GFX card advice, pretty please!

andy_fozzy

andy_fozzy

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Hi all.

Having recently upgraded to;

Intel i5-2500k LGA1155 unlocked
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3
8Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3
and Windows 7 64-bit

I'm using the on-board graphics.
I have a 256Mb WinFast PX7600GT TDH which I would like to know -

Would this be better than the on-board?
I've checked the Windows compatibilty site, and yes it is ok.
BUT, that site says;

"This product installs automatically without extra software".

So should I pop it in and let Windows do the rest, or should I download the latest drivers for it?

Sorry if this sounds like a stoopid question............
 
Pop it in, then download the latest drivers. To be honest I would expect onboard to be better. 256MBytes isn't much these days (PS5 STARTS video support at 256MBytes) and the onboard gfx is fine for photo apps. A 7600 is at least 4 generations old now. (5xx, 4xx, 2xx, 8xxx, 7xxx...). Looking at my favourite benchmarking site but for graphics: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php shows the 7600 GT scoring 392 and the i5-2500K scoring 437. Even the top of the line 7xxx series only got to 500ish....

Current top of the range graphics cards top out at 3900ish.

Not that you'd use any of that in Photoshop!
 
arad85 said:
Pop it in, then download the latest drivers. To be honest I would expect onboard to be better. 256MBytes isn't much these days (PS5 STARTS video support at 256MBytes) and the onboard gfx is fine for photo apps. A 7600 is at least 4 generations old now. (5xx, 4xx, 2xx, 8xxx, 7xxx...). Looking at my favourite benchmarking site but for graphics: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php shows the 7600 GT scoring 392 and the i5-2500K scoring 437. Even the top of the line 7xxx series only got to 500ish....

Current top of the range graphics cards top out at 3900ish.

Not that you'd use any of that in Photoshop!
Click to expand...

Cheers Andy - appriciate the advice.

I was just wondering really. I loaded MS Flight Sim X on the new machine (my old machine didn't stand a chance!) and yes it's playable, but I was expecting more TBH.
Gameplay is a little sliggish. With medium GFX settings/details I was only getting around 15-20 FPS........
No doubt though that I haven't set the on - board GFX up properly. I actually haven't touched any of the settings!
 
Don't do any gaming, so I have no experience of how these things work.

I do use a windows 7 widget called GPU Meter by addgadget.com. Try adding that and seeing what it thinks the graphics load is (and also the CPU load with task manager).
 
Beav said:
If its windows 7 it should download/install the drivers automatically :)
Click to expand...
It'll download the latest on the Windows Update site. They may not be the latest.

On the other hand, I don't suppose Nvidia is doing any development on the 7xxx series these days...
 
Good link that, my card is 1747!
 
neil_g said:
Where possible always use the drivers from the manufacturer site for hardware, especially for graphics cards where the ms supplied ones can be missing features etc
Click to expand...
I've fallen into a 1990's vortex... :P :D

When was the last time that happened to you Neil? I ALWAYS download from Nvidia. Always have done... Many, many years. Perhaps I've been lucky.......
 
arad85 said:
I've fallen into a 1990's vortex... :P :D

When was the last time that happened to you Neil? I ALWAYS download from Nvidia. Always have done... Many, many years. Perhaps I've been lucky.......
Click to expand...

Que? Might be the hangover but that makes no sense :D
 
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