Graphics card upgrade

[timkuj]

I built my computer about 4 years ago and was thinking of updating some stuff in it this summer.

It currently has a Leadtek 8800GT which suites me fine. Only downside is this card doesn't have an HDMI output which would be useful for hooking up to my tv. Is there any difference in image quality between Dvi or HDMI for computers?

Could anyone recommend a graphics card with preferably 2 HDMI outputs for dual monitor setup which is as good or better than my current? I don't play games but sometimes to complex stuff with mathematica or photoshop

it also has a Quad core 6600 and Nvidea 750i motherboard if anyone has any recommended upgrades for that.

Thanks !

Tim

[ShyguyXPC]

none, their the same signal. Only difference is HDMI can carry an Audio signal, and may be more likely to be HDCP compliant for Displaying HD Content on the TV.

the 8800GT is quite dated and old, and you could definitely use something better.

Whats your Power supply Specs?

Brand, Model, Wattage, +12V Amp rating/s.


You said no games, do you think you'd run some games later on at some point, of is this absolutely something you just don't do on the PC?

[timkuj]

Thanks for getting back so quickly

The PSU is Corsair HX Series 620W

and the rest of the specs are


Proc Intel Quad Core Q6600
HD Samsung Spinpoint SATAII
Case Antec P182
PSU Corsair HX Series 620W
RAM OCZ 4GB DDR2
GC Leadtek Geforce 8800GT
MO. BO nForce 750i Sli

Fan tuniq 120 Tower
WIRELESS card TP-Link TL-WN951N

I'm definitely going to update to the HD to a SSD.


I doubt I'll be doing any serious gaming. Maybe some 3d graphics in Mathematica or photoshop. Good speeds with dual monitor also a priority. I deally the budget would be from £40-100 but I really dont know what you get for your money these days, havent looked since I built this machine!

[ShyguyXPC]

PSU is rock solid, so no problems there, pretty much any card on the market will do.

a Geforce GT 440 is about what an 8800GT used to be, other wise the next best card for Geforce cards after that, used to be the GTS 450, but that was replaced with the GTX 550 Ti.



Newegg.com - MSI N550GTX-Ti-MD1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

or for a few bucks more, this, which is more powerful yet.

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1464-KR GeForce GTX 560 SE (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card



Though this 2nd revision GTX 460 is better yet for same price LOL: Newegg.com - MSI N460GTX-M2D1GD5/OC2 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card



But this Zotac GTX 550 Ti is probably what your wanting: Newegg.com - ZOTAC ZT-50403-10L GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Its actually capable of Three Displays when using both HDMI ports and Either the Dual Link DVI or DisplayPort connector (with the latter, not sure if its like AMD's cards where you need to use a DisplayPort capable Monitor or use an Active DP adapter.)

but should be capable of Dual Display via HDMI ports.

[timkuj]

Thanks very much I should find what I want in those options. Only other question I had was if I could keep the old graphics card and use it in SLi mode in conjunction say with a Zotac GTX 550 Ti. Would this be possible / beneficial?

[stroyal]

Thanks very much I should find what I want in those options. Only other question I had was if I could keep the old graphics card and use it in SLi mode in conjunction say with a Zotac GTX 550 Ti. Would this be possible / beneficial?

Shyguy will know for sure, but I'm pretty sure, no.
FAQ "Will these two cards work in SLI?" - NVIDIA Forums

Mostly is has to be the same card, or the same chip.

Those are so far apart, even I don't have to look it up, to know they are not the same chip..


There is PhyX, that uses 2 cards differently. Not sure if that is a possibility.
I know nothing about it, but Shyguy dose, and uses it.

PhysX FAQ

[SoloCamo]

Thanks very much I should find what I want in those options. Only other question I had was if I could keep the old graphics card and use it in SLi mode in conjunction say with a Zotac GTX 550 Ti. Would this be possible / beneficial?

Not possible. SLI has to be running off the same chipset, so it would have to be two 550ti's in that case. Though you could keep the second card in a spare pci-e 8x or 16x slot if available and use it for enhance physx support, however theres few games that would really benefit from it currently, and to be honest the 550ti will struggle running those games with physx even with a 2nd card helping out.

I had a Asus 550ti prior to my gtx480, and I loved that thing.

[ShyguyXPC]

as the others have said, no. It'd need to be 2 8800GT's or 2 GTX 550 Ti's for SLI to work.

However you can run the 2nd card alongside the primary, if your Running PhysX based software, from the sound of it your not, so you would be wasting power having it installed, or adding more heat to the case.

the 8800GT would be a good PhysX card for lower to midrange games, but since your not really gaming it'd be a waste. and the few games that would use PhysX, it'd only give a small boost in frame rates, it'd be more of a waste of power and added heat in the case.

Unless your into something like Folding@home or other CUDA based Distributed Computing tasks, or addition GPGPU Processing that can use the card, the only other reason to have it in the case would be for additional displays via the HDMI & DVI ports on it, bringing your total displays up to 5 or 6 displays total you could run.

Though the additional displays on the 8800GT would be spanned desktop or a 2nd desktop or cloned desktop, gaming, it wouldn't do much for at all really.