Can GeForce GTX 1050 run this?

[otakuscott]

I have Intel HD Graphics 630 and SFM says it's not good enough. The guy at Best Buy recommended GeForce GTX 1050, but is that the right card?

[Capt Fuzzy]

It should be plenty enough, yes...

[Leitmotif]

GTX 1050, a godly gpu in the GTX series? Legendary, Yes.

[Krinkov]

If the Intel HD Graphics 630 is an integrated card, how exactly are you supposed to upgrade it to a 1050 without building an entirely new PC build?




Also yes, that card is literal overkill for SFM. SFM is more CPU dependent anyway so you should be more concerned about what CPU you have rather than your GPU.

[Zappy]

Source FilmMaker doesn't care much about the GPU. As long as it's decent enough (supports DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0, which pretty much any NVIDIA and AMD GPU from the last several years will support), you won't get much benefit from it being as good as possible. Personally, I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, and that is definitely also more than enough (and not just for Source FilmMaker, also for many games).
So personally, I recommend having just even something from the GTX 800 series if you want (Edit: ...which apparently doesn't exist, oops), or the GTX 970 if you want something pretty nice and quite good for a not-too-high price (considering the GTX 1000 series is out and such, making the 900 series cheaper in comparison). But please be aware that I'm not very "tech-savvy". If it works, it works, and that's good enough for me, that's all I know.


Either way, as Krinkov has pointed out, if you only have an integrated GPU (especially if it's a laptop, which aren't intended for upgrading parts one by one or such), you might not find a way to put a better GPU into your computer properly. So, would you mind explaining exactly which computer you have or such?

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by Zappy:

something from the GTX 800 series [snip] But please be aware that I'm not very "tech-savvy".

That's slightly apparent - there was no 800 series.

There was an 800M series for laptops, but because those chips had already been based on the Kepler architecture, Nvidia decided to move onto the 900 and 900M series for their Maxwell based GPUs.

~~~~~

Anyway, the 1050 would be overkill for SFM, but if you want to do any reasonably modern gaming as well, I'd actually recommend spending more and getting the 1050 Ti instead; it's not massively more powerful, but the 4 GB of VRAM will help future-proof it a bit (several modern games lock 2GB cards to fairly low texture quality. When I first tried playing Black Ops 3 on my 750 Ti, it did suffer from only being allowed to use Medium textures).

That said, that recommendation is highly dependent on what the rest of your computer is.

[medication]

I use a 750.

[otakuscott]

Awesome. Thanks.

[otakuscott]

Originally posted by Zappy:

Source FilmMaker doesn't care much about the GPU. As long as it's decent enough (supports DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0, which pretty much any NVIDIA and AMD GPU from the last several years will support), you won't get much benefit from it being as good as possible. Personally, I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, and that is definitely also more than enough (and not just for Source FilmMaker, also for many games).
So personally, I recommend having just even something from the GTX 800 series if you want (Edit: ...which apparently doesn't exist, oops), or the GTX 970 if you want something pretty nice and quite good for a not-too-high price (considering the GTX 1000 series is out and such, making the 900 series cheaper in comparison). But please be aware that I'm not very "tech-savvy". If it works, it works, and that's good enough for me, that's all I know.


Either way, as Krinkov has pointed out, if you only have an integrated GPU (especially if it's a laptop, which aren't intended for upgrading parts one by one or such), you might not find a way to put a better GPU into your computer properly. So, would you mind explaining exactly which computer you have or such?

Dell Inspiron 3668

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by otakuscott:

Dell Inspiron 3668

Well, that is a compact desktop, but like mine, it is actually built on proper desktop hardware and has expansion slots (some compact "desktops" are actually laptops in disguise and can't be upgraded).

However, as it's a compact unit, you will need to check how much space there is in the case. Mine, for example, can only take half-height "low profile" graphics cards and has some restriction on the length of the card (although no low profile card is actually that long), although it will take dual width cards fine. (My GTX 1050 Ti LP needs two case slots, because it's got a fairly large heat sink and two rows of output ports).

EDIT: It's also a good idea to check the power supply. Even if it's a card that can draw its power direct from the slot, that's still up to an extra 75 watts, so you'll need a reasonably butch power supply. You might get away with 300 watts, but 400 might be a smarter move.

[otakuscott]

Much appreciated.

[otakuscott]

OK, then, what's a good graphics card that can run SFM and work with a Dell Inspiron 3668 without much trouble?

[Marco Skoll]

The question is really "what else do you want to do with it?" SFM is largely CPU limited, to the point that in intensive scenes, I've seen large graphics card upgrades make negligible difference to render time.

If all you want to do is SFM, then there won't be much difference between a respectable card from a few years ago and the latest powerhouses.

If you'd also like to be able to play things like Fallout 4 or COD: Infinite Warfare at a respectable frame rate, reasonably high settings and 1080p, then you'll need something with some guts behind it.

[otakuscott]

Yeah, I'm mostly looking to do SFM. Most of the computer games I play are older ones from GOG and Steam. Doom, Quake, System Shock 2, etc.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

GTX 770 is good enough for your need I believe.

[Marco Skoll]

Originally posted by EmperorFaiz.vtf:

GTX 770 is good enough for your need I believe.

That'd be wildly overkill. The card in my last computer was a GTX 750 Ti (two models down from the 770), but because of SFM's CPU limited nature, that had made no appreciable difference over the much less powerful HD 7570 I'd had in it before.

While I'd comfortably recommend the 750 Ti and 1050 Ti as tidy little cards if you might ever want to do newer gaming, but if you just need to do SFM, you can't go that far wrong if you just go on eBay and find a cheapish second-hand Nvidia or AMD card that was made within about the last five years.

The only likely pitfall is that some such cards may be OEM, so may need specific drivers for the company that was licensed to make them. My HD7570, for example, was Dell made, so I had to find specific drivers for it.

(Weeeeeell... no, I just modified the Nvidia driver file so it recognised the Dell card as a standard HD7570, but that was the lazy yet complicated way to do it).