Which cheap GPU for 3D modelling/mapping Created 12 years ago2012-11-15 12:17:19 UTC by Azin

Hello, and welcome to another threat about an indecisive person's GPU shopping.

I'm looking for a GPU for less than $110/£70 that will be able to run VHE and Blender reasonably.

My rig is a used SFF ThinkCentre equipped with a 280W PSU and an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 CPU.

Now, I know that the CPU might actually play a bigger role when it comes to 3D modelling, at least I think so, but I'm not going to invest in anything but a GPU for now.

The candidates are the AMD Radeon HD 5450 at $45/£28, the 6450 at $51/£32 and the 6570 at $78/£49.

They're all the 1GB DDR3 versions. I haven't included the Radeon HD 6670, as it's double the price of a 6450 and seems to be more than what I will need; I'm not a big gamer and I don't intend to become one. I might play games once in a while, but they won't require more than what Portal 2 (or UT3 at the most) does.

So what are your thoughts? Is the 6570 worth it, or can I save the extra bucks with one of the cheaper ones?

Best option - just save up for a new system.
If you really want to throw money away then take a look at this
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt640/specifications
the psu might cause problems cause the card does require a bit more power, but the new cards don't suck so much these days so you could get away.
I'm a nvidia fan boy so don't expect me to recommend anything else.
But once again you are just better off saving up for a new rig.

I have a GTX 560ti, I bought it for 150, this card is a beast, I can run 2 mayas, photoshop, visual studio and youtube all at the same time with 0 lag, but all the components in my pc are really good, i spent quite a lot of money on it, it's not just the gpu that comes into play in this matter, it's the cpu, ram, and hard drive as well.

So will the more expensive GPU on my list make any difference at all when I'm not going to upgrade the rest? What if I spend the extra money from one of the cheaper ones to upgrade from 2GB RAM to 4GB?

And Rufee, I would normally go with nvidia too, but in this price range, you must be out of your mind to do that.

The new gpu will bottleneck the rest of the system.
Yeah 560ti's are awesome

You mean the system will bottleneck the new GPU? I'm not touching the system as it is, maybe except for the RAM.

Phrased that wrong sry
Ram is so cheap these days you can get some extra with your gpu.

Haha, I wish. Sure it's cheap, but I will still be the one who ends up paying for it

Thanks for your inputs. I'm going with the 6450 since I actually enjoy not spending my time gaming anymore, but I will at least be able to if a friend is up for it once in a while.

I think you guys are missing the point entirely. He's not looking for a gaming rig so suggesting highend-midrange cards for +$100 is a joke.

The 6450 seems like the best bang for the buck, so I'd get that.
If you're running 3D, video editing or photo editing programs then 2GB of ram is not going to do you worth shit. Upgrade it.

A gaming rig? 3D modelling and level design requires the same specs as a 'gaming rig'

I should be covered as long as I'm only talking about level design and 3D modelling on a Source level(hl2ep2, not csgo, assuming that csgo requires more), please correct me if I'm wrong.

Now, I have ran into another issue.

There is a ton of different versions of the same card. The two absolute finalists are the XFX version and the sapphire version.

The XFX has a larger heat sink that expands to both sides of the card, but the video clock frequency has not been listen anywhere, however it is $7/£5 cheaper. The Sapphire has a 1.334 Ghz clock, but the smaller heat sink.

I wouldn't exactly open a threat over this issue, but since we're here anwyay..

If you want anything to do with modelling, you'll want some ram and a decent GPU. You probably won't need any more than 8 gigs of ram, but if you do, go ahead. I've conked out by spending £190 on a Radeon 7870 , something like that should be pretty good. But for your price range, I'd recommend a GTX 650. It's only £80 if you get it from scan.co.uk, and it's a pretty damn impressive card considering how cheap it is.

/advice coming from someone who knows nothing about graphics cards

So you're saying that my CPU won't really matter when it comes to modelling?

Either way, I can't imagine I shouldn't be able to do simple things, like model a prop for source, with what I'm getting. After all, back in 2004 most people didn't have much greater specs than what I'm in for. I guess just running Blender itself doesn't exactly require a Quadro Plex 7000?

Does anyone have an answer to my first world problem about the 6450?

I got an Intel Dual Core @3.1GHz (x2) with an ASRock board which has an Intel Series 4 graphics board with 128MB of VRAM, a 500GB HDD, and 4GB of RAM (don't remember the vendor of these, I think the RAM is Kingston), optionally with Windows 7 installed for about 400 USD (actually about 8000 uruguayan pesos). Blender and in general any OpenGL/D3D game/app runs just fine. You may be able to get either better packages for the same price, or the same package for a lower price.
But don't mind me, I'm just a poor h4><0r who can't afford one of those 64-core PC @4THz with 4TB of RAM and 400YB of disk and mega-accelerated NVirtual GSTXST98000 graphics card needed to run GTA IV.
Haha I'm drunk

If you really must spend that cash get the best GPU you can.
Any modeling program will run fine if you don't go overboard with the amount of polys.

