I'd like to upgrade my graphics card..

That won’t work, I need PCIe-3.

@lisaviolet I have a 3060 in my computer and it’s handled everything admirably that I’ve thrown at it… Not that I typically throw too much at it.

@OnionSoup

So, I can use a PCIe 4.0 card in a PCIe 3.0 slot, it will just run slower? You think that card would work? (Added to my wishlist.)

Now all I need is a more powerful power supply.

This is all above my paygrade. Thank you.

@lisaviolet I have different motherboard to you… but I believe PCI is backwards compatible. But if your motherboard is older version than your graphics card, you won’t get full speed out of it. Hardware side of things is not something I’m an expert at so hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me in that side will answer you.

When I built my PC I used https://pcpartpicker.com/ if you know the motherboard and other components in your PC you can pick them and it will warn you of any incompatibility (and tell you how much power you need).

@narfcake I’d like a higher GPU ram than 8gb, since this is most likely the last PC I get. I’m 70 years old now. I’d love for my graphic editing software that I got last year without considering Vram to work. I didn’t even know vram was a thing until the software choked on it. lol

The card I’ve got now is only 4GB. I did buy an 8GB card, but I’m considering returning it for something with more.

@lisaviolet If you don’t mind me asking, what software is it?

@narfcake Topaz Video AI , WinXVideo AI are just a few. I have a ton of old videos when cameras only took 30 second MOV movies, no audio!

They are tiny.

@lisaviolet @narfcake You’ll do better with an ARC due to power consumption more than anything. If you’re shooting for something with more oomph, you’ll also wanna also swap out your power supply, and then your i5 9400 will be the bottleneck. Upgrades end up being a domino effect.

@ExtraMedium @narfcake The drawback of the ones I just looked at over on Amazon is the size.

Nine inches is pushing it for length.

I’ve already accepted I need to upgrade the power supply.

I looked at one of the ARC devices and the power consumption was 225W. The Zotac I linked to has a power consumption around 150W.

I don’t game or anything like that. Just piddle around with graphics and video. Then I get bored and go play word games on my tablet.

I just have a lot of old photos and videos that I’d like to look at again. Without a magnifying glass or jagged edges. lol

@ExtraMedium @lisaviolet Intel is worse for power consumption, especially at idle power. AMD tends to be higher there too – and that matters in an area in which peak power rates exceed $0.70/kw.

Puget Systems ran benchmarks comparing GPUs running Topaz … and for an 8GB 4060 performed better than a 16 GB A770 – so my previous idea of an A580 or A750 was actually worse.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/topaz-video-ai-5-1-consumer-gpu-performance-analysis/

Still need some thoughts on this later …

@narfcake yeah, wouldn’t change too much given the use case.

@lisaviolet I think if the concern is image quality and video resolution, you might just need a better monitor. The card you have now (1050 ti) might not represent any of your problems in that regard.

@lisaviolet I picked up an 8GB RX 6650 XT for $220 at Best Buy (you’d do well to shop prime days on Amazon though) and it has a max power draw of 180W. It should be fine with your current hardware, as long as you have the 8-pin cord free to power the card. If not, you’re well under budget to get the power supply mentioned earlier in this thread.

Just be sure to double check the length of that card based on your available space.

@ExtraMedium @narfcake The monitor is fine, the problem is when I want to use an AI program.

The program I was using threw up an error message that it really needed at least 6GB VRAM, but it was possible to let it process, it would just take until the day after my funeral to complete. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but it would take a long time.

And I have movies on DVD that I rip to my hard drive (because Plex) and need to change the quality. A faster graphics card would make that go more quickly, right?

The card I listed above has a power consumption of 150W and would fit in my machine. So, would I have to change out my power supply for that one or would I need more?

Oh, and from what I’ve found online, my power cord is 2-6 pin, a total of 8.

@lisaviolet I’d think so, but I haven’t researched the XPS 8930 fully. I can take a closer look tonight.

