[SOLVED] Please recommend a good inexpensive video card to replace old one

[jm88]

My computer that I built 10 years ago with an i5-2500 at 3.3 GHz is still plenty fast but I have a Ge Force GT 430 and the max resolution it supports is 1920x1080. I just got an ultrawide monitor with a 3440x1400 resolution and want to upgrade the video card to support that resolution. I don't play any games so I don't need a high powered video card, just something better than I have now. I mostly just browse web pages for work and do use Google Earth a lot. I also may start doing a little more photo and video editing. I have an ASUS P8P67 PRO motherboard and am actually using an HDMI KVM switch now to share the screen with my work laptop. What can I get better than I have now for around $50 to $100?

 

[tennis2]

Nvidia GT1030

 

[jm88]

Like this one or this one? What is the difference between these? Of this one has display port as well in case I switch something up later on, I don't know how important that is. Or did you have another one in mind?

 

[tennis2]

Yes, any of those would work.
The first and third ones are low profile (in case you have an extra narrow case).
The second one is a 1.5 slot height card.
The third one is a dual slot height card.
Choose the card that has the display outputs you need.
I'd personally go for one of the two with a fan. The GT1030 is a ~30W TDP card, but in my experience, it doesn't take much fan speed to keep that cool. I've had passive GPUs that get quite toasty, even with decent case airflow.

 

[jm88]

Ok, I get it now. So all 1030's are the same, just different form factors and ports? I kind of forgot all this stuff because it has been 10 years since I built a computer! I remember like 20-30 years ago, I used to have to buy a new computer ever few years because it would not be able to keep up with anything anymore so this is great that it is still fine after 10 years.

The only thing this is slow at is like when I use Google Earth and working with photos. I have a library of like 20,000 photos and have used programs like Photoshop and ACDSee, and their organizers have a lot of lag. Does the video card have anything to do with that? I have 16 GB of memory.

 

[tennis2]

There are some GT1030s that use GDDR4, which is obviously inferior to GDDR5. All 3 you linked are GDDR5.

16GB system RAM should be plenty for working with photos.

Do you have a SSD in the system, or are you still using a HDD? An SSD can make even a 10 year old PC SIGNIFICANTLY more responsive. We're talking load times half as long as from a HDD.
The size of SSD you choose is up to you. A 500GB SSD costs around $60 in the USA. If your 20k photos are all 5MB each, that's 100GB, so a 500GB SSD would have plenty of space for all your photos, even with Windows and programs installed on it. You don't really want to buy an SSD <240GB (performance reasons, and just overall makes it difficult to manage free space when you only have a 120GB OS/programs drive these days.

 

[jm88]

Yes, I did upgrade the boot drive to 256 GIG SSD a few years ago and it flies. I have the OS and all of the program files on it, but store all of the data on a 4 TB HDD. Those organizers store thumbnails though so maybe I will check to see where that data file is stored and if it is on the HDD, I will move it to the SSD. Maybe that will help. That being said, I might need to come up with a different storage system. 10 years ago, this was the only computer in the house and now we have 2 additional laptops. I do share the 4 TB drive on the desktop so photos and other files can be accessed, but maybe there is a more efficient way to store and share them. That probably needs to be saved for a new thread.

 

[jm88]

Before I order one of these, will the next better card up do anything more for what I use it for or not? I tend to start looking and then if I see something a little better, I'll say "what's another $40 or $50"? So I guess my question is, if I get the next best card, even if it is a little more expensive, is it going to do me any good, or will it just benefit gaming?

There are some GT1030s that use GDDR4, which is obviously inferior to GDDR5. All 3 you linked are GDDR5.

16GB system RAM should be plenty for working with photos.

Do you have a SSD in the system, or are you still using a HDD? An SSD can make even a 10 year old PC SIGNIFICANTLY more responsive. We're talking load times half as long as from a HDD.
The size of SSD you choose is up to you. A 500GB SSD costs around $60 in the USA. If your 20k photos are all 5MB each, that's 100GB, so a 500GB SSD would have plenty of space for all your photos, even with Windows and programs installed on it. You don't really want to buy an SSD <240GB (performance reasons, and just overall makes it difficult to manage free space when you only have a 120GB OS/programs drive these days.

 

[madmatt30]

Before I order one of these, will the next better card up do anything more for what I use it for or not? I tend to start looking and then if I see something a little better, I'll say "what's another $40 or $50"? So I guess my question is, if I get the next best card, even if it is a little more expensive, is it going to do me any good, or will it just benefit gaming?

Unless you're gaming then no. Really the next card up is a gtx 1650 and that's $60-70 more not $40-50.