Amateur PC User needs a new Graphics Card but has no idea :(

[Waynester]

Hi guys

my new 32” 4K BenQ EW3270U Monitor arrives on Monday, managed to sell my 9 year old 24” BenQ M2400HD for £95, just fancied an upgrade as it was definitely time to do so..

my problem is I’m an idiot,
The old Monitor was 1080P and unfortunately so is my Graphics Card!
this is the exact one still in my HP Desktop PC

NX9400GT-MD512H NVIDIA Fanless 9400GT 512MB DDR2 PCI-E HDMI

Realise more vibrant photos, smoother videos and more realistic gaming with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT GPU with built-in HDMI output

www.quietpc.com

I’m not a Gamer, just use my PC for office type stuff, YouTube, viewing my pics, Facebook and music software.. maybe the odd retro game now and then, or someat that isn’t too intensive as I have a PS4 Pro in my living room for that on a 55” Panasonic TV

so I basically need a new graphics card to put into my PC that’ll make my monitor worthwhile with the simple stuff I do

I don’t have a big budget, maybe £100 to £150 MAX… don’t want anything fancy, just someat enough to give me 4K on the new BenQ and is better than my current graphics card from 2009!

What would you recommend?

I’m not technical at all… so be gentle with me lol!!

my current PC base unit only has the following specs

Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
AMD Phenom X3 X8650
12GB Dual Channel DDR2 Ram @399hz (6-6-6-18)
Samsung EVO 500GB SSD
Toshiba 465GB Sata Hard Drive
MSI Nvidia GeForce 9400GT Graphics Card
Manufacturer's motherboard name: Pegatron M2N78-LA
HP/Compaq name: Violet-GL8E

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, M2N78-LA (Violet) | HP® Customer Support

Specification for the Violet motherboard

support.hp.com

 

[next010]

This GT1030 should be a suitable replacement for £72.

It has both Displayport and HDMI ports that are capable of driving 4K 60hz.

 

[Waynester]

Looks good, but it’s only DDR4 I’ve heard performance is terrible compared to this card or similar, DDR5 Is obviously a lot better, do I need display port to get 60hz at 4K?

ASUS GT1030-SL-2G-BRK GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 low profile graphics card for silent HTPC build includes LP brackets Amazon product

 

[EndlessWaves]

Looks good, but it’s only DDR4 I’ve heard performance is terrible compared to this card or similar, DDR5 Is obviously a lot better, do I need display port to get 60hz at 4K?

That's GDDR5 which is different to DDR5.

The DDR4 versions do have much less memory bandwidth and will perform worse in any applications which require a lot of it, but there aren't many such applications.

Such applications also tend to have high requirements elsewhere - such as system memory bandwidth - so you're unlikely to have kept the rest of your system or your old graphics card this long if that was a big concern.

If you can get it for not much more then you might as well, but once you start paying 25% more it's harder to justify.


DisplayPort is the most capable video output available and has been able to carry signals of that banwdith for a long time, but newer versions of HDMI (2.0/2.1) will do so as well.

 

[Waynester]

Oh okay thanks

So you reckon the £90 ASUS is worth getting ?
are either of those graphics cards Hdmi 2.1?
the one you suggested might do as it’s £18 cheaper, but as I said before I’m not doing any gaming etc… for just getting my new monitor to display 4K and using it for social media, web surfing, viewing pics and playing old retro games, probably no point? but if I was to get a decent game that neeeds more graphic “oomph” the GDRR5 should tick the boxes

and which gives a better quality image then?
Display port or Hdmi ?

 

[next010]

You don't need HDMI 2.1

DP and HDMI are both digital, PC's primarily use Displayport so thats easiest way to connect it to the monitor but HDMI will also work. The Asus you linked to has a HDMI 2.0 port so can do (3840x2160) 4K 60hz, the MSI one I linked to has a DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 port both can do 4k 60hz.

You wont be playing any recent 3D games with these low end graphics cards especially with a 4K monitor as the demands on the GPU are very high to render games at that resolution.

You can play older 3D games which will be less demanding or modern 2D games might also work.

 

[EndlessWaves]

and which gives a better quality image then?
Display port or Hdmi ?

Both are uncompressed video connections so they both deliver exactly what the computer outputs.

Oh okay thanks

So you reckon the £90 ASUS is worth getting ?
are either of those graphics cards Hdmi 2.1?

The last few years have seen massive demand thanks to cryptocurrency boom, and shortage of supply due to the pandemic so prices are high across the board and the release schedule for lower end cards is a bit behind. The GT 1030 was available when I bought my card four years ago so don't expect the latest revisions of standards.

next010 is underselling it's abilities a little, it will play the more efficient new 3D games (when the rest of the system is capable) but even the GDDR5 version is still a slow card and will struggle with the games with a high power draw. If you were after power you'd normally go up a model or two instead of buying a slightly less slow version of the bottom of the range card

It's tricky to recommend a course because everything is twice the price right now. When it was just the cryptocurrency boom the advice was to upgrade your CPU instead of buying a low end card but even they've gone up in price now.

I would personally lean towards spending as little as possible at the moment.

 

[Waynester]

Thanks guys, I’ve ordered the ASUS card pictured here for £90 from Amazon, will fit it Sunday night at some point

GT1030-SL-2G-BRK｜Graphics Cards｜ASUS Global

www.asus.com

I’m gonna be happy with it and don’t plan on upgrading, next thing will be a whole new PC! i just can’t warrant getting one at the moment with what I use it for