Will higher end Video card be a hog in always on PC?

[flemingdl]

My two year old Pent 2.8 / Asus Mboard / 1024mem “clone PC “needs a video card upgrade for my planned video work and racing gaming. Am ready to buy a ATI Radeon X1300 GPU / 512MB / AGP and have one little concern. Is such a upper end card (for me) going to add much heat and power consumption to this always on PC that family uses for Web and emailing mostly? Would this or similar card be smart enough to stay idle when not gaming? If not, maybe the nvidia line cards run cooler, may tax the PC less? Recommendations on an efficient card for under $150?

Thanks for info folks!

Don F.
Wa. st.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

I think the more important question is what is the cooling setup of your tower? How many fans do you have? Are they "sucking or blowing?"

Im not an expert on this but I dont think a new/different GPU is going to heat up the inside of your case THAT much more than a few degrees (say max 5 degrees or less)

But, if your cooling system is sufficient, then it really wouldnt matter.

LG

[yoda313]

video card upgrade for my planned video work and racing gaming

FYI video cards add next to nothing in terms of processing video. That is strictly the domain of the processor. Extra ram can make things run smoother but a more powerful video card will have no effect on it.

With that said if you want to get a video card with dual monitor support so you can use your main desktop on one monitor and your encoding software on another monitor then that would be a worthwhile upgrade. But other than that don't buy a new video card thinking it will speed up your encoding time.

Now for video games yes a new graphics card will do wonders - buy you may also want to look into adding more ram if you have the space and the budget for it.