Low End Video Cards for non gaming pc

[SujitKumar]

Hi everyone, I am a backend developer and mostly deal with lots of text file. My pc is fairly old and low end (Intel Pentium E5500) for current gen softwares. My work mostly involves the use of a lot of browser for testing and reference, text editors (Sublime Text, notepad++, Bracket), Eclipse IDE, LibreOffice, Gimp etc. For media consumption I use mostly VLC, MPC & mplayer. I wish to extent my screen realestate to two 1080p display. Current my pc does not have a discrete graphic card, and the VGA port from onboard graphic is occupied. I was looking for a graphics card and they start from around $30.

 

According to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sph6cjJeRdI graphics card have sweet spot of $100-150 for running games at 1080p @ High/Ultra Settings. 

 

So my question is if gaming is out of the equation what would be the sweet spot to just extend the workspace for the softwares I use.

 

One more thing, I live in India and here anything with a Gaming sticker on it automatically increase the price by 1.5 to 2 times. For Example PS4 which cost 399 USD costs around 630 USD here. 

 

 

[stconquest]

An i3 and a new mobo might do the trick.

 

If you really want a card, you have to check your power supply first... to see what it can handle.

 

Worst to best:

 

GTX 750ti

R7 260X

R7 265

R9 270

 

[KayTees]

Hi everyone, I am a backend developer and mostly deal with lots of text file. My pc is fairly old and low end (Intel Pentium E5500) for current gen softwares. My work mostly involves the use of a lot of browser for testing and reference, text editors (Sublime Text, notepad++, Bracket), Eclipse IDE, LibreOffice, Gimp etc. For media consumption I use mostly VLC, MPC & mplayer. I wish to extent my screen realestate to two 1080p display. Current my pc does not have a discrete graphic card, and the VGA port from onboard graphic is occupied. I was looking for a graphics card and they start from around $30.

 

According to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sph6cjJeRdI graphics card have sweet spot of $100-150 for running games at 1080p @ High/Ultra Settings. 

 

So my question is if gaming is out of the equation what would be the sweet spot to just extend the workspace for the softwares I use.

 

One more thing, I live in India and here anything with a Gaming sticker on it automatically increase the price by 1.5 to 2 times. For Example PS4 which cost 399 USD costs around 630 USD here. 

Maybe a EVGA GT 610 1GB Card? Did the conversion and its around 47 USD

 

http://www.theitdepot.com/details-eVGA+Geforce+GT610+1GB+DDR3+NVidia+PCI+E+Graphics+Card+(01G-P3-2615-+KR)_C45P15911.html

 

Extra 10 USD might get you this? Not sure how taxes work in India tho. 

 

http://www.theitdepot.com/details-Forsa+Geforce+GT620+2GB+DDR3+NVidia+PCI+E+Graphic+Card+(F-NH-G620204B38L4G-175L)_C45P15918.html

 

An i3 and a new mobo might do the trick.

 

If you really want a card, you have to check your power supply first... to see what it can handle.

 

Worst to best:

 

GTX 750ti

R7 260X

R7 265

R9 270

I think he was asking for just a cheap GPU that will do the job starting at $30

[Grrizz]

If gaming is out of the question the sweet spot is what ever is cheapest

[chopdok]

If gaming is not an issue - then whatever is the cheapest you can find that has enough monitor ports for you. Virtually all of GPUs by AMD or nVidia sold today have hardware accelerated h.264 decoding support - so whatever you want.  I would personally suggest GT 720 - because of its very low power consumption, you don't need to worry about PSU. Also, do keep in mind that most modern GPUs have an issue with legacy PCI-E 1.0 ports. Even though officially, they are supposed to work, in reality, the ones that were designed to take advantage of power management extensions introduced with PCI-E 2.x will not work on PCI-E 1.0 ports, only PCI-E 1.1 - and even then, 50/50 chance, depending on the chipset.

[SujitKumar]

An i3 and a new mobo might do the trick.