@ExtraMedium Thanks, I appreciate it.

@ExtraMedium Power consumption is 170, not 150, sorry

@lisaviolet The CPU in the XPS 8930 only has a TDP of 65W, and with a max power draw of 170 on that GPU, the PSU you have in there should be perfectly fine. I do think that card is quite a bit of overkill, but you’ll always do well to make a selection you’re excited about. The 6650 XT I suggested will likely match or surpass your desired performance for $100 less, but again, go with your heart.

Here’s a look at the two side-by-side: https://versus.com/en/amd-radeon-rx-6650-xt-vs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060

@ExtraMedium Do you think the 8GB would be good for a while? That’s my only concern right now. And the AMD would need different drivers, too, correct?

Checks physical size…damn, that one is too long, it’s almost 9.5 inches. The one I mentioned is 8.8 inches. Is there something smaller? I do like that the 6650 is not as thick as the one I was considering. 1.5 vs .4

(I just noticed some cat sprayed my monitor, just a little, but…way to start a day…)

I got a wattage measurer thingy last night, plugged it in to see what my system uses during normal use.

@ExtraMedium Okay, what about this one? https://versus.com/en/amd-radeon-rx-6650-xt-vs-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060

It’s only 6.4 inches long. It’s a little deep, but I have the room for that.

And there’s a $15 coupon! (I already have a card here that was delivered last Saturday and I’ll have a credit on the account when it gets returned later today.)

@lisaviolet I can’t speak to the performance difference in 12Gb vs 8Gb for you, but I’m a long-time gamer and don’t use 8Gb for most of the games I play. Most software just uses system RAM but you’ve stated that you run something which seems to draw from your video card, so you’d want to base your needs on that. Physical length limitations are a very important factor as well, so if you find something you like that fits, I think you’d have a winner.

@ExtraMedium Thank you, I appreciate your help on this.

You have saved me a bunch of money.

I’m glad to get advice that’s not from some rando on the internet.

@lisaviolet It’s nice that you don’t consider me to be “some random on the internet” but that’s probably what I am. That said, I have built all of my PCs myself for the last 30 years, so at least I have that experience to draw from.

@ExtraMedium I know where you work.

@jouest VRAM was a completely new word (?) to me. I’ve been googling lots of stuff from this thread.

I hope it sinks in. And I hope I never have to use it again in my life.

@lisaviolet If those are for the card you installed, go for it. Without the proper drivers, your monitor would display at the lowest settings (biggest icons, zoomed in text, etc) – afterwards you should have the highest settings possible. Optimized drivers means your PC uses less power when pushing the card, and for video editing, you’ll notice a stutter more than an “out of memory” issue.

JUST REMEMBER TO LET THE BIOS UPDATE COMPLETE. (As in, do not turn the machine off during a BIOS update.)

@pakopako Yep, that’s the card I ended up with. I did install the GeForce updated drivers earlier, now I’ll do the others.

Thanks!

@werehatrack So far, I’m happy. It wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I feared.

I’m happy with the couple of things I’ve rendered so far.

Like this early picture of our dog Junior and rescue cat Lonnie Gail. (You’ll need to click on the images to see the full sizes.)

Taken in 1998, 375 x 322, 15.9KB

Upscaled image with Aiarty, 1.4MB, 1024 x 878

If this is any indication of what I’ll be able to do?

Yeah!

@lisaviolet @werehatrack Wow!

@Kyeh @lisaviolet @werehatrack Ditto. Now I want to do this. I have a ton of older pictures that would be amazing to try.

@Kyeh @lisaviolet @speediedelivery I’m curious about whether there’s software that can regrade faded slides and prints to recover the original appearance of the image.

@Kyeh @lisaviolet @speediedelivery @werehatrack What happens when you feed the upscaled image back through the algorithm again and again?

KuoH

@Kyeh @speediedelivery @werehatrack I’m trying my hand with some super old videos. I think it was a little point and shoot Olympus camera that would take small, short videos, in MOV format, no optional audio.

