Advice for my father...?

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starhawk

[H]F Junkie
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Oct 4, 2004
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OK, built my Dad a nice computer for Christmas (far better than his Phenom II x4 Dell). Specs --

i3-3220 skt1155 + ASUS Maximus V Gene
12gb RAM
2tb HDD
Quadro FX570
Win7

I threw the Quadro in there for a few reasons --
(1) it was cheap and I needed something I could pay for
(2) I've heard that Quadros are un-crippled GeForces, so I figured it'd be better
(3) I wanted him to have a real graphics card and not mobo integrated bullshit crap

Neither of us game, and I've literally never needed anything other than chipset graphics. Never bothered to learn anything about this stuff, even :eek: now it's kicking my ass because the FX570 chokes a little on YouTube type shit (Dad loves a site called "wimp" that's vaguely similar).

He's a graphic artist. CorelDRAW X3 and Adobe Creative Suite 5.

I'd like some recommendations that I can pass along to him for a better card. Budget is less than $100 (the lower the better!), and it needs to be at least good enough to do YouTube and not lag terrifically in CS5. It also needs to be reliable -- he's about as techno-literate as a cardboard box. If it needs tinkering to keep it running, it's out. Think Honda, not hot-rod ;) Oh -- I'd prefer one with a fan, to fanless, if I can be picky... I've been told by my tech shop friend that fanless cards don't last anywhere near as long, the caps get too hot and pop after a couple years. (That's bad.)
 
Quadro FX570 shouldnt be lagging on youtube videos. Are you sure you have the correct driver installed?
 
Sounds like the card might be bad then. I have a Geforce 8400gs HP OEM (weaker than a retail 8400gs) that has no problems playing video at 1920x1080 on youtube.
 
Huh.

Card is from fleaBay... it was all of $15... 'lagging' isn't the word I'd use, more like 'jerky'...

This is a (stock) photo of the exact card --> http://i.imgur.com/2s0wq9k.jpg
(Found on Google, reupped elsewhere.)

I don't come over his house very often (it's complicated, mostly transportation issues) or otherwise I'd replace the thermal goop, it's probably that horrible gray pigeonshit that I love to hate...
 
starhawk said:
Does it matter that his screen is 1920x1080? Samsung S27D590.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt it. Check the video card part number. It might be a special oem like my 8400gs. It might have a custom driver from the board partner or system builder.
 
Found the entry in eBay's Purchase History. 26 July 2013.

It's a Dell model, their P/N WX397. (I'd totally forgotten that.) This is a listing for an identical card --> http://www.ebay.com/itm/201243084012
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Buy a GenMay subscription please.

And seriously? He has a $325 monitor........... Something does not add up here.
 
I don't have $5 to waste on getting trolled, when I can have that for free.

His wife (not my mother, he remarried) got him the screen a few months ago. I had nothing to do with that... the box itself was my gift and it took me literally over a year. It's still not as good as I'd hoped for...

EDIT: to be more clear. He has plenty of money. He's a gov contractor doing posters for scientists at the EPA. His wife is (not even kidding) a divorce lawyer. They got dough. Me? I live with my disabled mother and between the economy and my Asperger's and the fact that I live in a small town (and wouldn't have it any other way) I've been unemployed since I was born. My wallet's empty as can be -- the moth finally died.
 
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starhawk said:
I don't have $5 to waste on getting trolled, when I can have that for free.

His wife (not my mother, he remarried) got him the screen a few months ago. I had nothing to do with that... the box itself was my gift and it took me literally over a year. It's still not as good as I'd hoped for...
Click to expand...

If someone sent you $5 to get a subscription would you honor the notation and buy the sub?
 
I'm actually thinking of taking a vacation from [H]ere. You know... when I joined, people were actually nice to each other. Now? I recently got infracted and ignore-listed for sending literally five or six PMs over three days. I was being as polite as could be and the other dude was being as rude as could be, and then he had to involve cross Mr Cross.

I thought hard about even posting this thread, TBH. I deal with enough asswipes IRL, I don't need to be crapped on when I'm on the Net too...

I'll stop there, though, I don't want to give Mr Furious the satisfaction of flushing another post of mine. Hmmph.
 
hey star,

The FX570 is based on a really old NVIDIA GPU (launched in September of 2007), and the capabilities it offers, along with the low onboard memory and lower speed memory (most of those had 256MB of DDR2), well, it's possible that it actually is just struggling to keep up with the accelerated video playback.

This might seem kind of counter-intuitive, but, have you tried running the system using the i3's integrated video? IGPs have long had a reputation for being crap, but starting with Ivy Bridge Intel's onboard capabilities have been perfectly usable for everyday stuff (and Haswell's IGPs are even usable for lower-end gaming!).

I'm not sure how they would compare head-to-head, but I've a feeling that the 16/8/8 and estimated 30GFLOPS of processing power in the FX 570 might be outclassed by the 6/1/1 config of that i3's onboard HD 2500.

Here's a link to see a comparison of scores in 3Dmark's "cloud gate" benchmark:

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/cg/1600120/cg/2324931

The HD 2500 system, on an i3 with 8GB of RAM, pulled a 3769 in the graphics score for the test (scroll down a bit to see the breakdown), while the 8400 GS, with an i7 and 16GB of RAM, pulled only 1685 in graphics.

The 8400GS (16/8/4 config) was closest I could find to the Quadro FX 570 for results; the 8600 GS (16/8/8 config) would actually be a better match, but the scores in their database weren't really comparable due to other system specs.

I know it's just one test, but if it's showing the HD 2500 to score nearly double in graphics, it's worth a try just using onboard.

Now, that said, if you want to suggest a replacement card under $100, an AMD Radeon R7 250, or NVIDIA GeForce 740 would probably be your best bets.
 
Try the integrated graphics (hd 2500). Yep - I'm serious. It might work.

Otherwise you could try disabling hardware accelerated video playback within the flash player, and if that doesn't work, then within the browser as well (there would be a "flag" for that, search). I actually did this because it reduced my power consumption and kept my GPU temps under control while watching youtube / twitch.

If he is going to spend some money, then maybe:

nvidia: GTX 750 and 750 Ti
AMD: R7 250 (probably a rebadged 7750... somewhere around there) - I think I saw this for about $85

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1846510 - this thread has some TDP power numbers for the cards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ng_units#Volcanic_Islands_.28Rx_2xx.29_Series - list of r9 series, scroll up for previous generations.

Edit: aghh... my post looks redundant now... timing = poor

Edit 2: And yea, the Integrated graphics have become usable. My friend actually plays SMITE and CS:GO at 1080p on the 4770K (hd4600), and it's good enough of an experience that he feels he doesn't need to buy a real GPU.
 
I was going to say this earlier but Iwas on mobile...

Integrated graphics have come a LONG WAY. That i3 will perform on par, well actually probably much better and more efficiently than that graphics card.

I have a new G3258 that I put together for a budget build... and the integrated graphics are amazing for the price. It would run circles around the card he has, and yes, its just a lonely ol' iGPU.
 
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