 

If you really want a card, you have to check your power supply first... to see what it can handle.

 

Worst to best:

 

GTX 750ti

R7 260X

R7 265

R9 270

Thanks for the answer.

But I think I was not clear what I was asking for. In my use case I just want to use software i am currently using in a dual monitor setup and nothing more. So what would be the appropriate price range of graphic card i should be looking into to get that. 

[VortexS]

I'd recommend the R7 250. It has three ports: VGA DVI HDMI and has enough power to drive two screens and watch some videos/use gimp.

[stconquest]

Thanks for the answer.

But I think I was not clear what I was asking for. In my use case I just want to use software i am currently using in a dual monitor setup and nothing more. So what would be the appropriate price range of graphic card i should be looking into to get that. 

 

Right, I understood... mostly.

 

You did not state how much you are willing to spend.  If cheapest possible, then just find a card with at least two outputs that is compatible with your system.  Something like this:  http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax54501gbk3sh

 

If you really want to upgrade, my initial suggestion was an i3 + motherboard combo.  That way, you get a faster processor and the extra screen real estate you want, no GPU needed:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($109.75 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($42.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $152.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-15 07:51 EDT-0400

 

The cards I listed were "gaming grade", so that was my mistake.  IDK why I listed those, habit I guess.

[Dabombinable]

Right, I understood... mostly.

 

You did not state how much you are willing to spend.  If cheapest possible, then just find a card with at least two outputs that is compatible with your system.  Something like this:  http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax54501gbk3sh

 

If you really want to upgrade, my initial suggestion was an i3 + motherboard combo.  That way, you get a faster processor and the extra screen real estate you want, no GPU needed:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($109.75 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($42.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $152.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-15 07:51 EDT-0400

 

The cards I listed were "gaming grade", so that was my mistake.  IDK why I listed those, habit I guess.

The cheaper graphics card will give him a total of 4 display outputs, not 2 with that motherboard.

[SujitKumar]

Thank you everyone for participating in this thread and giving a insight into the world of GPUs. As for me I have never seen a discrete graphic card in person let alone using it. I watch LinusTechTips reviews a lot and notices all the GPUs are categorized as per their gaming performance. This made me think does having a GPUs gives any advantage to the OS or general programs I use (Browsing Web, Text Editing, etc.).
 
After watching to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sph6cjJeRdI I was initially in a disagreement with Linus's view that the card is stupid and no one should buy it. What about people like me who would never want to run any game. But then another question struck me "Would I ever buy that? If so for what?". I started looking for all available options and found a ton of cards as low as 30 USD. If a 80 USD card is stupid then these cards must be a disaster. After analyzing my usage I concluded only time I will need a discrete graphic card is when I need more display ports. Reading the replies on this thread I realized for my use any card is good enough. So there is a very small marker for these extreme low end video cards.
 
Keeping that in mind, who would really buy a 80 USD card when  you can get three times more performance with additional 20 USD. Someone who is really desperate or someone with no prior knowledge. Even if someone bought the card knowing that, how long would it be before it need to be upgraded as it can play newer games at playable framerate. If I had to choose then I definitely go for a bit more as it could last a year longer the 80 USD card could have given. Therefore now I agree with Linus's point of view.
 
As for my upgrade I will probably go by stconquest suggestion of getting an i3 + motherboard combo. That is because as chopdok suggested I checked my system and found that neither my motherboard would be compatible with the graphics cards available nor my PSU is adequate for it. As for now I wait till I save enough for the upgrade (i3 + motherboard + 1080p monitor + PSU if needed).
 
P.S. For those who say this video is a year old and things have changed, I would like to remind you that I live in India. Your last gen is our next gen. (Third world problem  )

[SujitKumar]

Id suggest you get an apu: very good for price, has graphics processor and descent cpu in one

 

For system upgrade definitely its good idea and I am thinking about it. But just to connect another display I will go for the cheapest (or may be not so cheap as I don't want it to die due to component failure) video card if the motherboard doesnot support more display.