Choosing the right CUDA card

[Jem]

Hi,

I have a GA-K8N Pro-SLI MOBO & AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU. The graphics card here (GeForce 6600) is the weak spot, although as I am not a gamer at all (not even occasional) I haven't cared until now. I am now getting into video transcoding, and the the software I use will utilise CUDA technology if available - which of course, it's not currently. So, I'd like to up the processing times / efficiency for those kind of multimedia jobs. I gather that I also need to be looking at 4 series cards to use the latest / upcoming DirectX version(s)..? This is the broad recommendation that's been made to me but at that point I begin to struggle in terms of actually deciding on a card and ordering one!

Hopefully, someone here can point me in the right direction - an outright recommendation would be good! And no, I do not want to upgrade the MOBO / CPU - I see no need for that. I just want to up the general performance in these specific areas in the most sensible / cost-effective manner.

Many Thanks.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

You dont say exactly what motherboard you have just the series but they all seem to be fitted with a PCIE 16x slot for the graphics so that shouldn't present a problem.  Your problems may lie more with your PSU as the newer cards use a lot more power than the one you are currently running. Also they require a couple of dedicated power connections either 6 or 8 pin direct to the card. You will need to be looking in the region of a 600W+ PSU preferably with a single 12v rail.

[Jem]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

You dont say exactly what motherboard you have just the series but they all seem to be fitted with a PCIE 16x slot for the graphics so that shouldn't present a problem.  Your problems may lie more with your PSU as the newer cards use a lot more power than the one you are currently running. Also they require a couple of dedicated power connections either 6 or 8 pin direct to the card. You will need to be looking in the region of a 600W+ PSU preferably with a single 12v rail.

Well, the PSU I have is a relatively recent upgrade, which hopefully is OK for the job. I know it has a lot of spare connections, but without breaking the case open I can't be exact. I'm only connecting to two DVD drives and one internal hard disk currently. I bought it with (I hope) future upgrades like this in mind:

THERMALTAKE " 600W ", W0144RB PSU , PUREPOWER RX CABLE MANAGEMENT

EDIT: I dug out the installation guide for the PSU above: It has:

1. One 8-pin/4-pin +12V connector
2. Seven 4-pin peripheral power connectors and two 4-pin floppy drive connectors
3. Four 5-pin S-ATA connectors
4. Two 6-pin PCI-Express graphic card connectors

I also have two PCI-E cables provided with the PSU

As to the motherboard, the screen-shot gives you all I have on it.

I was looking at the Gigabyte 'NVidia GPU powered' cards on the Gigabyte site - so, can you point me at what you think might be suitable?

[Dark Mantis]

I would say that your PSU will probably be fine for anything but the higher end cards. I really don't have a lot to do with the nVidia cards and so am probably not the best person to guide you on which to choose. The first thing you will need to decide on though is your budget as that can be a limiting factor. I would think that a 4** series card would be quite adequate for your needs but as I say I will leave it to someone else to help on that front.

[Jem]

Thanks. I don't believe a higher end card is what I need anyway. As I say, I don't use the PC for gaming, and the results of video transcoding are displayed elsewhere. I'm really looking at harnessing the CUDA technology to speed up the processing. I only mentioned the DirectX thing as I know the newer browsers, such as Firefox 4, are designed to make the most of D3D10. I guess having compatibility with the latest DirectX makes sense...

I'll look forward to some recommendations!

This one...? GV-N440TC-1GI (Looks new on the market, am I right?)