Dual monitor graphics card upgrade

[JHEarcht]

VW2013, Windows 10, Dell Inspiron mini-tower, 220W power supply

 

I'm retired, so don't use VW as much as before. The standard video card, Intel Graphics HD 4400, is adequate for routine work, but I want to upgrade to dual monitors. So far the best fit for my my low profile slot is : Radeon 6450, 1GB, DVI + HDMI + VGA, PCI bus, no Open GL, 30W.

 

1. The recommended power is 300W. Will my 220W system be a problem?

2. Is the lack of Open GL in the card a problem for mostly 2D work?

Edited August 11, 2017 by JHEarcht

[PVA - Admin]

1) I would need to know the exact specs of your system to tell you if that power supply wattage was sufficient, but 220W is REALLY on the low end. Generally the minimum you want is around 350-400W, and running a power supply near its max wattage wears it out much faster as well, which is something to consider if the machine has been around awhile.

 

2) A few things, that graphics card DOES support OpenGL 4.0, so that should be no concern. The main problem being if you don't have a card that supports at least 3.1 that there will be elements of the software that wont work at all, but that applies mainly to the more recent versions of Vectorworks, not Vectorworks 2013.

2013 did not lean very heavily on the graphics card, but if youre looking to run two 1080p monitors, that card should do fine. If you want to use higher resolutions than that (2K, 4K etc) then you might need to select a more powerful graphics card. However, I can not remember if 2013 was compatible with 4K or not, so the UI may appear strange at that resolution.

[JHEarcht]

JimW

Thanks for the response. I found a post on Dell from someone with the same setup, and he said the Radeon 6450 ran on his 220W system with no problems.

 

I'm also considering Nvidia GeForce GT730, with 2 GB, and GDDR5 memory, which is supposed to be faster than DDR3. Price and power requirements are about the same. Any comments?

 

My monitors are 17", and 1280 x 1024 resolution, with DVI inputs. Both of these cards have DVI and HDMI outputs, so I'll have to use different connectors. In the past, before retirement, I used different resolutions for each card, and didn't have any problems. But that was with a more powerful system and high-end card.