Okay -- so if I increased my budget to $200 for a video card...
mmitchell_houston
Posts: 2,530
In another thread, this card was suggested: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 Super Clocked ACX 2.0 4GB GDDR5 128 Bit Graphic Card (04G-P4-3962-KR)
I understand that this goes over your $150 super, total, never going over max but I thought I would leave this here in case someone came across it in the near future.
For roughly $50 more you can get nearly double the number of cuda cores and a little bump in clock and memory rate. The 960's with 4GB are pretty reasonable in price and get you on a newer architecture of the nvidia chipset. So for those of you that come across this and are willing to spend $200, this card here is a pretty good option (in a non-Daz official position):
Okay... after talking to my wife and a friend, they both think I should just bite the bullet and spend $250 total (this includes $45 for an upgraded, 600W power supply and adapters for my KVM switch). I can afford it, so I should just do it.
That being said (and apologies to the many others who said I should just invest in a big upgrade, rather than a small), if the absolute max budget is $210 (for the card itself, + another $40-$50 for the power supply), what video card would you buy? The card listed above is tempting, but is there something else I should look at that has 4 GB of memory (I'm not interested in 2 GB cards at all)?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
If the absolute max is $210, you don't have enough for the 960 AND the power supply upgrade. If you are just talking about the card price (and the remaining $40 is for the PS) then you can do it (if you can find a 650W PS for $40?)
If it is a choice between the 750Ti and the 960, the 960 will give you a significant boost in performance:
960: 1216MHz core clock, 7010MHz memory clock, 1024 CUDA cores
750Ti: 1059MHz core clock, 5400MHz memory clock, 640 CUDA cores
So about a 20% boost in core and memory clock speed, and about 50% more CUDA cores. Both are Maxwell based GPUs, both run GDDR5, both are PCI-E 3.0 cards.
It really depends on what you think you can put up with in terms of render speed. Basically the 3 rules I stick to are:
1) Make sure its Nvidia/GeForce if you want to use Iray
2) Try to get as much vram as you can (basically this will influence how many scene objs you'll be able to fit into the card's memory)
3) Try to get as many cuda cores as you can (basically this will influence how quickly it renders)
I agree with hphoenix, cuda is king. The 750Ti will be slower and I hate waiting hours for a render to finish. The 960 trumps the 750Ti if they're at the same price point. Personally I went with a 970 because, for me, it was at that price point where it wasn't too much more than a 960 with much improved cuda performance and anything better would've been much, much more expensive. But if you can't afford that, then the 960 4GB is a safe bet.
That being said, I managed fine for a long time with a 660 GTX 2GB card and didn't have any problems with it, so you can go cheaper if you want to - just be prepared for longer render times.
I see what you mean. I edited the above post to clarify things.
GeForce 960 4 GB: $195
600W Power Supply $45
TOTAL: $240
That leaves me a few bucks for tax and an adapter for my KVM switch. And if it goes to $255-$260, I'm hardly going to freak out. I will not, however, allow this to keep creeping up and up so that I hit $275... then $300. I'm very bad about that sort of stuff (as should be apparent from how I've let myself talk myself into going from $100 to $250 overnight).
you are asking a lot out of that PSU at 600 W, while it should work I would not add a 2nd card to it if that's your plan for later.
you can pick up a recertified 750W for about $60, it provides ample power and room to expand later, thats like 3 more hogies at Wha-Wah you don't have to eat.
GTX960 is a good choice, but..
from some price tag on it's worth noting that you shouldn't just buy because you can afford it, but make sure your system fits that new card and what you plan doing with it. Combining a GTX960 with an old Core2Duo is like buying a Cessna to drive on a highway. If processor, system memory or the lack of PCI-E 16x (or at least 8x) is the bottleneck it might not be worth spending too much on hardware that cannot play nicely with your system, in that case it might be better to go the 740 route (but 128bit and GDDR5), and save the money (and the additional for PSU too) for your next 'real' machine or upgrade on that one. And whatever you buy make sure the new card fits into your housing, some 9xx are way longer than 7xx (there are Mini versions available too, but only one fan then).
Maybe it helps knowing some facts about the system, like processor type, mainboard chipset (or even better the exact mainboard type), system memory and what you like to do (is it IRay that need CUDA cores or do you prefer 3DL or lux ?). Or did I miss that somewhere ?
Just sayin'
600W isn't really a problem, as GTX960 consume between 120-140W max. depending on active GPU coolers, RAM, etc. So even dual config should run fine as long as not combined with an o.c. 95W Intel or any AMD processors as some go up to 150W or something. What you can run still depends on how many hdd, RAM etc. your system has.
A 750W PCU should even handle a non o.c. i7 6700K CPU systems with dual GTX980..
