time....

webcombo · Post by **webcombo** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:37 am

Thanks 2Dogs, your information is very helpful to me. I guess I just have to decide what is more important to me. And unfortunately, with funds being tight, I have to go with inexpensive, yet somewhat effective. I appreciate you looking into those prices for me. And thanks to all that replied!!

-Rob

babdi · Post by **babdi** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:52 am

It is always better to be slightly ahead when going for hardware. e.g., If the software demands 512 MB as minimum go for 2GB or more so that we are fairly future proof and the money spent lasts longer. The demand on hardware resources double almost every 6 months with newer softwares

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Question about advantage of graphics card

Question about advantage of graphics card

More RAM will not speed up rendering.