What are Specs for a graphics card for my new PC?

[gregew]

Or, because I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, mayve even a specific recommendation or two for a graphics card.

After years of warnings from Premiere Pro and limitations of my 5-year+ old PC , I finally bought a new PC from Dell.  Although I'm an experienced filmmaker (yes, film -- remember that?) with some video editing experience, I'm not going to do any extremely demanding video editing.  (Nor, by the way, am I a gamer.)

Here are its specs as far as I can gather them, and I'd like to buy a card before my computer guy comes by to help me set it up and move over my programs and data.  (Unfortunately, he doesn't have much experience with graphics cards, although he's a whiz with computers, having left IBM several years ago.)

Dell Inspiron Desktop 3030

Intel Core i5 processor (14 gen)

10-core, 16 CPU Threads, L2 20 MB Cache Memory

8GB memory (I'm going to install 16GB)

512GB SSD (We're going to move one of my HDs over)

Intel UHD Integrated Graphics (730??)

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @gregew,

I'll move this to the Hardware forum for you.

Thanks,
Kevin

[John T Smith]

Nvidia is better for video editing - use the STUDIO driver, not the gaming driver
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-hardware-discussions/4070-ti-super-vs-7900-xtx/td-p/14584297

Not 100% current, but may help... NOTE - go to the Puget site to see their CURRENT information
https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-hardware/premiere-pro-hardware-articles-to-read-before-you-buy-...

[gregew]

Thank you, John, but I'm gobsmacked when seeing the prices of these cards.  Gosh, even my old computer allowed Premiere Pro to run, after acknowledged and accepted that my integrated graphics were inadequate.  (I'm not a "pro" and just use PP as a hobby.)  Unless I can find a card that costs less than $190 I'll just wait to see how this new computer handles PP.  Does anything like that exist?

Do you suggest I post another question giving my budget limitations?

[RjL190365]

Unfortunatrely, the sub-$200 range of discrete GPUs are now nearly extinct. All you can find in that range are old- or older-generation GPUs that either lack hardware encoding support whatsoever or are obsolete due to the "latest" meaningful driver version update being years old. You'll have to spend closer to $300 just to even find the cheapest relevant discrete GPU at all that can be utilized in Premiere Pro for years to come.

[gregew]

Thanks so much for this informative and to-the-point response to my query.

Now if  you wouldn't mind, would you be able to provide me with two or
three options?  Or should I just purchase based on the $300+ price point
you gave? Unfortunately, I'm not a tech-y guy, just a DIY with enough
knowledge to get by.

Best,
Greg

--
Greg EplerWood
369 South Union Street
Burlington, VT 05401
802.860.6473 - Home

[John T Smith]

GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy 2025 - Graphics Card Rankings | Tom's Hardware

[gregew]

Wow, John.  This is a great resource.

Now all I have to know is whether I can straight-line extrapolate the
percentage efficiencies to the standard video frame rate which is
basically 30fps.  In other words, the chart says this for one of the cards:

1080p Ultra
1080p Medium
1440p Ultra
4K Ultra

<>
83.9% (129.3fps) 91.5% (179.1fps) 72.4% (105.8fps) 54.4% (62.3fps)


So if I work in 1440p Ultra (I have no idea what "Ultra" means) using
this graphics card example which is effective 72.4% at 106fps, at my
30fps the card would work at (more than if that were mathematically
possible) 100%?  This entire study was done as though the cards were
used for gaming, and I'm assuming that gaming is more processing
intensive than plain old live action video, but as you can see I need a
bit of a primer to fully understand these measurements. I see
tom'sHardware has a Forum as well, so I suppose I should move my
question over there?

Best,
Greg
--
Greg EplerWood
369 South Union Street
Burlington, VT 05401
802.860.6473 - Home