I spend about $2.50-$3.50 a day on lunch (I bring frozen dinners and heat them in the microwave). But, point well taken. I may bump up to 800 W.
I am not going to buy anything until I make some measurements to make sure everything physically fits into the case.
Computer Specs:
ASUS Essentio CM5671 (LGA775 motherboard).
16 GB of DDR3
PCI-E 16x.
Intel Pentium E5500 @ 2.80GHz Wolfdale 45nm Technology (it's a dual core)
I agree that putting a 960 card into it is a bit of an overkill, but I'm not planning on tossing out this computer any time soon. And I'm thinking that this card could be a sort of test drive for future configurations that will be optimized for Iray (hence the desire for more CUDA cores). And yes, I could of course invest in a new system and all that. But I'm not going to do anything until after the new Pascal chips ship and I can decide the they are worth the investment of new $2,000 - $3,000 system, or if I should just invest in the older architecture and set up a system with three or four 960s (or more). The $250 on this upgrade is not going to break the bank for me -- it's just that I'm VERY bad about diving into the mindset of, "...but for $50 more, I could get this, then another $50, then another $50." Which is, of course, what I'm doing now. But -- since my new Pascal system may be 8 or more months away, I might as well spend a few bucks today to breath a little more life into this old, reliable secondary computer, which will still be humming along for a few more years to come.
Yeah, that's bit of an overkill there ;)
Ahm, just another note: The board has PCIE 16x, yes, but the G43 Express chipset only supports PCIE 2.0, not PCIE 3.0. This cuts back the possible burstrate for memory transfers to 50% for a PCIE 3.0 graphics card. Don't know how that effects the overall performance of the GPU. JFYI
I'd definitely go with the 960 if you can fit it into your budget, one thing to keep in mind though is that you may want to upgrade your RAM to at least 8Gb if possible. There is quite a bit of system overhead when rendering with Iray in GPU mode (the sceen that is feed to Iray is "cached in system RAM - in addition to what DS is using for the scene). Without 8Gb, it may be hard to utilize all the memory on your new GPU.
You may not need to upgrade your power supply if you have a good quality 400-500 watt PSU now. There are several power supply calculators available on the web (http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator) where you can enter your system specs to determine the required PSU. With the system specs you gave above, on a "typical" system (2 Hard Drives, one optical drive, 4 usb devices, a card reader, and a couple case fans) the PSU calculator shows a total system load wattage at 350W, with a pecommended PSU of 400W. It's always good to have a little extra head room, but there are a lot of people successfully using the gtx 960 in machines with a good quality 400-500W PSU.
For Iray performance, your system may not be quite "up to snuff" for good interactive dislay with Iray, but performance should still be quite good once Iray starts rendering (very slight or virtually no difference compared to rendering on a system with PCIE 3.0.once Iray starts rendering). But the slower PCIE speed may cause a bit more lag in interactive Iray display, and initial loading of the scene to the GPU for rendering.
Thanks for the feedback. There's a typo above -- since corrected -- I actually have 16 GB of RAM in my system. Alas, it only has a 250W power supply, so any upgrade will likely come with a new PSU requirement. This is an older, secondary computer. This is not my main machine. I'm using it to test drive a few apps (such as DS 4.9 -- I've got 4.8 on my main system). I also like having a machine around that I can use to render something without tying up my main system (which I might need for photo editing large images, editing video, or working on more complex scenes). So, if this box takes a day or two to churn out a good render, it really doesn't matter all that much.
I've never used one of the 960 chips, so this is a chance to see if the promised boost in speed is worth it. Also, the card is good enough that if I decided to buy a better secondary/back-up desktop in the future, this card is good enough that it won't wind up on the scrap heap.
And thanks for confirming what I thought: The bus speed should only be a bottleneck in getting the data to the GPUs. Once there, it should not affect performance. And I seldom use interactive iray display... but this may be strong enough for me to give it a try.
THANKS! If this card will fit, it's the one I'm going to get. If not, back to the 750 chipset.
It is about a 10% hit, as I recall.
For that rig the 600-650 watt should be enough, just don't expand it further. New system is next. :)
Note that you can transplant the card when you upgrade the system. :)
I thought this was for a spare scene rendering PC? If so 400W PSU is enough and the 960 will make your PC DirectX 12 compatible with Windows 10 upgrade and future versions of DAZ Studio / Poser Pro. So this $225 will be like extending the life of your PC 5 years. By that time I imagine tablets will have you newly upgraded PC's ability or even better.
That's what I was thinking. I've seen some decent i3 and i5 desktops for sale over the past year, and as the prices on those continue to drop (well... to be honest, the prices stay about the same, but they tend to put in better hardware like bigger drives, more memory, etc.). So, both of the components I bought should eventually be good enough to put into a new system when the time comes.
