best budget graphics

mjf1978

I have a six year old computer and I am not quite ready to invest in a new one. It does not have a graphics card so renders are slow to say the least. I don't want to put an expensive graphics card in an old computer.                I should say that I just do 3d art as a hobby and I don't get too complicated with scenes either. Any suggestions on an inexpensive GPU I could get?

Richard Haseltine

How much memory does the system have?  How much free space inside the case?

barbult

And how many watts is your power supply?

FSMCDesigns

Why doesn't it have a GPU?? Does the MOBO have a slot for the GPU?? Best budget GPU would be the RTX 3060 with 12 gig of DDR IMO. It will run you around $400

mjf1978

Here is some of my computer stats that may help you help me.

Rafael

It is not an easy task as you could think.

I assume you are talking about a tower computer, not an "all-in-one" or laptop.

You need to find some specs of your computer. Find if you have PCI or AGP slots available and which version and speed it is. You can find it by looking for the serial number of the motherboard or physically seeing them.

And now that you are watching the insights of your computer, see if you have physical space inside it. some GPU cards use the space of 2 normal PCI cards.

Another thing is that you need to know how big is your power supply. Normally they are just a bit larger than it needs, but some GPU cards take a lot of power, so, if yours is let's say 400w you probably need to upgrade to a 700w. And there is the reliability of this component. They are normally branded as silver, gold, premium, etc. This means the stability of the output. You need to see if this also fits into your pc.

If you see that your computer can handle a PCI 3 card, you now can look for some benchmarks vs pricing.

GPUs are sometimes categorized into groups. High-end, mid-range, and low-range. (And super high end)

I would look at some considered middle to high-end. Nvidia chipsets (which you need for the IRay render engine) are categorized by numbers and then with some variations on the number. xxxx Ti for example. The bigger the number the newer (and probably) faster the card.

A simple way to look at the number of Nvidia GTX graphics cards:

Below 999 is a low end. 1000-1999 middle. So you are probably looking for a 1xx0 ish card. I recently updated a computer some years old, and the top card I could use was the 1660 Ti. Probably you are looking for something like that. Some popular chipsets were the 1050 Ti, 1080Ti and 1660Ti.

Then, there is the brand of the assembler. Look for a known one. Asus, Nvidia itself, Gigabyte, MSI.

With all this information, go to a reliable technician before you buy anything, so he can confirm or deny your findings.

 

PerttiA

Your 8GB's of RAM is not enough, it should be at least 16GB's but even that doesn't let you have much in the scene.

nVidia 3060 12GB is the best budget GPU.

richardandtracy

Rule of thumb: RAM not less than 2x GPU VRAM, preferably 3x GPU VRAM if using a more recent version of DS. Previous to 4.15 it was pretty hard & fast RAM = 3x GPU VRAM minimum, preferably more. And as 36Gb for RAM is not a comfortable number, go for 48Gb or even 64Gb.

Regards,

Richard.

 

mjf1978

Thank you rafael_f12aa018 for all that info. thanks to everyone for their comments. I am glad I asked about this instead of just going to Amazon and buying the first cheap one I saw. I need to do some research and may just end up buying a new computer. Thanks again to everyone for thier help.

mding

One thing i would like to add:

PA lilflame from renderosity stated recently in an interview you can find in the DEALS section there, that her computer specs are an ASUS strix NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 6 GB vram and 16gb system ram and an  Intel Core i7-4770. Don't take my word for it, you can read it for yourself.

Now that may be no dream rig, but lilflame definitely is a pro modeler and PA, one of the top vendors in our price niche. And she renders in IRAY.

And that makes me think about what really is necessary, especially when you are open for using Boost for daz occasionally.

PerttiA

mding said:

One thing i would like to add:

PA lilflame from renderosity stated recently in an interview you can find in the DEALS section there, that her computer specs are an ASUS strix NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 6 GB vram and 16gb system ram and an  Intel Core i7-4770. Don't take my word for it, you can read it for yourself.

Now that may be no dream rig, but lilflame definitely is a pro modeler and PA, one of the top vendors in our price niche. And she renders in IRAY.

And that makes me think about what really is necessary, especially when you are open for using Boost for daz occasionally.

Ones that know what to do and how to make things work, can make wonders with inferior equipment even

mding

PerttiA said:

mding said:

One thing i would like to add:

PA lilflame from renderosity stated recently in an interview you can find in the DEALS section there, that her computer specs are an ASUS strix NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 6 GB vram and 16gb system ram and an  Intel Core i7-4770. Don't take my word for it, you can read it for yourself.

Now that may be no dream rig, but lilflame definitely is a pro modeler and PA, one of the top vendors in our price niche. And she renders in IRAY.

And that makes me think about what really is necessary, especially when you are open for using Boost for daz occasionally.

Ones that know what to do and how to make things work, can make wonders with inferior equipment even

This! Well said!