As always, there are multiple softwares available and I’m trying the ones I’ve got. The upgraded graphics card is wonderful! I need to start writing down which video software I like the best for what I’m doing.

What I’m testing out for video:

Topaz Video AI

DVDFab Video Enhancer AI

WinXVideo AI

One of them upscales nicely, I think it’s the Topaz, and it took something like five minutes to do a one minute video. As with all new software, it takes practice. I’m trying to figure out how to do a side by side comparison with actual sizes. You know, where 160 x 120 plays as 160 x 120.

@speediedelivery Well, my computer is a Dell XPS 8930, which I got back in 2017. I wanted to get a new PC, but my husband didn’t think I should, so, I didn’t. I just spent around $600 upgrading what I had. Went to 64GB of RAM from 16 GB (crucial.com). Then got the new graphics card, which the folks here on Meh helped with a lot!

I went with the 12GB of Vram (on the graphics card) because from what I read, that would be the way to go for video and graphics editing.

If you upgrade your system, make sure the stuff you get will fit (room was an issue for me). And enough power. It was nice to find out here that it wouldn’t be necessary to upgrade the power supply.

The upgrades I made really weren’t as scary as I thought they would be.

So, I’m not an expert on this at all, but I’m sure you’ll get a lot of advice from those who are.

@lisaviolet I have a couple older desktops. I will have to check the specs on them. I am not afraid of upgrading and have done a few things. I just don’t remember what I have now. I usually use a laptop now. I am a light browser/shopper online.

He uses an older Dell and plays/records videos on it. He runs into storage issues and buys another hard drive. He does not like change so I am thinking a different computer set up to try this out.

@speediedelivery I added another internal hard drive to mine. I didn’t even know I had that option until I changed out the RAM.

I do have external hard drives, one is attached to my ASUS router and I can access all the files from my other PCs. (I have a laptop in the room where we watch tv and since it’s cooler in there during the summer, I’ll do my paperwork on the laptop.)

Go to the Dell website and look for his computer and find the specs and manual for it.

This is the Dell link to my PC, so just input your model and find out what you can do.

@lisaviolet @speediedelivery You can also go to the warranty support page and enter the service tag. That’ll give you the full component list of your PC in case you’re not sure what’s installed.

Warranty

KuoH

@speediedelivery <over explaining>
I like to think of it like baking a cake: There’s the gathering of ingredients, the mixing, the baking, and the cooling of the cake.

A computer with a lot of dedicated RAM has a lot of “countertop space” so you can gather everything available in one go instead of forcing the computer to work in small batches (like making a 3 layer cake with only a muffin tin). RAM is typically cheap and easy to increase. Laptops are a little trickier (you might have to replace rather then add).

The “mixing” requires a dedicated video card with lots of RAM of its own (VRAM); I would equate this as having a big enough mixer. If you don’t have such a card (and new ones get pricey), or a used one (while not fast, they’re probably still good if you “set it and forget it”), your computer will have to break down the job and things get messy.

The “baking” portion is perhaps the one part you can skimp out on. Having a fast CPU/processor can cut the time it takes… If you had a lot of RAM and VRAM. It still hurries things along if you don’t, but the gains are not as dramatic. You want to have more RAM and VRAM and use an EZBAKE rather than have a monster oven and reuse a muffin tin from a high chair.

The “cooling” part is when you get to save this “cake”, you might find it has expanded much more than anticipated (an external hard drive is the simpler fix, though you can go overboard by getting a faster internal drive upgrade if you don’t want to wait).

</mansplain>

@pakopako Thank you for the splain. I used to know more but I have not kept up with anything. Now I remember enough to be dangerous.

@kuoh @lisaviolet Added to my todo list.

@lisaviolet That IS amazing! Please share more pics, though! (I love the kitty’s blue eyes.)

@lisaviolet seems like you got yourself the real life CSI “enhance” command. Wow!