I did finally make the purchase last night. Everything should arrive on Sunday, so hopefully I'll be able to install everything that day and play around with it a little bit before the new work week starts.
If your PSU is old, and I'm guessing it is, it may not be pushing out quite as much power as it once did. So you may end up putting more pressure on it, and the rest of the PC as a result. I would suggest looking at your mobo to make sure all the capacitors are in good order, and taking a peak (without actually opening) at your PSU to check the caps in there if you can see them. If you see any bulging caps, then your PSU is on its last legs and I would abort installing the 960 until it is replaced. You can replace caps on the mobo, but I wouldn't advise attempting that on a PSU. I replaced a few bulging caps on my motherboard once, and I noticed a difference immediately in my PC's hard drive access speed. It apparently wasn't getting enough power to them to spin faster. I got an SSD now, and besides speed, it is wonderfully power efficient.
I don't think the PCIe 2.0 will hurt you too much at all, but the CPU might. Even with that bottleneck, it should still be a large improvement compared to what you had, though. But that PSU has me concerned if it has some milage on it.
The 960 will absolutely be a good building block for your next machine.
Also, I almost forgot, if you do get a new PSU, try getting one that is certified and reputable. It is not about saving energy, it is about dirty power. A PC needs to have a well regulated source of electricy, or things can go badly wrong. A bad PSU can cause a PC to corrupt files by causing the bits to be read wrong. Sometimes an old PC acts slow not just because it has old chipsets, but because the PSU is not doing its job of regulating power. Sometimes people believe they have malware infesting them, when again, it may actually be because of the PSU.
Here is a thread dedicated to ranking PSU's into tiers. Once you know what size PSU you want, you can use this guide to find a reasonably good quality PSU that will last you a while. The list has been actively updated and discussed for several years, and is loaded with information. A power supply is one thing I would never buy refurbed.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
2 schools of thought
1 big expensive card
or
several cheaper cards that work together
If you do go the route of multiple cheaper cards however, be sure not to get the Fermi processor type as Nvidia isn't making Vulkan drivers for them. The list of GPUs they support, Kepler or Maxwell cards or anything newer, is here. Vulkan is significant as it's essentially the newly released version of OpenGL with a whole lot of performance gains and cross-platform compatibility, making it likely to be the next industry standard.
I bought the GeForce 960. I've only been using it for a week or so, but I'm very pleased with its performance. The boost in speed is amazing.
And the upgrade was pretty painless. I put in the new 750 W power supply (overkill, but I can always move it to another box in the future) and had the card up and running in about an hour. My first test was to re-render an image that had taken about 32 hours with the old system. The new card rendered it in about 6 hrs. I then made one tweak to the image (in Tone Mapping, I changed the film ISO from 400 to 300) and the image rendered in 78 minutes.
My total cost was about $280. That included the video card, the power supply, and some extra video adapters (turns out I didn't need 'em, but I'll use them at some point). I'm very happy with the purchase, and the items purchased should have a decent shelf life -- the parts should be good enough to keep around for the next time I build or upgrade a system).
650W is a lot of room.
I have a 650W in my box, i7 quad core, 989 Ti, 3 HD, 2 SSD, 32 G, and the readout on the UPS never goes past 410W, and 120W of that is the 30 inch Dell.
My old power supply was 250 W. It was time for an upgrade!
Don't trust UPS readings. UPS indicators usually average consumption sampled at fairly wide time periods, typically in the 1 to 5 second range. While the average power may not vary from that much, instantaneous power, and load spikes may considerably exceed that. A load spike that only lasts 300ms won't even show on the UPS display. And that means under load, you could see spikes 50% higher (typical.) So your machine may be (for short bursts) consuming up to 615 W, which is putting it during those spikes at around 95% capacity. That'll cause voltage dropouts on your rails on anything but a 80 Plus Platinum rated power supply.
Furthermore, it just isn't total wattage you have to worry about. With a high end GPU or CPU, your 12V rails can spike up considerably under load, and while you may not exceed your max rating, you'll still go over the 80%-90% mark, which is what causes problems. Running anywhere near your max power can cause issues, whether on total consumption or on individual rails.
While it is possible to sit down, calculate all the individual maximums for the components (both wattage and current loads on specific rails) and then find a power supply that meets that with full efficiency (say, an 80 Plus Gold which guarantees 87% load, so you get wattage rating that is 1.15 times your calculated max draw....but most people don't want or need to. Just get a general idea of the power needs, and make sure you exceed it by a good margin (I recommend 50% to 75% higher than required.....so if your hardware is going to draw 450w, I'd recommend 675W to 825W for the Power Supply.) More if you expect to add additional components later (like a second GPU....)