That's what I was hoping, so it sounds like I'm covered there too.
..Which leads me to why would I want a better GPU? This one does the job well for the least money.

Anyone on the XFX vs. Sapphire?

From what I understand you are running integrated graphics ?
If so I would be running to get a GPU, makes a world of difference.

As for XFX vs Sapphire. I had an XFX GTX260, ran great, never had any problems, now my cousin is using it. All i know is that Sapphire is a AMD exclusive board partner, but it doesn't have a big market share. If i were you id look into "The big 3" that is MSI ASUS and GIGABYTE? who actually own the factories that assemble the boards, so there is more support if anything goes wrong.
BFG had a good no questions asked return policy, basically if your card breaks down they give you a new one, not sure if they are still in business though

You have to remember this is GMA 3100. That's back from at least 4 years ago.

As for the service. I'm buying it from a retailer, and I gotta deal with everything through them. That's not a problem though, and I'm not really worried that I won't get it covered if either of them breaks due to law on this area here in Denmark. Thanks for the input though.

I'm thinking more about which one is the safer one to go with. Is the XFX clocked lower, hence the lower price? Or is that unrealistic, and should I therefore go with it and its bigger heat sink for less money?

I know it's a small issue, but hey, at least we have something to talk about.

I can't imagine the pain you must be going through using integrated graphics. Basically any dedicated card will improve your experience alot.

The cheaper price could be due to lower clock, cheaper components, more units produced etc... The clock is not a big problem, you can always oc it a bit, I oc all my cards by at least 100mhz, though the manufacturer oc editions aren't any better than the standard clock. Custom coolers are a plus, even if you are not overclocking they provide less noise and better temperatures than the reference cards. The bigger issue could be your psu, 280w is quite low (my servers Pentium 4 has a 400w one, the old chips like their power ), when playing a game which im sure you will do at some point, if at any point the gpu can't get enough power the system might restart, the increased wear on the psu could cause it to fail after some time.

As for the specs, you should line both cards up and see which one is better, read some reviews.
Also would you be kind to provide links to the exact cards you are looking at?

Sure thing, I will link you, but you better have Google Translate ready

The XFX is priced differently at other vendors, so that's not so much the worry. Still though, no vendors show a lock speed on this specific sub-version of the XFX 6450. Doesn't that seem odd?

I heard there is a way to calculate exactly how much power the different components use, so I will have a look at that before I get a PSU too.

Here are the links:

The Sapphire:

http://www.bj-trading.dk/bjshop/default.asp?pv=11190-02-20G&pn=sapphire&vare=597293&f=edbp

The two XFX vendors:

http://www.bj-trading.dk/bjshop/default.asp?pv=HD-645X-ZNH2&pn=XFX&vare=596643&f=edbp

http://www.computersalg.dk/produkt/921272?varenummer=921272&utm_source=EDBpriser&utm_medium=edbpriserLINK&utm_campaign=EDBpriser#

If you need more links, just ask.

Graphics card? Gainward.

And buy a used card. Much better option for that budget.

I paid mine Gainward GTX295 60 euro.

I did some searching around and it appears the case that the sff thinkcenter has can only accept low profile cards, so any used last gen high-end cards ( > gtx220) wont fit. I looked at the specs of 6450 (both manufacturers are about the same) and a gt620, judging by spec it should beat nvidia by a hair.
Unless you are willing to cut your case open for used high-er end cards you're stuck with these.
Could you also give the exact model of your thinkcenter ?

It's an M57 6066 W14. What would you like to know about it?

Lenovo themselves are pretty sparse with info, but what I got was this:

"Based 6066-CTO: Intel Core 2 Duo Proc E4500, 2GB, 80GB 7200RPM S-ATA HDD, no diskette drive, PCI/PCIe SFF (2x3), Intel GMA 3100, 16x DVD-ROM, Intel Gigabit Ether, Win Vista Business 32"

I would leave a link, but that's not an option; you gotta browse, brow!

I think I'm going for the XFX version of the 6450.

Looking for a used GPU could probably end in a very good deal, but I just don't want to bother with it at this point. Remember, I already made up my mind about the model. I was just stuck between which specific one of the last two options it should be.

Funny thing, they also have an XFX 6450, but clocked considerably lower than any other 6450. This model only had half the bus width to about 150% the price. How does that make any sense?

That would probably be for someone who just needs a video output for a server or something.

To my own surprise, I have changed my mind and am now going with he 6570.

I just watched a video of some 6450 gameplay and although it was happening, it just wasn't as pretty as I thought I had seen it be. This extra step away from minimum should also ensure that I'm on the safe side and that the experience is going to be worth wile.

Oh, and I am probably going to get the PSU and RAM used.

Thanks for all your help.

I'm just a poor h4><0r who can't afford one of those 64-core PC @4THz with 4TB of RAM and 400YB of disk and mega-accelerated NVirtual GSTXST98000 graphics card needed to run GTA IV.

You been looking at my specs?

GTA IV is pretty mid-range these days. GTA V is coming out soon. Might have to double the cores!