What is your modern low end go to GPU these days?

thecomputerguy

thecomputerguy

Well-Known Member
Reaction score
1,487
Client wants a new computer and need a video card that is at least OpenGL 2.0 compatible. I'm probably just going to get him into a regular Dell and drop a GPU that doesn't need additional power into it.

I prefer to stick with EVGA/Nvidia but I'm open to other options as well.
 
phaZed said:
The lowest I go nowadays is NVIDIA GT710 2GB - mostly for people that want productivity with multimonitors... gaming, it's a solid no way.
Click to expand...

That actually looks fine ... not for gaming, just dual monitors and his video editing program needs Open GL 2.0

He's currently editing on a 9-Year old lenovo with an integrated GPU just fine, except a new program he's trying to use won't display video, assumedly because of the Open GL error when starting up.
 
phaZed said:
The lowest I go nowadays is NVIDIA GT710 2GB - mostly for people that want productivity with multimonitors... gaming, it's a solid no way.
Click to expand...
There's really no other option these days. The 710 is ancient, but the 1030 is still way too expensive for basic applications.
 
What's wrong with integrated graphics? Current Intel and AMD iGPU is going to be better than that old GT710.
 
mikeroq said:
What's wrong with integrated graphics? Current Intel and AMD iGPU is going to be better than that old GT710.
Click to expand...
Usually for older/used desktops and/or desktops that need multimonitor. A lot of the Intel integrated chips or board don't allow for multimonitor.

Sure, if it's a brand new Ryzen system or a newer intel with iGPU, usually isn't going to make sense if you purchased the right CPU w/graphics.
 
Well OP did say they are buying a new computer. However Intel iGPU has supported 2/3 monitors since at least the 3rd generation (8 years ago dang where does time go).
 
mikeroq said:
Well OP did say they are buying a new computer. However Intel iGPU has supported 2/3 monitors since at least the 3rd generation (8 years ago dang where does time go).
Click to expand...

Exactly this. It's been several years since I had to install a GPU for dual monitors. Desktops just have it as standard even SFF models.

A 10th Gen Intel with UHD Graphics will completely dominate a GT 710 in performance and fully supports all modern OpenGL, DirectX etc standards.


PS.
OpenGL 2.0 is ANCIENT... like it was superseded over a decade ago. Literally any GPU these days should support that.
 
SAFCasper said:
A 10th Gen Intel with UHD Graphics will completely dominate a GT 710 in performance and fully supports all modern OpenGL, DirectX etc standards.
Click to expand...
That's great, but the kinds of computers that come in that need a basic graphics cards don't have a 10th gen. It's mostly old stuff (2nd to 5th gen)
 
sapphirescales said:
That's great, but the kinds of computers that come in that need a basic graphics cards don't have a 10th gen. It's mostly old stuff (2nd to 5th gen)
Click to expand...

The very first line of the opening post is "Client wants a new computer"

But putting that aside... even 4th gen with HD Graphics 4600 is almost on-par with a GT 710. Probably not quite as good but close enough.

Every single Intel core cpu since 2nd gen has supported dual displays. Just a matter of whether the OEM chose to fit a second port which I'll give you is a bit hit & miss until around 4th-5th gen era. We operate in a different kind of sector so it's very rare we upgrade anything older than 4th gen. It would just be replaced,
 
Last edited:
thecomputerguy said:
Client is editing on a 8 year old Lenovo
Click to expand...
Using an older program...
thecomputerguy said:
except a new program he's trying to use
Click to expand...
What are the recommended specs for the new program?

Recently, a client with limited budget needed a PC for video editing. Was previously using a very old PC with Premier Pro v6. So I supplied a refurbished Dell Precision workstation with 6-core Xeon E5-1660 (6C/12T), 16GB RAM, SSD and 5GB Quadro P2000 graphics.

Well it turns out he actually wanted to run the latest Premier Pro which he neglected to mention. Unfortunately it isn't powerful enough, playback in the timeline is laggy and jumpy, not useable. I suspect the bottleneck is the CPU, which means expensive RAM or graphics upgrades may not solve it. He's trying to get a decent answer out of Adobe support, and I've offered to refund and build a new Ryzen PC instead.
 
fincoder said:
Using an older program...

What are the recommended specs for the new program?

Recently, a client with limited budget needed a PC for video editing. Was previously using a very old PC with Premier Pro v6. So I supplied a refurbished Dell Precision workstation with 6-core Xeon E5-1660 (6C/12T), 16GB RAM, SSD and 5GB Quadro P2000 graphics.

Well it turns out he actually wanted to run the latest Premier Pro which he neglected to mention. Unfortunately it isn't powerful enough, playback in the timeline is laggy and jumpy, not useable. I suspect the bottleneck is the CPU, which means expensive RAM or graphics upgrades may not solve it. He's trying to get a decent answer out of Adobe support, and I've offered to refund and build a new Ryzen PC instead.
Click to expand...

My guess is not so much the Xeon being "underpowered" but lacking something like AVX2, H264, H.265, Quick Sync etc which Premier Pro will use to accelerate performance.

I'm also guessing that's why their minimum specification is simply "6th gen Intel" with no mention of cores, frequency etc. The presence of those instruction sets probably makes far more difference than a few extra GHz or cores.
 
Last edited:
SAFCasper said:
not so much the Xeon being "underpowered" but lacking something like AVX2
Click to expand...
So just the lack of AVX2 could make Premiere Pro unusable? It does have AVX.
SAFCasper said:
H264, H.265, Quick Sync
Click to expand...
The workstation has a dedicated graphics card, Quadro P2000. The above features are part of Intel graphics which would be disabled anyway in any desktop workstation with dedicated graphics.

I'm suspecting the single-core performance of the Xeon could be the issue. The passmark shows a lower single thread rating than i5-6400, even though the overall passmark score is higher than i7-6700. Maybe the timeline playback is only single-threaded?

My customer showed me the problem, horrible stuttering during playback in the timeline with pre-rendered footage (and the rendering process itself is sufficiently quick). The funny thing is, even gaps in the timeline with no footage (displayed as just blackness) had the same issue during playback. The progress bar (or whatever it's called) continually stalls and even seems to jump back a little before going forwards for a second then stalls again, skipping frames as it progresses.

[Sorry @thecomputerguy for hijacking the thread with off-topic discussion]
 
Sorry that might not have been too clear. I'm wasn't saying Premier Pro needs those exact instruction sets... just that it might need an instruction set your Xeon doesn't have. AVX2, H264, H.265, Quick Sync etc were just generic examples.

Also, Premier Pro only added GPU-Based hardware encoding for H.264 and H.265 with version 14.2 which was released in the last 6 months. Prior to this it only worked on Intel CPU's supporting QuickAssist. So you might want to check you have the latest version, which I'm sure you already have but it's worth mentioning just incase.

Anyway, I think you're making the right call in building a new rig. Especially if you can get hold of a new Zen 3 Ryzen chip.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

britechguy
How in the world does one boot from USB these days?!!
2 3
Replies
48
Views
9K
lan101
lan101
GTP
Building a new system...
Replies
10
Views
3K
Dogzilla
Dogzilla
thecomputerguy
Super small accounting client needs new server/workstation.
Replies
8
Views
2K
YeOldeStonecat
YeOldeStonecat
Pork Chop
Second Monitor Doesn't Wake Up - Using DP to HDMI Adapter
Replies
8
Views
3K
Pork Chop
Pork Chop
callthatgirl
Outlook Classic to New Outlook Autocomplete
Replies
0
Views
2K
callthatgirl
callthatgirl
Back
Top