GPU Acceleration Impact?

[paulterp]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but was wondering how much of an impact the GPU actually has on a conversion and what people's thoughts were on whether an upgrade to GPU will have a noticeable impact on conversion times. Just to throw out some models for discussion, what about going from a Nvidia 9600 to a current generation model (although not top of the line) like GTX 275 or Radeon 4870?

Thanks for any input!

[signals]

From what I have read in the forum, it can make a tremendous difference and lower CPU load. Mine doesn't support it, so I have no way to know for sure. I would go for a card with a GB of DDR3 RAM.

[maineman]

From what I have read in the forum, it can make a tremendous difference and lower CPU load. Mine doesn't support it, so I have no way to know for sure. I would go for a card with a GB of DDR3 RAM.

Likewise, from what I hear, the difference can be huge.
I'm trying to tinker together a new core i7 rig and I'll be putting in
6-12 GB of DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) and an
EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Video Card
(My last build is about 5 years old)

I'm having trouble finding the time right now, but when I do, I anticipate running a whole lot faster...
I'll let you know.

[paulterp]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! Definitely might speed up my thoughts on bumping up my video card. Any further thoughts on whether cuda or dxva is better?

[signals]

All other things being equal, I think CUDA would be preferable, but many support both. Choose a card with good cooling from a vendor with a good history of firmware updates. You may need to upgrade the cooling in your case if you put a powerhouse card into an existing system.